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Fidelity Amex 5k Bonus
The Fidelity® Investment Rewards® American Express® Card issued by Bank of America is a popular card for a lot of people because it has no annual fee and earns 2% back on all purchases when the rewards are direct deposited to a Fidelity account. Basically $2,500 in spending turns into $50. Pretty simple.
There are of course other 2% cards out there. Citi recently launched their Double Cash no annual fee card which is a direct competitor to the Fidelity Amex. Barclay’s also has the Arrival Plus which earns 2.2%, but has an $89 annual fee.
Normally the Fidelity Amex doesn’t come with a sign-up bonus, but PointsCentric has found a link which is giving a 5,000 points bonus ($50) after spending $500 within the first 60 days of opening the account. $50 isn’t great, but there is a good reason to get this card.
Feeding Serve
A lot of you may want to consider this card to feed Serve. Last month American Express ended the ability to load Serve with non-Amex cards. (Softcard branded versions of Serve still apparently have this ability, but it is supposed to go away.)
So why not load Serve with a normal Amex card? Well American Express issued cards do not earn rewards on Serve loads. Fortunately third part cards like the Fidelity Amex do. This means that you could load $1,000 to Serve fee-free every month and earn $20 in rewards. Not bad.
Conclusion
I know a lot of people are contemplating an alternate way of loading Serve online. While $50 isn’t much of a bonus, it is more than they normally offer which is $0. If your strategy going forward is to keep Serve then this is a potential card to consider, since it would net $240 a year in cash.
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Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the old king of travel rewards cards. Right now
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The serve site says: Cash advance fees for credit card loads may apply; please check with your credit card issuer for details AND
Fidelity Amex says: Direct Deposit and Check Cash Advances:
Either $10 or 3% of the amount of each transaction, whichever is greater. ATM, Over-the-Counter and Cash Equivalent Cash Advances: Either $10 or 5% of the amount of each transaction, whichever is greater.
Is this right, does anybody tried this combination before?
There are no fees when loading Serve with the card. FIA Amex cc is the most widely used card for loading Serve due to being a third party Amex (earns points) and it being 2% cash back.
What are the concerns while filing taxes as they acknowledge about taxable income, this is related to fidelity particularly and i expect a 1099 as they mentioned. I am not sure when would we get a tax penalty ? any ideas ?
One guy told me his Fidelity AMEX got charged a cash advance fee recently. Anybody can confirm that?
Are you sure Fidelity AmEx doesn’t charge a cash advance fee on Serve loads?
I understand the loads earn the 2% back, but thought there were reports of cash advance fees…
Hi Shawn,
I do not know anything about Fidelity account and I do not have this account. Is it a bank account or it is just an online account like Paypal. I will definitely apply for Fidelity Amex if the Fidelity account is just something like Paypal. But I will need to think about it if the Fidelity account is more formal bank account.
It is definitely a bank account. More info here: https://www.fidelity.com/cash-management/fidelity-cash-management-account/overview
I read the T&C and they said eligible accounts include all Fidelity non-retirement, Individual Retirement Accounts, and Fidelity-managed 529 Plan accounts that accept ACH deposits. I happened to have a SIMPLE IRA account with Fidelity for years. Do I need to open a cash management account to have the reward to be deposited in it?
I think the IRA will work. I would consult with Fidelity, but based on the terms it should work. Better to be safe and call them though.
[…] Fidelity Amex Increased Bonus – The Perfect Card for Feeding Serve by Miles to Memories. Talking about the same bonus as above, but it’s uses in feeding serve for online loans. […]
Is the SPG Amex considered a third party card earning points as well?
No. The SPG Amex card is issued by the American Express bank. A third party card is an Amex payment card such as the Fidelity Amex that is issued by a different bank. In the case of the Fidelity Amex, it works on the Amex payment system, but is issued by Bank of America.
Another example of a third party card is the U.S. Bank Flexperks Amex.
Can I product change from other bofa cards?
No you can’t product change unfortunately.
since this is a bofa card, can i apply this w/ the alaska air and virgin atlantic and it’ll all be merged as 1 pull?
Yes it should be combined based on my experience with applying for multiple BofA cards in one day.Actually I have found some evidence that this isn’t the case. A commenter on this post reported getting hit with two inquiries. http://www.doctorofcredit.com/card-issuers-that-combine-multiple-credit-pullsinquiries/thanks, that’s super helpful!
Thanks for the heads up. I’ve been wanting to apply for my wife since I’ll be switching both accounts back to Serve and was hoping I’d find a $50 bonus for signing up.
I don’t expect Serve to shut down online Amex loads anytime soon therefore I’d value this as at least $150 bonus plus the fact it’ll give us another no AF Amex card that’ll give one more Amex Offer and obviously a staple 2% cb card to use for everyday spending.
Question for you Shawn. It’s been a while since I applied for the Fidelity Amex. Do you think it’s better to open the cash management account (to get the 2%) before applying?
I opened two Amex cc in my wife’s name in the last 2 months so that’s the only point of apprehension about applying. She does have 750+ FICO so I’m hoping it’s still worth applying because we’ll lose $20/mo since Serve wasn’t letting me add the same card to two Serve accounts (connected to another user).
I am an authorized user on my wife’s Fidelity Amex. Do you know if I can use my AU card to load my Serve account?
Yes it should work as long as you have an AU card in your name. I have done this before on my wife’s Serve account with an AU card in my name.
The only caveat is that Fidelity AU cards are NOT unique. Amex branded cards have different card numbers for AU. Unfortunately Fidelity does not.
In the past I’ve tried and failed loading a Serve account with an AU account with the same card number. It wasn’t Fidelity, but my point is Serve denied using the card for two accounts. I wouldn’t expect to be able to use the same card for two Serve accounts.
I concur. The same thing happened to me, so my money is on a failure to proceed with said idea.
This is true. AU cards work only IF they have different numbers and only one is using it to load the account. If the primary cardholder is already using it on his/her account BUT the numbers are different, this will work. I’ve done that for many months with CapOne CCs since their AU cards have different number from primary cardholder.
In cases where one isn’t using the primary card to load, even if AU has the same number as primary, it will not get flagged as long as only one person is using it to load.
Can I load Serve with a Visa Gift card online as a debit card?
Only with a normal Visa debit card from your bank and not a credit card. For the $1k in Serve credit card loads per month, you can only use an American Express card. Only third party Amex cards issued by another bank (such as Bank of America in this case) will earn rewards.
I haven’t seen it for awhile, but when I got this card about 1.5yrs ago the sign up bonus was $75. If getting it to load Serve, it may not be worth it to wait around for that offer.
Yeah I think it has been over a year since the $75 bonus has been around. Probably not worth waiting if you are going to load Serve, but some people may want to. Thanks for pointing that out Ben.