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target-red-card-redbird-credit-card-loads-logoToday has been a crazy day with lots of reports flying around different blogs of people investigating what is happening to Target Redbird credit card loads, in a “post-memo” world

Some background on Target Red Card / Redbird credit card loads

Up until yesterday (May 5th, 2015), you were able to do Target Red Card / Redbird credit card loads of up to $1000 a swipe, $2500 a day and $5000 a month.  Dans Deals and Frequent Miler both reported yesterday that credit card loads were not going to be allowed any more starting today.

Reports of Target Red Card / Redbird credit card loads today

I was the first person in Target this morning to try and check out what did and did not work.  No, really, I literally walked into my Target this morning as they were unlocking the doors to open up for the morning 😀

Over the course of the day, several people have reported their results trying to do Target Red Card / Redbird credit card loads.  Here is a list of some of the ones that I’ve seen

There’s also some forums / social media where folks are sharing experiences with Target Red Card

Target Red Card / Redbird credit card loads: What we know

  1. No credit cards seem to work.  I haven’t seen a single report of anyone being able to do Target Red Card / Redbird credit card loads today with any type of credit card.  It’s hard coded by the register and even though reports are that most cashiers are willing to try and do Redbird credit card loads, the POS system comes up with a message saying “Able to Load $0.00 with this Payment Method”
  2. Amex for Target will not load either.
  3. Vanilla Visas (like from Office Depot) and Metabank Visas (like from Office Max) seem to work as debit cards.  This matches my experiences from earlier this morning.  US Bank Mastercards also work.  If you haven’t seen it yet, this week (and next!) Office Depot and Office Max are essentially giving away free money.

    target-red-card-redbird-credit-card-loads-office-depot-20-off-gift-cards

    Mmmmmm…. free money

  4. It does not appear to “drain” the card.  If you want to load $1000, you have to ask the cashier to do a split tender and only charge $200 at a time.
  5. Amex gift cards work as credit cards, and as such, do not work for Redbird credit card loads either.   Staples Visa rebate cards (that don’t have PINs) also do not work.
  6. The limits are still the same – $1,000 per swipe, $2,500 per day and $5,000 per month

I will continue to update things as details become more concrete.  If you want to make sure to stay informed, you can follow me on Twitter or Facebook, or sign up for my once-daily email with travel news and tricks.

If you have any data points to share, leave a note in the comments.


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