Amex Bolsters Bluebird, Serve with Budgeting Tools; Expands Free Reload Network (June 5, 2014)
New financial management tools for American Express Serve and Bluebird GPR prepaid cards announced today likely will strike a chord with cardholders—many of whom already are displaying positive financial behavior, according to the payments network.
This summer, American Express will be adding tools to help cardholders better track spending, create budgets, set spending alerts and track financial goals. The features, which are accessible when logging into an account online, automatically sort transactions into categories, such as bills, food, shopping and transportation.
American Express reports that its cardholders already are displaying financial savvy by taking advantage of existing features, such as the SetAside or Reserve account. Some cardholders are saving more than 25 percent of the money they add to their primary accounts each month and are transferring money into these accounts an average of three times a month.
“We’ve seen that we can have an impact on helping customers build positive financial behaviors,” says Dan Schulman, group president, enterprise growth at American Express. “Now we’re adding these money management tools to help our customers begin to spend wisely, avoid debt and save for the future,” he tells Paybefore. “We believe these tools will empower our customers to make smart decisions—we’re enabling them to see exactly where their money is going and easily make changes to their spending behavior to help reach their financial goals, all in real time.”
The company also announced that by July 2014, American Express Serve customers will be able to add cash for free at registers in Family Dollar stores via InComm’s Vanilla Reload network. And, as of today, consumers can purchase Serve at Safeway and later this summer at OfficeMax and Hyvee stores, enabled by the Blackhawk Network.
Later this month, Serve and media company Radio One will launch the ONE VIP Card from American Express Serve, featuring the benefits of the Serve card and Radio One loyalty benefits, such as opportunities to meet celebrities and free concert tickets.
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