Load Serve With a Debit Card or Credit Card

You can load Serve with either a debit card or credit card online. Debit card and credit card loads each have limits of $200/day and $1000/month.

This is one of my favorite features of Serve, since it adds an extra $2,000 of manufactured spending a month!

Warning: There is always a risk that your card issuer could start charging cash advance fees for online Serve loads. The best thing you can do to keep up to date, is check the Serve thread on Flyertalk. Check the “Online Credit Card Loads” section on the wiki for up to date information.

I’ve used three cards for online Serve loads and here’s what they posted like:

Chase Sapphire Preferred with cash advance line at $0 – Didn’t work. I believe it was going to post as a cash advance.

Chase Sapphire Preferred with cash advance line at $1,000 – It worked, but it took $200 out of my available cash advance line while the transaction was pending. Once it wasn’t pending anymore, it posted as a purchase and the cash advance line went back to normal.

Chase Ink Bold – It doesn’t work, because of the same issue that plagued my Sapphire Preferred. Unfortunately, this is a charge card and cannot have a cash advance line, so it never works.

Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select MasterCard – This card was not affected by cash advance fees at all. It works great.

If you have data points on what cards do and don’t work, please let me know in the comments, so I can post them here.

Here’s how you set up online loads:

1. Go to Serve.com and login. Select  “Settings” in the top right hand corner, right underneath your available balance.

Home  Serve from American Express settings 2. On the left side of the page under the “Funding & Transfers” category you will see a link for “Banks & Cards” click that.

Settings  Serve from American Express banks and cards

3. On that page you can link a bank account, debit card, or credit card. Since I already linked a credit card to my account, I will link a debit card for this post. It is exactly the same process to link a credit card.

Bank & Cards  Settings  Serve from American Express

4. Enter your credit or debit card information. There is an option on the bottom of the page to use the card you link as a backup funding source. You can use this option if you want, but you do not have to. I did use my credit card as a backup funding source, just in case I spend over my balance. That way I avoid having the card decline.

Link a Debit Card  Bank & Cards  Serve from American Express

5. Select “Submit” and the card will be added. You may get an error that you need to contact Account Protection Services, which is normal. They just need to verify that the card you added is in the same name as the Serve account.

6. Go to your Account Homepage and select “Add Money” in the upper right hand corner.

Home  Serve from American Express add

7. Enter the amount you want to add, remember you can only load $200 per day with this method, and select the card you just added as the funding source.

Add Money  Pay & Transfer  Serve from American 200Express

8. Now select “Review” and add your funds. This will show up immediately in your account, so double-check that it is there.

Home  Serve from American Express Add 220

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