Why is it that people are having different experiences loading their Target prepaid REDcard at store locations?
Wouldn’t you think that such a big company would have rules and policies in place across the board that are followed by all stores? I would but for whatever reason, this is not the case.
Should rules vary from store to store? Better yet, is each store allowed to make up their own policy when it comes to loading REDcard…
Check out some recent posts about Target prepaid REDcard:
- Target Prepaid REDcard Limiting Load By Credit Card To $1,000 Per Day?
- “The Reloaders Are Here”, Another REDcard Experience
- First REDcard Load of March, Not So Great Results
- Target REDcard Experience: Charleston
So far I’ve only loaded my REDcard at four Target locations. I’ve visited all three stores in Brooklyn, NY and one in Charleston, SC, (Mt Pleasant to be a bit more precise).
Loading the card started off close to home without issue. I was originally able to load $2,500 per day with one swipe until the rules changed making it necessary to load the full $2500 as three separate transactions.
Then I heard that one Brooklyn location was no longer accepting credit cards for loads. After hearing the same news a few more times, I didn’t bother trying since this is the furthest location for me to get to.
Soon after they required a manager to load the card, up to $1,000 by credit card while the other did not. Now the remaining two Targets in Brooklyn allowing loads by credit cards need a manager to do the transaction & only allow $1,000 to be added per day.
Things were simple in Charleston. The service rep was friendly and loading $2,500 was a piece of cake….
This made me wonder why Targets seem to either follow different policies when it comes to loading the Prepaid REDcard or make it up for themselves.
I couldn’t be too sure unless I asked!
I decided to call up the phone # on the back of my card to ask a few questions. I said how I was considering getting the card and wanted to find out more information before doing so.
The representative seemed very happy that I was interested in learning more about the card. He also tried as best possible to answer all of my questions.
The rep let me know that some stores charge a $5 fee to buy a REDcard (like in Charleston) while others have it for free. (Nothing new learned here.)
A reader had asked “Can someone tell me if the $5K limit is per calendar month or account sign up anniversary month?” I had responded that it was per calendar month which I reconfirmed while on the call.
And then I asked the question that I really wanted to know the answer to.
I wanted to ask my question without sounding like I knew anything about the card. So, I mentioned how my local Target stores did not sell REDcard and said I would be visiting an area that did. I then asked- “If a store does not sell REDcard can you still reload it in that location?”
He placed me on hold for a minute or two and then told me that each store can make their own decision when it comes to REDcard. He said it was completely at the discretion of the store.
His answer wasn’t so surprising since this seems to be what has been going on over the past month.
So there you have it. Each store has the power to make their own decisions regarding REDcard.
I think Target is profiting just by getting people into its stores to ms. Since I am there to MS if I happen to need something I would otherwise buy at Walmart I now but it at Target. So I think Target knows exactly what it is doing allowing $5,000 in credit card MS per month.
I understand the $1000/load requirement by the manager since it would force you to go to the store at least 5x per month to max it out.
Overall I prefer the Target experience than the Walmart one for sure.
This does not just apply to the Redcard. In the past, I had no problem loading my Amex for Target card with a credit card at the Target in Elmhurst. Recently, when I tried to load it, I was told that credit cards are no longer accepted.
Also, if you wanted to inquire about this, Target corporate (cust service) would be able to tell you a lot more than REDcard cust service, which is an Amex-side servicing this product with limited understanding and more of a read-the-script kinda answers.
Michael, I have the same gripe with some Target supervisors/managers acting like they’re running a mom & pop store and taking it upon themselves to enact certain policies or restrictions. Though in fairness with me it’s when I activate the temporary Redbird cards so I can sell them online (I don’t tell them that, of course); the loading part is fairly the same, except that some stores ask you to go to cust service desk to do it.
One of the benefits that big corporate stores offers to consumers is the uniformity and continuity of their products and services regardless of what town/city the consumer is traveling to or happen to be in, so this doesn’t bode well for Target. Neither does that the fact that even in stores where REDcard has been available for months, most of their cashiers don’t know much about this product (many know nothing at all). Target didn’t help matters in this respect when it decided to name this product “Redcard”, the same name as their existing debit and credit product with some similar features (5% off, free shipping).
Having said all that, the Target experience is definitely superior to the Walmart one and I mean just shopping at Walmart, since I haven’t done any of the MS-related things at Walmart being that I never had Serve or Bluebird.
Also, being that the initial loading limits were quite generous ($2.5 in one transaction!) I can see why they made it now $1K/transaction. That change though was nation-wide and pretty swift, whereas the local differences about loading limits and practices are a different story.
In the end we have to remember, however, that these products were never designed for us in the first place, for people who rinse and repeat to the limit for points and miles; we are after all the cost of doing business with other ‘regular’ customers.
Very interesting! Thanks for sharing. I have had similar thoughts. In Minneapolis the prepaid Vanilla Visas I bought at Office Max got rejected, but I loaded with regular CC no issue. I was concerned but remembered all of the variety of experiences you referenced above. Sure enough, back in Kansas City Target loaded with them no problem.
It definitely sounds like each store has a variety of activities that they can limit on RedCard beyond simply “willing to load/not willing to load”. That’s actually encouraging as it points to me that the company is more interested in letting everybody make their own decisions rather than dropping the hammer with company-wide policies (like “no more CC loads”).
Questions about the RedCard…the Targets in my state don’t offer Redcards. If I had someone in a participating state get a card and send it to me, I can reload it at ANY Target store, right?
YES. YES and YES. That’s what I have been doing.
It’s the same with Walmarts and local grocery stores regarding MOs, and also buying GCs. Managers often pull policies out of their a$$, sometimes different people on same day will have different policies and will stand there, smile and lie to you how it’s company policy even if you call them out on it.
Btw, I’m sure Brooklyn Target is one (if not THE) most heavily abused location in the country. Think of how much MS is done by just the Dan’s deals crowd.
I am not surprised that each store makes their own policy. With these things the norm seems to be that there is no norm. When people were picking up vanilla reloads at CVS it seemed that every single store had its own policy and it wasn’t the same as the one that was three miles down the road.