Serve Cash Advance Fees

As I pointed out about 10 days ago, some credit cards seemed to recode Serve loads as cash advances.  It seemed like no one was getting charged a cash advance fee, but since then more information and data points have been gathered for people who are getting actual cash advance fee.

To be fair to the credit card companies, it would seem that Serve loads are your quintesential cash advance and Serve even warns you that it may be treated as a cash advance, but that doesn't mean it has to be treated that way.

Which cards are safe and which aren't?

This chart is from Frequent Miler

Safe List

Here are cards that were reported by readers to be safe, along with the most recent date of purchase:

• BarclayCard Arrival Plus, October 9

• Chase Southwest Premier, October 11

• Chase Sapphire Preferred, October 9

• Fidelity Amex, October 9

• Nasa FCU Rewards Visa, October 11

Unsafe List
The following cards were reported to charge a cash advance fee for Serve reloads.  Most recent reported date is listed:

• Citibank, October 9

• Bank of America, October 11

• Emigrant Direct Visa, October 8

• US Bank Club Carlson, October 9

What Should I Do Now?

• If you have been using a card from the Unsafe List, you should switch it to one of the cards from the safe list.  

• Call your credit card company and ask for the cash advance limit to be reduced to $0.  If you do that, any cash advance transaction will be declined instead of going through with a fee.  Even if you are using a safe card, it may turn into an unsafe card at any moment.

• Ask for a refund.  A reliable source (that's right AL, I called you reliable) confirmed that he had a cash advance fee on a Bank of America card and called to ask for a refund of the fee since he didn't know it was a cash advance transaction.  His fee was then refunded.

• It may be time to consider the Target REDcard.  I won't be considering it until at least after Small Business Saturday since I have 4 subaccounts on both of my Serve accounts, but if the Fidelity American Express becomes unsafe I will have to consider it then.

If you have any more data points, please leave a comment or email me.

Thanks AL for the tip!