Bluebird Prepaid American Express From Walmart

I am receiving compensation to load onto the Bluebird card and facilitate this post. Please note that as always, any personal opinions reflected in this post are my own and have not been influenced by the sponsor in any way.

We were with our last bank for ten years, until they just got too expensive to use. They were charging for everything – use of ATMs, low monthly balances and a monthly fee. So I decided it was time to find a different bank. I made sure to do my research. I wanted to find a bank that was convenient, didn’t have a monthly minimum balance requirement, and didn’t charge a monthly fee. As it turns out, not many banks fit into the outline of what I was looking for. I finally found one close by, and opened an account there a little over three months ago. Last month when going through the bank statement, I saw that there was a $10 charge that shouldn’t have been there. I contacted the bank rep, who asked me to give him a day or two to look into it. Which I did. I stopped in the branch a few days later. The rep told me he’d discovered that when I signed up for our account it was a promo. After three months, the account wasn’t free unless I maintained a minimum monthly balance higher then I know we can. He told me he got the charges waived, and that we would remain grandfathered in until 2014, when we’d have to pay $7 per month. I was rather disappointed. That new meant I’d have to start looking for another solution.
About that same time I first heard about Bluebird, a prepaid account from American Express. Bluebird is available at more than 4,000 Walmart stores, as well as online. I was especially interested to learn about Bluebird, since it is being positioned as an alternative to debit and checking accounts. Meaning basically it’s a possible solution to the banking situation I’m currently facing. There are a few aspects of Bluebird that particularly interest. There is no monthly minimum balance required, and no monthly fee for using the card. They offer mobile deposits from your smart phone, a feature I have found very convenient to use with my current bank. You can also add cash from your local Walmart store. Probably not an option I’d use, since I love Walmart and like to spend my money there. But good to know nonetheless. Bluebird can be used for purchases anywhere American Express is accepted worldwide with no foreign transaction fees.
There are also some cool features that I don’t have with my current checking account. One of those features is that you can create family sub-accounts. That means I could create a sub-account just for my 17 year old son. With a sub-account of his own we could establish spending limits for him, to help him learn how to responsibly manage spending and saving. Plus it looks like you can even access emergency roadside assistance if needed, I haven’t researched that feature fully yet. Since he’s 17 and now driving, that could be a feature very handy to have, and one that could offer peace of mind as I think about him driving alone. The other feature is that you have access to purchase protection against accidental damage or theft, which is something I also have to read up some more about. It’d be great if it helped cover things purchased with the card where there was no other warranty.
I’ll be using Bluebird for a bit, and will keep you up to date on how it’s working out for us.
In the meantime, for more information on the Bluebird, please visit www.bluebird.com.