Complaint Review:
Bluebird American Express
I received a letter from Social Security about 6 months ago saying they were not going to be sending out paper checks anymore, and I had till March 2013 to either get a bank account or a prepaid credit card for auto deposit. I don't have a bank account and can't get one at the moment since my foreclosure wrecked my credit. My only choice has been to cash my checks at Walmart and pay a fee. I asked the lady in cust. support there if there was an option that wouldn't cost me money every month. Six dollars out of $600 a month is a lot to me. She told me they'd recently gotten in this new American Express card that would only cost me $5 as a one time fee. I thought it was just the thing to solve my problem. I had one more paper check coming to me and then after that my checks were supposed to go on BBAExpress.When my check came I took it to Walmart and asked if instead of charging me a check cashing fee if they could just load it onto my card I had gotten there the month before. She told me that since I had the card already that I would still have to pay to cash my check. Ok...then do that and put it on my card, I said. She tried to put the check directly on the card and her machine kept kicking it out. She tried several times and couldn't do it, so I cashed my check and loaded cash on it. She told me to call SS to find out what the problem was.
Social Security told me that SS checks couldn't be deposited on WalMarts BBA Express card even tho Walmart was telling ppl that they could. They said they had tried to do that for ppl and it was always rejected. Now I find that the card I purchased is useless to me. I go online to see why I couldn't use it and find that Walmart is trying to become a bank with their Bluebird card, and that Social Security won't put funds on a card that isn't federally insured and belonging to a bank. I read that if you lose your card or get erroneous charges you are not protected like bank debit cards and credit cards. So, Social Security wouldn't let ppl get ripped off for the only money they have to live on. Whew, that was good to find out before I ended up losing my money...I thought.
The first month I had this card I paid my cell phone minutes on the phone, instead o f buying the Verizon card, and started noticing all these weird pop-ups on my phone. Some company started charging my card for unsolicited texts to me that I had never ordered. Someone found out I had a credit card now, they not knowing it was prepaid and month one, on this card, I start getting hit and cleaned out. I got in an argument that lasted 4 hours with Verizon about this and they told me I had to have ordered it with a password or it wouldn't be there. I swore on my daughter's life I hadn't! I told them to put my money back on my card and make whoever was texting me and charging me, STOP! I was getting nonstop, like 20 a day, texts on my phone. They were waking me up at all hours and charging me for it!
Customer Support, refused. I was in tears by the time I got off the phone and had to leave that mess where I found it. I was totally drained and stressed. I called Verizon the next day and asked to talk to a supervisor. The lady came on and told me this had been happening a lot, that ppl's phones and accounts were being hijacked by these text companies and she would fix it immediately. The two women I was on the phone w/the night before until 4am from midnight, were having fun torchering me I think and never got me to a supervisor after my repeatedly demanding it. I, or Verizon have not been able to stop the texts. I'm not now being charged unless they just started taking money this month. I had tried to get a text of my balance from the BB card 6 times, to no avail, so I called them today to get an online statement. I haven't checked it yet. I hope there's no updates to this complaint after I do..
I also had to find out the hard way about the gas station issue of them holding yer money for up to a week, but because I was spending the last of what was on the card to gas up, the pump refused the card, and I went inside knowing how much I had and the attendant explained why they do that. If you buy $80 worth of fuel and you have made other purchases or will right after you leave there, depending on whether you use it as a debit or credit card, you might get stuck with $80 of gas in yer car and not be able to charge to yer card. A little complicated I know, but you ALWAYS have to pay inside with the BBAE card to keep them from holding yer money, or I think use it as credit at the pump.