Bluebird App

The app is pretty simple and lacks most extras that other banking apps have available, with one exception. The main reason why I have kept this account for years was the Goals feature. It helped me put a specific amount of money away for things like bills and projects that I knew wouldn’t be touched when I used the card for other things, then I could pull it out again when it was time for payment. I could ensure that no fraudulent charge, delayed charge, or unaccounted for subscription payment would impact money I required for paying my rent, student loans, or medical bills on time. But recently they moved Goals from the main screen to a different submenu. Why??? It used to be so convenient, you could instantly see where everything was with one glance, no navigation necessary. It was like that for years and it’s still laid out the old way when using the browser version. I don’t know why they purposely made the mobile app in particular LESS user friendly. When I first saw the goals weren’t on the main screen anymore, I thought it was an error and had a moment of panic that my money was just…gone. It took a call to customer service to find out that it was just an app specific change and my money was still there and accessible. I’m relieved that they didn’t remove the feature entirely but this unnecessary change and the lack of communication about it left a bad taste in my mouth. I’ve since stopped using this as anything other than a backup debit card.

This is a beautiful and consumer-friendly product, with a fee structure so low it can be absolutely free if you observe the policies carefully. The serious problem is that customer support and service is thin to non-existent, depending on what issue you are having. For a financial product, this is completely unacceptable and irresponsible on the part of American Express, which is behind Bluebird. One current example: I have repeatedly tried to create a new subaccount for the past 48 hours. Every time, after I have provided all the information for the account and clicked “create subaccount,” it crashes and a message either blames (falsely) the error on the internet connection, or it says, “Oops! this is awkward. We’re experiencing some technical difficulties, please try again in a moment.” From experience, I know that the first tier of customer support, when I call the support number, will be all but useless - completely worthless, in fact - and asking to elevate the issue is hit-or-miss. Others who have reported the same issue say it can go on for months with no resolution. If you're willing to live with the limitations of having next to no support on this financial product, go for it. Clearly, American Express really doesn’t care much about Bluebird or, more to the point, Bluebird customers, or it would devote minimal support resources to it. In a nutshell, Bluebird is a potentially first-class product with second- or third-class customer service. So - buyer beware - don't use it as a primary banking or financial service, only as a backup, or a backup of a backup.

I’ve used this app for years and years - like long enough that I’ve had replacement cards show up in the mail because my previous was expiring soon. If the biometric login breaks because you get a new phone or whatever the cause - turn it off, log out, log back in and switch it back on.. fixes it; I had that issue when I went from fingerprint to Face ID. Never tried check cashing so I cannot speak on that. This service/app has been very good to me over the years, I recall one day that the app was down but they got it back up by the next day. I haven’t installed this newest version because.. well I just haven’t yet.. but whatever - I just updated it a week ago anyway. I will come back and edit this with all the normal rage you’d expect if it breaks when I do update. Never had an issue. Period. It tends to just work fine for me. Sorry you guys get so many bad reviews when I’ve used this app for a long while without any issues and have loved it - I don’t understand really.