AgFed – the Agriculture Federal Credit Union based in the DC area – is NCUA insured and has $240 million in assets, about 22,000 members, and 6 branches.
They sell Visa gift cards online for $3.95 that come embossed with your name on them. (These are fulfilled by FIS Global.)
Joining the Credit Union
The credit union is open to:
- People who live, work, volunteer, or go to school in DC
- Employees or members of a bunch of government agencies or organizations with affiliations like the Embassy of Jamaica and the Kennedy Center
- Anyone who pays $20 to join The Friends of CityDance Association
Opening an account generates a soft pull on your Equifax credit report. They require you to open a free savings account with $5 minimum deposit. They also offer a free checking account (there’s a $5 fee after 12 months of billpay inactivity).
I expected that I would be automatically enrolled with CityDance (since I selected that option) during the signup process, but I was not prompted to pay $20, and my card wasn’t charged. I opened the account with the expectation of having to cover this $20 fee, and still expect to.
Funding Your Account
They allow credit card funding of a new account, Historically this posted as a purchase rather than a cash advance at least with some issuers. I reached out and they shared the following:
The initial deposit limit, using a credit card, to fund a checking account online is $1500. This is processed as a purchase, and not as a cash advance.
So far I have funded only a savings account. Just because they process the transaction as a purchase doesn’t mean that any given issuer will code it that way, though most will. They accept only Visa and MasterCard, no American Express, and out of abundance of caution I’d probably avoid Citibank cards. I used my Hyatt Visa, and will know for sure its disposition once the transaction moves out of the pending stage.
You can also fund via another account outside the credit union. Although the simplest and quickest approach, even if a cash advance, might still be a minimum $5 deposit to savings.
AgFed used to sell CDs with funding via credit card years ago and Chase cards posted those as purchases rather than cash advances. Oh those were the days!
Do They Want You to Open Accounts and Buy Gift Cards?
An insider to the credit union writes to me,
The CEO is fine with people joining and buying gift cards, in the hope we’ll get other business…We always want new members, and we often offer special deals–last Labor Day we offered .49% on a 4 year car loan.
Buying Visa Gift Cards Online
They sell Visa gift cards in denominations you select, up to $500, and accept credit cards for payment.
- Each Visa gift card costs $3.95
- They emboss the recipient’s name on the card
- 5-7 day shipping is free
You’ll have to call with each card to set up a PIN number, these aren’t as easy as the Vanilla gift cards where the PIN became whatever the first set of numbers you used.
AgFed also sells Visa debit cards (as opposed to gift cards) online with a limit of $2500 for initial funding but it appears they only accept their own credit cards for purchase of those.
Update: the credit union wants more members who will take advantage of a variety of their services. I’m hearing that though they’re excited to share their offerings – including gift cards – they may not be able to continue to approve folks through the ‘CityDance’ affiliation, that’s the kind of membership link that is suspect to the National Credit Union Administration. So unless you actually qualify to be a member through one of the other mechanisms they may not be able to work with you.
Update 2: the concern about CityDance memberships as a means of joining turns out to be unfounded and the credit union appears to be approving new members. Good news.
Update 3 May 12 7:30pm Eastern: Ok, let’s pause the signups. We’ve already moved the needly on the credit union’s membership base and we want to keep this sustainable.
By the way their website has been down all day. I think the MS assault crashed their servers. I hope my $1500 deposit doesn’t disappear in the chaos.
Any credit card I should not use to order the gift cards? I am weary of Citi often treating these as cash advances. What about Barclays US airways which is running a promotion of 50% more AA miles right now.
@Sharon–Sorry for the late reply, but I had to physically appear at a passport office to get my lost one replaced since I have lost others. They go from 10 years, to 2 years, and now 1 year!
As to the Agfed, I apologize if it seems like we keep changing our minds.
