American Express Target Card Becoming A Pain…

American Express TargetI’ve had my American Express For Target prepaid card for a while now but don’t use it much unless I really need to.

It used to be much easier to meet minimum spends to earn credit card sign-up bonuses. With the demise of Amazon Payments, Vanilla Reloads at CVS and other methods of manufactured spend just being a pain in the NYC area, I’ll turn to my Amex For Target at times.

American Express For Target can be loaded by credit card at Targets stores. The cost to load the card is $3 and you can add up to $1,000 each time. There are lots of limitations to this which I’m not going to go into…

$3 to load/ charge $1,000 sounds like a pretty good deal when you think of the costs of other methods. However, besides one free ATM withdrawal per month, you’re going to pay a fee of $3 each time you want to use an ATM after (per month). Oh, and you can only take out up to $400 from an ATM per day. Don’t forget that you’ll also pay a fee for using whichever ATM you choose. Those fees will vary.

The bottom line is that if I need to meet the minimum spend to earn credit card sign-up bonuses, the Amex For Target prepaid card is definitely an option.

I haven’t loaded my card many times but whenever I do, there always seems to be a problem.

Either the cashier doesn’t know what the card is or how to load it or each store has their own rules when it comes to loading it. This can definitely be frustrating and waste a lot of time.

The first few times I loaded my card, I did so at a regular cash register. Then after waiting on line a different time I was told loads could only be done at the customer service area.

Can’t Target just have the same policy at all of their stores? (Oh wait, this sounds like a similar theme to CVS- selling/ not selling Vanilla etc.)

Yesterday was the most annoying Target For Amex reload experience to date.

I found a short line and briefly waited before asking to load my card. The cashier had no clue what the card was. She swiped it though and followed the prompts to key in the amount I wanted to add (which was the max. allowed of $1,000.).

The transaction was moving along fine but she wasn’t sure if she did it right or maybe she wasn’t comfortable due to the amount of money I wanted to add.

She called over a supervisor who then told me that at a register this amount was not allowed. She said it was only allowed to load up to $200. I immediately asked when this rule came about. After some mumbling, it turned out there was a change last week. (For some reason or other I didn’t believe her…)

The supervisor said the only area to load over $200 was in the electronics department! This made no sense. If she said customer service, fine… I asked her to walk with me over to electronics but she refused and said it wasn’t necessary.

I showed up at the electronics register and sure enough, none of the 4 employees had a clue what the Amex For Target card was or how to load it.

More waiting….

Finally another supervisor type showed up and went ahead and loaded Kim and my Amex For Target cards.

I thanked him and asked about the rules of loading the card. I told him about being told that only the electronics department could add over $200. He seemed to have no idea about this rule and that was the end of the conversation…

Has any of you experienced problems or inconveniences when loading the American Express For Target card?

Find out more about the Amex For Target card here.

11 thoughts on “American Express Target Card Becoming A Pain…

  1. Is there a chance, now or in the future, that when you reload your AMEX For Target card using your credit card your cc will be charged a cash advance fee by the issuing bank? Recently many AMEX Bluebird cardholders have been charged a cash advance fee on their credit card when attempting to reload Bluebird by cc vs cash/debit card.

  2. StartinSanDiego- I’m glad your load went through without delay. I remember when the card frst came out, I didn’t have much problem!

    Shawn- I’ve had the CC decline the load also a few times. I’ll usually call in advance now and alert them of the upcoming “purchase”.

  3. im in NYC and have never had any issues. That said I only go to the customer service counter every time. I give them the card and tell them my load (usually $1000) and then offer my license and the CC I’m going to use. Some want to see. Some don’t care. Be the only problem I’ve ever had was my CC company declining it and having to call in to get it cleared.

  4. Just did my very first Target Reload… I walked in, a register was empty, I handed it to the cashier. She looked baffled, but another cashier told her what to do. It was quick and easy. I was in and out of the store in less than 3 minutes. Sounds like I got lucky!

  5. Joey- Hopefully your good fortunes when using your Target for Amex continue!

    Chennis- The card can be a pain but I still can see some value and positives with other manufactured spend options no longer available.

    The Value Traveler- Seems almost like these products are brought to market but most don’t stores don’t want to be bothered with dealing with them.

    Vik- You’re confusing the Amex For Target with the newer Target Pre-Paid REDCard.

    TonyM- So it seems like each store has their own policy. Glad they have a clue but you still had to go to the customer service area after waiting at a regular line that you’ve loaed at in the past!

  6. Went to 2 different stores here in Los Angeles and the 1st one in the Express Lane told me to go to the Service Desk. I’d loaded my card(s) at the register there several times and never at the Service Desk. I walked over and got it done there. The other store I didn’t even bother going to the check out lanes, went right to the Service Desk. Quick and easy. The folks working there have a clue.

  7. I live in the NY area as well but haven’t tried the Target card as I was under the impression you couldn’t get it in NY. Is this correct or have I been passing up cheap MS spend all this time?

  8. I had this same experience when the card first came out. It was horrific. Nobody knew the card and they all treated me like I was super shady. I had people tell me the card was fake, that I couldn’t load with credit cards, that I couldn’t load with OneVanilla because the prompt said no gift cards (even though its for target gift cards). Also, the customer service for the unit is a separate operation from amex (outsourced to India, unlike regular amex) and they could not figure out for months why I didn’t get the real card…then when I did it was closed for some accidental reason and I had to call to reopen.

    Main takeaway: don’t waste your time with this thing

  9. I never had an issue with my target amex (knock on wood.) Just like you, I only use it to fulfill minimum spend so I don’t maximize it at all.

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