Mint survey suggests new card similar to Bluebird, REDbird, and Serve. MintBird?

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A reader reports being asked to fill out a survey by the online money tracking service Mint.  In the survey, he was asked his opinion about a new product from Mint.  Specifically, the survey said:

This new product from Mint is a full service reloadable prepaid account that offers you the convenience of a debit card without the fees or hassle of a bank.

With the prepaid account you can enjoy these key benefits:

  • No credit checks, no hidden fees, no minimum balance
  • Pay in stores and online virtually anywhere American Express Cards are accepted
  • FREE ATM Withdrawals
  • FREE cash reloads at over 27,500 locations
  • FREE app and fast sign-up
  • FREE Direct Deposit for easy and fast access to your paycheck
  • Backed by American Express 24/7 Customer Service

MintBird

It sounds a lot like Serve, doesn’t it?

My take

I’m not too excited.  Here’s why…

I really don’t know anything about this product other than what is shown above.  However, its clear that this is a prepaid reloadable card from American Express.  And, in the last few years, all prepaid reloadable cards from American Express have had certain things in common:

  1. Technically, they all run from the Serve platform.
  2. Amex allows each user to have only one.
  3. They are reloadable in certain stores
  4. They are reloadable online with debit cards
  5. They have almost no fees
  6. They have free bill pay, and free withdrawals to bank accounts

If history is any guide and this is a new Bluebird/REDbird/Serve type of card, then we will have to choose between them.  An individual won’t be able to have both REDbird and MintBird, for example.  And, I’m betting that this card won’t have any capabilities better than Serve (except maybe an automatic link to Mint).

I hope I’m wrong.  I hope that MintBird will allow $5,000 worth of online credit card loads per month.  But, I’m willing to bet it won’t.  What do you think?

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