American Express Bluebird prepaid card is one of the few debit cards that has some valuable benefits. The card has advantages and disadvantages. It means Bluebird prepaid card may be good for some people and others may have to choose some other card. For example, if you often visit Walmart, the card can bring you some benefits, but if you often go to some other store like Walgreens or CVS Chime or Capital One are better choices. At the same time, if you more often earn cash than spend it, your choice may be different.

Amex Bluebird has no minimum balance, no monthly fees, and no annual fees. So you can keep it as a secondary card and not to worry that you qualify for waiver.

You can apply for the card online or purchase a temporary one for $5 at a retail store. Then you should receive a permanent card in mail within 10 business days. It is 2 weeks. If you need the Bluebird card sooner, you can order expedited shipping in 4 business days. It will cost you $20. When you receive your permanent BlueBird card you have to activate it. Here is how to do it.

To add funds you can set up a direct deposit of your salary to your Bluebird prepaid card. All you need is to provide a Bluebird prepaid card routing number and account number to your employer. You can find these numbers in the My Profile section of your online account. Here is video instruction

If you set up direct deposit, make sure you don’t receive more than $100,000 per year. This is rather unusual limit.

Bluebird prepaid card is a good choice if you often shop at Walmart and even if you just have one nearby. You can add cash up to for free at Walmart and at other stores it can cost you up to $3.95. The deposit is limited to $1,999 per day at Walmart after you verify the email. And monthly limit is $5,000.

Another way to add funds is mobile check capture via Ingo Money. This is limited to $5,000 per day and $10,000 per month.

Bluebird prepaid card gives you access to a fee free network of ATMs where you can withdraw up to $750 per day. The network is called MoneyPass and it has more than 30,000 ATMs. But it cost $2.50 to withdraw money at an out of network ATM.

If you want more ways to withdraw cash, Bluebird has a feature called “Cash Pickup powered by Ria”. There is a fee for withdrawal, it is $3 for up to $500, $6 per $500 up to $1,000. Amounts from $1,000 to $2,900 cost $9. Also Bluebird prepaid cards have other limits. For example, your purchases using the card are limited to $15,000 per month.

It is worth mentioning that Bluebird account balance doesn’t earn any interest and there is no linked savings account. At the same time some banks have checking accounts that pay small interest. In this context Bluebird doesn’t look great.

Overall Bluebird debit card is fine if you often visit Walmart and don’t have much money. However, even in this case there are many better cards and bank accounts.

Check my review of Bluebird debit card