Review: Reloading and Spending the Day After Christmas with Bluebird

A little while back I shared that I would be doing a review of the new American Express Bluebird card. Well, my Bluebird card arrived in the mail the day before Christmas and I was itching to try it out. With that being the case, I decided to give it a real-life trial run, so I could report back with my findings. Last night I headed over to our local WalMart with Bluebird in hand.

First things first, I needed to load money onto the card. I walked over to the customer service line and asked to load funds onto my Bluebird card. The process was very straight forward. I was loading from another debit card. The customer service rep rung up the total that I was going to place on the card. I swiped my debit card, and she handed me a receipt while informing me that the funds were available for use. Simple enough right?

I was a little skeptical about whether the money was actually there that fast, but I was willing to try it out with a purchase. Plus the store was empty so if I got rejected at the register it wouldn’t be too embarrassing lol. I picked up a wi-fi signal repeater for the house and a few snacks for movie night, and headed to the self-service register. I scanned my items, swiped my card, and that was it.

I bagged my items and was on my way out of the store. No stress, no strain and no struggle. The process was really that easy and almost surprised me because nothing is ever really that easy. Over the next few days I’ll be using the Bluebird card in different situations to get a better feel of what I can do with it and continue to report my findings.

In the meantime I’m including more details on ways that you can reload your Bluebird card and the expected timeframe for each:

Direct Deposit

• You can get all or part of your paycheck added to your Bluebird Account

Notes: It typically takes approximately 1-2 pay periods for your first paycheck to be deposited. After that, you should receive the deposits on your normal pay date.

Link a U.S. Bank Account

• Deposit money from your checking or savings account
• Funds loaded to Bluebird from your verified bank account will generally be available within 5 business days after the load is requested.

Notes: The money transferred from your linked checking or savings account will generally be available within five business days after the request has been made. Recurring money deposits from your bank account will also generally be available within five business days after the scheduled date.

Deposit Money From Debit Card

• Once you have activated your personalized Bluebird Card, adding money to your Bluebird Account from a Debit Card is quick and simple.
• There’s a $2 fee to deposit money to your Bluebird Account from a debit card.

Notes: You can link up to 4 debit cards to your Bluebird Account, but the same debit card cannot be linked to more than one Bluebird Account. Verification of your debit card is immediate. Once verified, your debit card is linked to your Bluebird Account, and you can deposit money immediately. Funds are available immediately when deposited from a Debit Card that is either linked or used at a Walmart register.