American Express Campus Edition Eliminates Load Options

American Express Campus Edition – the prepaid product marketed to college students in conjunction with Barnes & Noble campus bookstores — allowed you to load at the bookstore cash register with a credit card or gift card.

The card allowed a maximum balance of $1000, and charged $3.95 to reload at register. You could then take the money off the card at an ATM machine (first withdrawal free each month, $2 thereafter, plus fees charged by the ATM owner).

The fees and need to be near a campus bookstore probably made it not useful for most people. But I long had a campus bookstore in the lobby of my office. (So a ‘weedkday’ errand, not a weekend mileage errand.)

Sadly the options for loading these cards are being limited soon.

So now more register loads effective March 1.

Again, this won’t effect very many of you (although some folks had cards that significantly bonused this type of spend who no doubt found it useful). But another door — that lasted a good couple of years — is slamming shut.


About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  1. Any one know of any other ways to MS or other benefits of being affiliated with a university (student or faculty) or having a university email? Never heard of this card, but it would have been nice to know as I have been in school for way too long.

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