The REDcard seems to be creating a lot of confusion lately among Target employees. Apparently most of the confusion is coming from incompetent employees and even managers, which is not such a big surprise. There has been a few scattered reports of Target stores not allowing credit card loads for the REDcard or putting a $1000 limit per day, even though it is clearly stated in the terms and conditions that this is not the case. The problems seem to be mostly in the Northeast with the most complaints coming from a Target in Brooklyn, NY.
The Atlantic Terminal Target in question, is one of the most crowded in the country and luckily is only about a 20 minute drive away for me, without traffic. After hearing in the past about a new internal memo at this location, I headed there to check it out myself and try to load my REDcard with a credit card or AmEx gift cards that I purchased with that 2.25% topcashback deal.
I first went to a cashier. I tried to load just $200 with my credit card and there was no issue which came as a surprise since I was told during my last visit that credit card loads weren’t allowed anymore. After that I asked if I can do another load of $1000, which I planned to pay for with an AmEx GC. The cashier said that I would have to do that at CS since it was $1000 or more. I asked her to try it, but she said it was store policy.
I headed to CS and loaded without problems with my GC. I asked again if I could load some more with my CC but she said that credit cards are not allowed and I had already loaded the $1000 daily limit (although I had loaded $1200 in total). Obviously there’s zero consistency in their policy and complete chaos when it comes to the REDcard.
I told her that I had loaded $2000 a few weeks ago at another location when I purchased some furniture. She responded “they made a mistake, that’s the old rules”. I asked her politely if she could show me the new REDcard rules, and she provided a 8″x11″ piece of paper that was a memo about limits on GC purchases and had nothing to do with the REDcard. It was useless (and it would be stupid as well) to try and debate over that wild misinterpretation of the memo, so I thanked her for the information and left.
That did however, clear some of the doubts about the REDcard. It seems that there’s no imminent demise, but just incompetent Target employees and managers making up restrictions. For now, I’ll stick to a few other Target stores and I don’t expect to have problems for the foreseeable future.
Read about my previous visit there here
Read my REDcard review here
Let us know about your experiences with your REDcard!