I think the CEO (Margie, for all you guys who assumed it MUST be a dude) is conservative, and while welcoming the memberships, wasn’t clear why people would go to the immense trouble of buying dozens of gift cards, driving to Walmart , getting money orders, redepositing the money , and paying the credit card bill. I explained that there are a lot of miles junkies who go to great lengths to buy points cheaply. She’s always been clear people were doing this for points, but didn’t understand how passionate many people are. You must admit, the time taken in cashing out all those cards isn’t negligible. If I want 100,000 miles I’d have to handle 200 cards. For a lot of people, they’d rather buy the miles.
She also understands it makes sense to meet minimum spending for a promo bonus, and she’s aware the T&C of most cards exclude points being earned on prepaid cards–but that as a matter of practice points do get earned.
Please be aware you need to actually pay to join Citydance to use the gift card site.
Neither Margie nor I know what FIS will do with a lot of big orders.
@traderprofit, I agree with CEO Margie that the behavior of avid points-and-milers can seem irrational to the point of scary. But my point is that the bank makes the rules. If you don’t want crazy people buying thousands of dollars worth of cheap gift cards, you can limit the offer. If you don’t want a flood of folks from around the country joining through the Citidance link, you can take the link down.
And if you want to make sure that people who use that link actually join Citidance, you could consider making it a little clearer how that works. For others reading this, here’s how you do it First, find the Citicance option under “Other” and select it. Then DEPOSIT AT LEAST $25 for your initial deposit. $20 will be automatically deducted by Agfed for the Citidance membership. I’m not sure what happens if you deposit only the required minimum of $5.
It seems like a nice little credit union with lots of services. And clearly, the management and board members are paying attention to what’s happening, which is the key to not being blindsided by unexpected demand. The gift cards are a lovely perk, and I’m sure that brought in a lot of new members like me that would like to buy a few for paying bills and making min spend but have no intention of overwhelming the system. If you get a flood of people who overdo it, you can change the rules so it works the way you want it to. It will be fine.
Is it possible to get a cash advance for these vgcs at ATMs?
Why would I want to buy a gift card with a credit card???
@Jimmy, if you have to ask that question then you are in the wrong place.
has anyone verified that these can be loaded to redbird?
can these cards be unloaded to serve/redbird?
In reading their FAQ, there appears to be no PIN. Thus, it seems RedBird is a no-go. Thus the utility drops dramatically. Anybody have any luck?
FAQ is outdated. You call to set the pin.
Gary, i opened an account and charged $25 on my credit card, printed the form to sign and mail to them, I try to log in to purchase the visa card and it is not accepting my log in or to register as first time online user, says enter account # and then last 4 of social. How long it takes after opening account to be able to log in to purchase cards???? Thank you
@lucy, you should be able to create an online account as soon as you receive your welcome email. However, their website is not terribly confidence-inspiring. First, the member-support part of the website was down for 24 hours (possibly due to the surge in new members?). When the site came back up it took me two or three tries to get through the “new member” procedure and set up my online account. I think it’s just not very robust. Just keep trying, and click the New Member link every time you see it (it’s presented once on the initial login page and then again on the next page). Once you finally get your online account set up, the website is pretty easy to use.
I somehow missed the part about making the initial deposit for $25. When my paperwork came they just asked that I send them a check for $20, which I did. I was also a little leery about making a large deposit with my CC. Looking back, that was a mistake.
Can anyone confirm that there is no cash advance fee when buying these gift cards? And what card(s) were used for the purchase.
I just bought $25 gift card for a friend. How can I check the status of my order? Is there tracking of the card?
Hi Gary, i opened an account and charged $25 on my credit card. what is the next step to load with credit card? or did I misunderstand that credit card loading is only for initial funding? Thanks
@AI- credit card funding of the account is for initial deposit only
@gary thanks for your response. I guess I made a mistake. Can I open another account with credit card funding? Thanks
PS It is a sale not cash advance on Chase United Club Card when I made deposit.
I used Barclay Arrival+ for both initial funding of account and purchase of a $500 gift card. Both credited quickly as regular purchases that earned points. Have not received gift card yet.
Anyone used an Amex card for purchasing these gift cards?
@gary I received a call from Agfed saying they could not approve my application as Personal info was not verified. I think that was BS. I have 14 credit cards from Chase alone with Fico score 700+ and I am from Bay area. is this deal dead for Non-DC residents? Thanks.
