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Evolve Money to Charge 3% for Prepaid Debit and Gift Cards

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    Update:   Evolve Money has closed down.

    Beginning next week, you will pay a 3% fee If you use a prepaid debit or gift card to load your Evolve Money account.

    Evolve Money Will Start Charging a 3% Fee When You Use a Prepaid Debit or Gift Card to Pay Bills Like Your Car Insurance

    Keep reading to find out how these changes will affect you.  And I’ll remind you about the alternatives!

    Evolve Money to Charge 3% for Prepaid Debit and Gift Cards

    Link:   Evolve Money

    Evolve Money is an online bill payment service where you can pay bills with a credit card without a fee when you buy pin-enabled Visa and MasterCard gift cards with a credit card and then load them to your Evolve Money account.

    You can also use your Discover, Visa, and MasterCard to pay bills through Evolve Money, but you pay a 3% fee.

    But, starting next week, you’ll pay a 3% fee to use prepaid debit and gift cards to pay bills with Evolve Money.

    Here’s part of the email sent to Evolve Money users:

    Beginning next week, certain debit cards from smaller banks, as well as prepaid debit cards and gift cards will be subject to a 3 percent Bill Pay Fee on each payment.

    How These Changes Affect You

    Many folks buy Visa and MasterCard gift cards at gas stations, grocery stores, and office supply stores with cards that earn bonus points or cash back.  Because it’s a great way to meet minimum spending requirements.

    Then they load their Evolve Money account with those gift cards to pay bills that don’t ordinarily accept credit cards or that charge a fee for paying with credit.

    But now that Evolve Money will start charging a 3% fee to use gift cards, it does NOT make sense to continue to use Evolve Money.

    That’s because you’ll pay a fee to buy a Visa or MasterCard gift card AND a 3% fee to use the gift card on Evolve Money.

    For example, if you bought a $200 Visa gift card at an office supply store, you’ll pay a ~$7 fee for the gift card PLUS $6 to use it on Evolve Money.  It’s not worth it to me to pay ~$13 in fees!

    3% Fee to Use a Visa or MasterCard Gift Card? No Thank You!

    The Good News

    You have until the end of the week to continue using Visa and MasterCard gift cards on Evolve Money without a fee.

    Another option is to load those gift cards to your Bluebird card or Serve account.  So you can continue to earn bonus points and cash back and meet minimum spending.  Whew!

    There Are Alternatives to Evolve Money

    Bottom Line

    This is the last week you can load Visa and MasterCard gifts cards to your Evolve Money account for free.  That’s because Evolve Money will soon charge a 3% fee when you use prepaid debit and gift cards to load your account.

    Folks who buy Visa and MasterCard gift cards to earn bonus points, cash back, or meet minimum spending will have to change to Bluebird or Serve if they want to avoid paying the 3% fee on Evolve Money.

    How do you feel about the new changes? Will you still use Evolve Money?

    Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)