I wouldn’t consider myself to be very big into manufactured spending.
Sure I took part in buying $1 coins from the U.S. Mint which was a big pain. I also loved using Amazon Payments which was overly convenient. I even enjoyed the hunt for Vanilla Reloads and Paypal cards. Too bad that ended…
The most recent and only way I currently manufacture spend is with the Target REDcard.
I love this method for its simplicity although it is definitely becoming a bit more inconvenient to do.
Some stores won’t allow reloading by credit card anymore while the other local stores near us are limiting those loads by credit card to $1,000 per day?
Here are some other REDcard Reload experiences that I’ve had:
- “The Reloaders are here”, Another Targer REDcard experience
- First REDcard load of March, not so great results
- Target REDcard experience: Charleston
- Can each Target makeup policies about REDcard
A couple of days back I went to a local Target to do my last reload for the month of March. At this location, I now have to wait for a manager to do the transaction at the customer service desk.
Typically I’ve waited a few minutes at most for the manager to stop by to complete the transaction.
During my most recent visit, it got to be extremely frustrating. I asked to add money to my prepaid REDcard and was told that a manager needed to do it. The cashier called a manager on her walkie-talkie and got no response.
I waited for a bit before she tried calling her again. This time the manager said she would be by in a couple of minutes. I waited and waited.
Around 7-10 minutes later she again called the manager on the walkie. Then the cashier told me the manager was finishing to help a customer with their registry so she would be by soon.
Another 5 minutes or so passed until the manager strolled up to the register.
When I first asked to do the reload it was 6:12 PM. (It was right after Kim had made a return). By the time I had walked away from the customer service desk, my reload receipt had the time at 6:39 PM!
Twenty seven minutes… Besides waiting on the line for our turn, I waited by the register for twenty seven minutes!
Loading the Target prepaid REDcard certainly was anything but convenient. I’m not sure that it was really even worth my time…
What’s the longest you had to wait to reload your Target REDcard?
Have you had any experiences trying to load at the Harlem store?
This is all but dead in NYC. Multiple store are cash only or limit loads to $1000. It is just not worth it to go out of the way to a store to MS $1000. $2500, maybe. $5000 yes. At least for me.
Major pain yesterday and today. Got an overzealous cashier yesterday who kept insisting that the register wouldn’t allow it, and it had to be done at customer serv. desk. After I insisted that she tried (huge line at cust serv desk) she still needed to call a supervisor, who apparently got irritated that I proved them all wrong. I did $1,000 and not wanting to deal with them anymore went to cust serv desk where I loaded the other $1,500. As luck would have it, today I went back and that lady was behind the desk. Recognized me immediately. She said she had looked up “the rules” and she could only let me load $500 per day. I did my $500 and happily smiled and left for a more customer friendly Target.
Each store might be setting their own policies, but it’s stupid. Prepaid card rules clearly say you can load $1,000 per swipe, and $2,500 per day. Target shouldn’t be policing a product sold by Amex at their stores. Just process the load and be quiet.
That’s a long time indeed. I’m lucky to live in areas where there’s no fuss at all, some of them make you go to the register but anyone there can load it, I’ve maybe waited 2 mins at most.
I’m fortunate to live in a city that doesn’t offer the card (the closest being about an hour away). I’ve never waited longer than 3-5 minutes from walking in to walking out. No manger needed or $1,000 daily caps. I asked the service rep about how many people she has seen doing what I do and she replied 3 or 4 (1 of them being my wife)! So no harassments or inconvenience here on my end.
27 min would be abnormal around me. Usually it takes 3-5min to load and perhaps another 5 min tops with people ahead of me. Admittedly, I’d choose your times to go accordingly. IE, avoid Sunday afternoon if possible.
it’s pretty fast for me. The lady at the customer service desk knows exactly what’s going on and she couldn’t care less. She loads whatever you give her. She mentioned to me that loading debit gift cards are slightly easier since she doesn’t need to input the last 4 again. I guess it just depends store to store and service rep to service rep
Loaded $3000 on 3 separate transactions yesterday in Columbus Ohio in about 3 minutes.
Has never taken me longer than 5 minutes or the wait in line if there are people ahead of me.
I’ve never had to wait at all for Redbird loading. I go to customer service and usually only have to wait behind one or two people. Then, the customer service rep quickly does the loading for me. He/She will even wait for me to clear any fraud alerts.
30 seconds tops. According to the cashiers at customer service I’ve been the only Prepaid RedCard they’ve seen.
In and out in under two minutes, 5000 points(2 cards) of my choice.
How long it lasts is anybody’s guess…
Oh joy, another post about you loading a Redcard. Enthralling stuff.
Mark- I’d think (and hope) that each person decides what is content on their site. My site= my choice of what to post.
Darth Chocolate- That is definitely true!
No one said that there weren’t costs associated with MS.
I guess anything is content?