Free Money Friday follow-up

So did you participate in any of the promotions in my Free Money Friday post?

I said I’d report back with my experience so here goes.

Nationwide Visa Buxx—load $25, get $50 bonus

• Loaded $25 using my Chase Freedom Visa card on July 11
• Used my info for both parent and teen, input promo code 02010059 on teen page
• During sign up there was no mention or confirmation of the bonus
• Haven’t been charged a load fee
• Posted as a purchase to my Chase Freedom (though other cards may consider it a cash advance)
• Took a little over a week to receive card in the mail
• Called to activate card on a Thursday or Friday (yes, I’ve already forgotten), $50 bonus posted the following Monday, July 23
• I can either withdraw the cash for free from an Allpoint ATM or just use it to pay bills and transfer the money I'd normally use for those bills from my checking to savings.
• No idea when this offer ends, but promo code still works according to posts from Slickdeals.

AMEX Serve—load and spend $25, get $25 bonus

• Loaded $25 using my Chase Freedom Visa card on July 11
• Posted as a purchase to my Chase Freedom (though other cards may consider it a cash advance)
• Took a little over a week to receive card in the mail
• Activated card online.
• I used my initial $25 load to pay part of my electric bill.
• Received a $25 bonus the next day
• Will transfer the $25 bonus back to my bank account.
• Offer expires August 31, so you still have time to get in on it.

AMEX Prepaid Card— load at least $50, get $10 bonus gift card

• Signed up to load $50 using checking account on July 15 (took a few days because I had to verify my checking account)
• Took almost two weeks to receive card in the mail
• Expect to receive bonus $10 gift card in 6-8 weeks
• Didn’t realize at the time, but I could have done this three times (one user can have three cards) for a $30 bonus
• American Express began a new promo on August 1, but this time it’s a $25 gift card for loading $200. If you only signed up for one card last month, you can open up to two more under your same account/social security number.

*Some of the links in this post are my referral links. Read my disclosure policy here