Update – as of January 11, 2016, NW Buxx cards have changed the load limits on the card. See FM’s post for full details. I’ve stopped using the cards, but it might still be usable for you.
I have had my USBank Buxx Visa prepaid debit cards for years now. It used to be a great card to manufacture spend since it only costs $2.50 to load $500, and since I had US Bank ATM locations near me, I could withdraw the money out in cash for $0 liquidation cost. Then somewhere along the way, other and better offers came like the Office Depot Vanilla Reload cards, Kroger stores offering fuel points on Visa gift cards, the MINT coins hoopla, etc. At that point, the Buxx cards just weren’t as good as those other options. However, now that all of those other opportunities have dried up, the US Bank Buxx cards now are one of the best ways to manufacture points again. However, around September of 2014, US Bank pulled the hidden link to sign up for new US Bank Buxx accounts, so sorry you missed out if you already don’t have an account. Luckily, existing users can still use the cards.
With all that said, I was afraid the Nationwide Buxx cards would go the way of the US Bank card signup extinction, and so this past weekend, I signed up for the NW Buxx card. I signed up myself as the account holder and signed up my wife and parent as my ‘teens.’ I used the coupon code “02050053” and was able to load both cards with $500 for $500 exactly. I used my Barclays Arrival card and was not charged a cash advance fee. Since the Arrival card gives you 2X on purchases, it was basically a free 2,000 points for both cards. Now how can you liquidate? The easiest option would be to buy a money order from Walmart or grocery store, but I also hear that Citi will take these cards as debit card payments over the phone (this used to work with USBuxx cards up until last summer). The NW Buxx versions don’t have as a high a limit as the USB counterparts, but hey, it’s all about diversifying at this point in the MS game.
The Flyertalk wiki shows these tips. I’ll let you know my experiences once I get the cards in.
NW Buxx
Initial purchase fee: $5 (waived with promo code: 02050053)$2 load feeMax load per day: $500Max load per rolling 30 days: $1,000Max ATM per week: ($200 – but only if specifically enabled online, including PIN setup). No fee for some Allpoint ATMs (no way to know in advance if the Allpoint ATM will ding you $1; check your account carefully and call if necessary to reverse the $1 charge…IME 2/3 Allpoint ATMs do charge the fee).Max spend per 7 rolling days: $800
Max # of CC on file for both is 2. Each has a max # of loads per card per 7 day rolling period (~3/4). If you card fails to load, first try to switch to another CC, second check to make sure there are at least 7 calendar days between loads.
Do not load with a Citi card for NW Buxx (you might be charged cash advance fees)
4/22/2015 – I’ve posted an update on what I’ve been doing on this card so far.
I guess the name of the “teen” wouldn’t be so big a deal if I only plan to sign up for one teen card, but how would you get over with the required SSN info of the “teen” added? It is needed when I tried to add a teen.
Is there a limit to the number of teens per parent account? Thanks!
It seems limited to 5 teens per ADDRESS unless you were grandfathered in. Even if you make an account for your wife, she can’t add 5 more teens either. Address restriction.
Thanks, good to know. I thought it was limited to 2 because when I tried to add a new teen, I got this error “Your order could not be completed. Please try again or change your payment method”. I read this might be related to the card being rejected? It worked on 2 teens using Citi Prestige, and I’m trying to add 2 more teens using Chase Ink Plus and getting that error. Can you shed any more light? Is there a limit to how many teen cards one credit card can be used to load?
You should have been add to add a new card and get 2 new teens. Try a different card perhaps. There is a limit to loads per cc (I think it’s 2K per month per cc).
Still trying to add a 3rd teen…is there a limit to the number of times I can change the CC on the account? I tried Chase Ink Plus and Chase United Business as the 2nd card but neither worked b/c my CA limit is $20 (read that you need to have a high CA limit since it charges as CA first, then switches to purchase). Then I tried Citi Exec AAdvantage and it said “A limit violation has occurred.” So tired of filling out the new teen form a bazillion times haha!
I’m not sure what the limit is since I only have 2 stored cards and don’t need to change (4 teens on acct)
Is it your experience that they charge as CA first on any other banks besides Chase? My Citi Prestige has $0 CA and seems to work fine on 2 loads so far.
I usually use my Barclays card for all this stuff since they usually don’t charge CA. Citi is notorious and Chase sometimes. Haven’t tried any other banks.