Introduction

The motivation for today’s post is ostensibly that the Bank of America Travel Rewards Visa has an increased $250 cash back or 25,000 points portal bonus when applying through Rakuten. That’s cool and all, but let’s talk about the darker side of maximizing credit card applications instead, because that’s funner.

Who Gets Paid?

When you apply for a credit card, there are generally up to three payouts from the bank after an approval:

  • Affiliate commission
  • Referral bonus
  • Sign-up bonus

It’s hard to get both a referral bonus and an affiliate commission on the same application, though gamers gonna game and it can be possible in certain cases. It’s also getting harder to get a referral bonus period (thanks Chase).

I think we have a good idea of how much sign-up bonuses and referral bonuses pay, but there’s a lack of transparency in affiliate link pay. It’s probably higher than you think though. Current payouts, for example, look like:

  • Low end: tens of dollars
  • Medium end: hundreds of dollars
  • High end: $1,000+

Yes, you read that right, there are high end cards that pay more than $1,000 in commission, and sometimes not even just a little more.

Maximizing Your Pay

Churners generally think of affiliate commission as something they’ll never earn, but it doesn’t have to be that way. The most obvious example is the one we led with: Rakuten effectively gives you a rebate on their commission. This is definitely the most public example, but seeking other affiliates may lead to much higher rebates on commission. Always be networking, and always be probing. Before anyone asks me, I refund 100% of the $0 affiliate I get for every credit card application, so 100% is the high bar to beat.

Good luck, and happy Wednesday!

A couple springs for a nice dinner with extra affiliate income.

  1. The Imprint Rakuten American Express card has a $200 or 20,000 Membership Rewards, or 20,000 Bilt Rewards sign-up bonus after $2,000 spend in 90 days depending on your Rakuten account. The heightened bonus ends today.

    Imprint American Express cards are useful for several reasons, not the least of which being that you probably shouldn’t be concerned about an Imprint shutdown so go wild.
  2. Citi ThankYou has a 25% transfer bonus to Leading Hotels of the World’s Leaders Club through September 19. The transfer bonus brings the ratio to 4:1, or exactly the same as the regular American Express transfer rate.

    David shared an interesting analysis of Leaders Club redemptions showing a post-tax value of generally 1.9 cents per Membership Reward transferred, or I guess now per ThankYou point transferred so it is worth paying attention.
  3. Staples online has fee-free $200 Visa virtual gift cards on sale, limit four per transaction and five total.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards and yes, there are liquidation methods, always be probing. (Thanks to DoC)
  4. Hy-Vee stores have $10 off of $150+ in Visa gift cards through Tuesday, limit one per transaction. It should be easy to figure out how to scale this one.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  5. American Express Offers has an offer for $200 off of $1,000 spend at Lufthansa group airlines booked through American Express Travel by October 31.

And yes, there wasn’t actually a Kroger FYI yesterday, oops; stand by for that one later. Also, happy Tuesday friends!

Instructions unclear; liquidating Hy-Vee gift card didn’t work.

  1. The AA World Elite Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus of 125,000 miles after $15,000 spend in five months, and it’s bringing along an increased $695 annual fee.

    Don’t worry though, there’s still bad news to go with the good news: AA devalued award prices recently so your increased sign-up bonus doesn’t go as far as it would have a few months ago. It’s not quite “heads I win, tails you lose” situation, but there are better ways to get at least 160,000 AA miles, unless you want lots of AA lounge cheese cubes I guess.
  2. Walmart and Sams Club started accepting Apple Pay today, at least at “select locations”. The non-select locations will have support by the end of the year.

    Always be probing.
  3. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Happy Monday!

More good news mixed with bad news.

  1. Accor ALL has 2x earning (or 3x for co-brand card holders) on European hotels booked by Sunday for two-night or longer stays Between September 7 and December 27, registration required.

    Accor’s fixed point value means a non-elite regularly earns 5% back in rewards, and last I checked 3*5% = 15% which is pretty good.
  2. Giftcards.com has two deals on $100 Visa gift cards:

    – Fee free with code FEEFREE, limit three
    – Free $10 Giftcards.com gift certificate with code HOTPERK

    These aren’t supposed to track on shopping portals, but often do anyway if you avoid the Cartera white labeled ones.
  3. Kroger stores have fee-free $150+ variable load Visas and Mastercards through Tuesday, limit one per Kroger account.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Air France / KLM FlyingBlue has a promotion for 10,000 bonus miles with any US originating economy fare booked in August for travel through January 31, 2027.

    In case you’re wondering, this isn’t enough to make up for yesterday’s devaluation.
  5. Alaska Airlines is launching seasonal service between Seattle and Paris, and between Seattle and Athens. Award availability will likely be great to start.
  6. Starlux started selling its COSMILE frequent flyer miles at four cents per mile, but only up to 150,000 miles annually per account. This is notable for discount access to Starlux First primarily.
  7. United has a status match for MileagePlus members in the “Chicago metro area” with reduced qualification requirements, specifically you have to one activating flight out of ORD which gives you 120 days of status, and then you qualify for the membership year with two more flights and earn sufficient PQP (pretty quirky points) from flying or credit card spend. (Thanks to FM)

Have a nice weekend!