@AI – I assume personal info not confirmed has to do with verifying who you are / where you live
How can i track the card I purchased?
Is this already dead? It tells me “card number invalid” whenever I try to purchase a GC with my chase visa.
@NI have you actually signed up via Citydance or other eligible means, the credit union was restricting purchases to those that had
The fax for the gift card says it is processed as credit. There is no pin for the card.
Were you successful getting a pin for the card by calling them? Wondering if things have changed recently within the last month since the last time you got a card.
@credit, just call the number they give you for card activation and follow the prompts. At the end it automatically assigns you a PIN. Don’t bother trying to activate card online, however. It didn’t work at all when I tried it, and even if it did it probably wouldn’t assign you a PIN. Just call the number – it’s all automatic and takes less than a minute.
@Gary Leff — yep, I have a fully functional agfed account and received that error on the actual order checkout page for the Visa Gift Cards.
It looks to be working for me again. Thanks!
Thanks Sharon.
Have you tried loading it to serve once a pin is established. Does it behave like a normal debit card after that?
@credit, I no longer have a Serve account, but there was no problem loading it to Redbird at Target. It’s particularly good for that, in fact, because the card has your name embossed on it. Reportedly some Target stores won’t take gift cards without a name on them.
Am I correct in assuming that purchasing VGCs from this bank will code as a cash advance with Citi cards? I just received my Citi Prestige and I’m trying to meet the minimum spend for the 100,000 miiles! I know some other articles have mentioned this, but I wanted to be sure.
@Anthony – Call Citi and lower your CA limit to $0 or $10, something low.
Once you get these gift cards, can you use it to load Redbird at Target?
Do these cards have wording “gift card” on them?
Hi,
Has anyone used the reloadable prepaid card from their website? You can only use their own credit card to buy it, but it is a 1% card. So anyone see the downside to using their card?
By the way. I opened a 10 k cd for one year.
My Target has started giving me grief about loading gift cards. I’m thinking about switching over to BlueBird. Does anyone know if you can load BlueBird with AgFed gift cards?
Still kind of new…if i can get visa gc’s locally for 3.95, is there an advantage to using this credit union?
I just signed up for AgFed. I funded the $25 via Citi AA card. I called Citi and they said they are 99% sure that this will go through as a purchase and not a cash advance. I am skeptical (it’s labeled as “MORTGAGE COMPANIES-FINANCIAL INSTITUTION” but we’ll find out by the end of the week. Worst case scenario I get charged $10, so total I’m out $35 bucks. Has anyone already tried purchasing the Agfed VGCs with a Citi card?
Hi, I’m funding a new AgFed account with Citi AA card. I’ll let you guys know if it goes through as a cash advance. Thanks
Do they accept money order deposits? Especially MOs from Walmart? Thanks!
Can anyone confirm whether purchases of AgFed VGCs post as a purchase or a cash advance to Citi credit cards? I’ve got a Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select MC that I need to meet the minimum spending for, and I’d love to know whether I’m going to get hit with a cash advance if I buy any of these gift cards. Thanks for the help!
@Grant, I have the same exact card and I just ordered a gift card from them. I should know by the beginning to middle of next week if it posts as a purchase or CA. I can tell you that the initial account funding posted as a purchase which is good. However I am a little anxious about the $500 GC I just ordered because it is classified in a different category than the initial funding was. I’ll let you know later next week.
@MilesMatt
Awesome, thanks for the help and info – hope it works for you/us!
I asked the Ag Fed customer service people if one can buy Visa gift cards with an American Express card. They said “yes.” After joining the credit union, I found out that the representative did not know what was the truth. One can only buy the Visa gift cards with another Visa or Mastercard.
-Tom
http://faithsaves.net
@Grant, good news, the $500 VGC went through as a purchase using Citi AA card! I just ordered another one. I believe we are good to go.
What is the difference between these VGC vs giftcards.com? Any advantages?
thanks in advance
@MilesMatt
Awesome, thanks for testing it out!