Alaska’s 787-9 long-haul business class cabin, prolly.

  1. Air France / KLM FlyingBlue is devaluing mileage redemptions by introducing three fare classes for all cabins on September 8: Light, Standard, and Flex. Light means fewer or no checked bags, no refunds, seat assignments carry a fee, lounge access isn’t included. Standard is fairly close to the status quo, and Flex includes free changes and refunds. How is this a devaluation? Let’s look at low-level business class transatlantic award redemption costs:

    – Light: 60,000 miles
    – Standard: 75,000 miles
    – Flex: 110,000 miles

    So what you used to get for 60,000 miles will now cost you an extra +15,000 miles. It brings me absolutely no pleasure to report that I thought we’d see a devaluation when Tiffany Funk took over as the FlyingBlue leader. I also think we haven’t seen the last FlyingBlue devaluation in the coming year. Spend any FlyingBlue miles you have quickly.
  2. Kroger stores will have a 4x fuel points promotion Friday through Sunday on third party gift cards excluding Amazon and fuel retailer gift cards.

    Best Buy is still hard out there, but Best Buy also isn’t the only game in town.
  3. Meijer mPerks has a promotion for 10,000 points with $100+ in Mastercard gift cards through Tuesday, limit one per mPerks account.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Citi Merchant Offers has a card linked offer for $50 off of $400+ in JetBlue spend through September 30.
  5. Bilt added Equinox redemptions for its Itchy and Scratchy Cash for classes and spa sessions. The redemption amount is tied directly to your Bilt Status. There are also coupons for new Equinox memberships which are, uhh, something.

    Coming soon: An Equinox credit card. Source? I made it up, but watch for it anyway.

Happy Thursday!

Equinox personal training session, courtesy of Bilt.

A favorite past-time in the hobby seems to be to confuse the law with the terms and conditions of a card issuer, FinTech, website, bank, or other third party. So, let’s go over a couple of ironclad truths:

  • You can break the law and still be within the T&Cs
  • You can break the T&Cs and still be legal

To crib from Mike Ehrmantraut, I’ve known good churners who break the T&Cs, and I’ve known bad churners who comply with T&Cs. Something something about the law too.

Good luck out there!

I’ve also known churners that broke the banana bed terms and conditions.

One of the most surprising aspects of manufactured spend is the sheer number of people that send six-plus figures worth of goods, gift cards, precious metals, or other consideration to someone on the internet that they know only by a handle, and if they’re lucky, a first name. This works for two reasons:

  • Broker reputation
  • Effective communications in the community about reputation

In other words, you may only know a guy as “Michael“, but if a hundred other contacts that you trust have successfully done big business with Michael, then doing business with that guy is probably slightly less risky than a random Michael you met in downtown Portland.

Of course past performance doesn’t guarantee future gains and Michael may choose your shipment as his ticket to a new life in Argentina, a risk we’ll call counterparty risk. That’s not the only kind of risk though, in manufactured spend, we’re subject to:

  • counterparty risk
  • shutdown risk
  • credit risk
  • tax and audit risk
  • fraud risk
  • cybersecurity risk
  • clawback risk
  • operational risk
  • concentration risk
  • automation risk
  • MCC coding risk

… amongst other risks. A quick treatise on each will make you a better and safer manufactured spender, and we’ll have a semi-irregular post here about each in the upcoming (I have no idea how many) months. Stay tuned friends.

Oh, and so you don’t walk away feeling like you didn’t get anything out of today’s post:

Happy Tuesday!

Pictured: Michael

  1. The PenFed Pathfinder Visa is ending its $95 annual fee waiver for checking account holders on September 28. The card has been popular with churners even though ongoing spend is lame (even with its shenanigans) because points are worth about 0.85 cents for gift card redemptions, and those don’t even sell at face value. But, some churners had 10+ Pathfinder cards, why?

    There’s an annual $100 airline credit that works for effectively anything. That’s not going away, but soon you’ll be paying $95 for that $100 credit which sounds like a bad deal to me.
  2. CardPointers alerted the community that American Express Offers has finally implemented BEGIN; INSERT ...; COMMIT; in their code base, and as a result you’re no longer able to add the same offer to multiple cards.

    If you’re a CardPointers user, I’d look over those settings.
  3. The American Express Bonvoy Brilliant had another, mostly popup-free link surface. The heightened offer of 150,000 Bonvoy points and a $250 statement credit after $6,000 in spend in six months remains.
  4. Staples in store has fee-free $200 Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction. A good way to clock these is reader Ryan’s http://officesupplygiftcards.com/.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  5. American Express Offers has an offer for a $250 statement credit with $2,000+ spend on Delta Airlines booked through AmEx Travel by August 31.
  6. Aeroplan has an award sale for “up to 25%” off of points bookings on Air Canada metal for travel booked by tomorrow and flown between September 8 and June 30, 2027.
  7. Cathay Pacific has a promotion for 800 miles back on every 5,000 Asia Miles spend on award flights in economy and premium economy, booked by August 27, and flown between September 10 and December 10. Registration is required.

Happy Monday friends!

AmEx puts their new SQL skills to use against churners.