Author: matt

OfficeDepot and OfficeMax (why are they different at all at this point? It’s the same company) are offering a few deals for holiday gifts manufactured spend:

  • Purchase $300 or more in MasterCard Gift Cards and get a $15 instant rebate between now and Saturday evening. The total cost will be $298.90 (1x$200 and 1x$100) for $300, or $398.90 for $400 (2x$200) worth of MasterCard gift cards.
  • Starting Sunday, purchase $300 or more in Visa Gift Cards and get another $15 rebate. This will last through the following Saturday evening. (Note: These numbers are correct today, but they may change the deal before Sunday. Double check.)

All of these deals are limited to one per transaction; friendly cashiers will let you do this multiple times spread across transactions. Of course, use a credit card like the Chase Ink Cash that bonuses at office supply stores to goose this deal. On the liquidation front, watch out for BHN issues purchasing money orders at Walmart.

What your Office Depot store will probably look like in the near future.

Only the first of these is new, but if you haven’t registered for the other two, you’re running out of time.

Yes, you can leverage these promos to get Globalist on the cheap* with Hyatt’s reduced elite thresholds for 2021. Incidentally, I’ve been a Diamond / Globalist because reasons for 7 years, and I would say that this is only worthwhile if you’d already be staying in Hyatts anyway for the next year or two, and definitely for more than 10-15 nights. Remember that Hyatt’s footprint is lackluster, and don’t let the bloggers talk you into status you don’t need. I certainly don’t need it and only get it because it’s ancillary to what I’m already doing. Always be your own elite.

Pictured: 1990s grade school student who grew up to be a Hyatt Globalist in 2020.

*punchline: Get the credit card and stay in a category 1 hotel for 10 nights on a stay starting in December and ending in January, then get the rebate for 25%, requiring a total 37,500 points for top tier status.

AAA, your favorite legacy roadside assistance company, has teamed up with your favorite legacy big box electronic store because… well, because reasons. The pairing is offering you BestBuy gift cards at 95% of face value at participating AAA locations. You can pay with a credit card, and purchase limits are high ($10k+), though your mileage may vary. The promotion runs until December 24. Reportedly at least one location is asking you to use a AAA credit card, but I think that’s also YMMV.

Be aware that there was a Black Friday BBY gift card secondary market liquidity crisis, though the market has recovered and you can again sell BBY gift cards at 98-100% of face value with reputable brokers, or above face value if you’ve nurtured a relationship with a buyer.

Next up, NYPD partners with BestBuy to sell discounted HDMI cables at NYPD precincts.

AirFrance / KLM Flying Blue is trying a little harder than normal right now, which is a welcome change from the status quo, also known as barely trying at all. Literally, barely at all.

First, there’s an AmEx transfer bonus of 30% bonus miles. This is useful when combined with Flying Blue’s rotating promo awards. It’s also useful for extending the expiration of pre-COVID transferred miles from AmEx by two years. (It doesn’t extend all miles, just partner earned miles. Again, they try barely at all.) By combining the two, you can find yourself going to Europe for under 50,000 Membership Rewards points in Business Class.

Second, they have a miles earning shopping portal that’s a lot better than it used to be, with some stores earning at competitive rates (always check cashbackmonitor.com though I don’t think they display Flying Blue earning rates). This will also extend some miles by two years, but not all miles. Did I mention that they barely try at all?

Air France airbus plane at a tenuous angle off of the runway.
Experience the luxury of Air France landings, soft like rest-stop toilet paper.

On Saturday and Sunday, Target Gift Cards are 10% off, limit $500. The limit is per account if buying e-gift cards, or per transaction for in-store physical gift cards. You can buy these at self checkout too, where the number of transactions is limited only by your level of self-consciousness and by how much you care about those waiting in line behind you. Unlike previous years though, you have to clip a one time use coupon in Target Circle. What does that mean? Burner account time.

The miles and points angle? You get credit card spend, and you can sell these for above break even for most of the year. Historically, rates have dipped in December and January as a glut of supply hits the market so plan on holding for a couple of months if that’s your game. Don’t forget that target.com is a Discover 5% cash back category in Q4, bringing your total discount to 15%.

Levels of this deal:
0: Save on stuff you’re going to by anyway (use the card yourself)
1: Sell the card at 90% of face (break even + CC spend)
2: Sell the card at above 90% of face (profit + CC spend)
3: Buy a higher spot-rate gift card with your target gift card (more profit + CC spend)
4: Organize a hostile corporate takeover of Target using discounted gift cards (own a Fortune 500 company + CC spend)

A stand up circular target for bow & arrow practice, with arrows scattered on the ground and stand but none hitting the target surface.
Hitting the target deal perfectly

HSBC has been offering me $30/month for using my debit card and sending a few bill payments. It’s almost not worth my time other than I automated it through debbit (a free/OpenSource tool). If you’re slightly technical and can configure it, debbit lets you put recurring charges on a debit or credit card automatically, either fixed value or random within a range. I set it up months ago and use it for $0.50 Amazon reloads and $0.10 Xfinity payments. It works well for keeping dormant credit cards alive or for high interest bank accounts too.

I started using debbit for something else — SoFi has offered to “round up” transactions for a total of $50 between now and Christmas, and guess how you make that one almost trivial too? Yep.

My advice to you: Spend 15-30 minutes now and let the automation make you money now and going forward, but only if your technical level is at least at the writing excel formulas level.

Drinking bird in front of laptop
My automated spending setup on the beach.

For a more complete treatise, see this article at Independently Financed on Saverocity.

AA is gifting all AAdvantage members something as long as you log in to your frequent flyer account between today and 12/16. (Shouldn’t that be an AAcount?) One day passes, upgrades, or extra miles are all possible. To get it, login, navigate to your account, then click promotions.

If you used referral offers for Citi AA cards that weren’t targeted for you, AA may have already given you your present. You’ll know if you can’t log in to your account to claim it, or because they sent you a nice “gift letter” earlier this year. Condolences if this description fits you.

A horse with a white and plaid face covering, covering the eyes, ears, and snout.
A gift-wrapped gift horse, or something.

It’s rare to see anyone talk about the Rakuten Visa, likely because it doesn’t pay bloggers a commission for pushing it on you. If you don’t have this card though, seriously consider getting it. Here’s why:

  • It earns Membership Rewards (if you do it right when you create your account)
  • It has no annual fee
  • It pays +3x for purchases when you start at the Rakuten shopping portal, above whatever the portal is paying
  • It’s from Synchrony bank, so it’s not taking up a Chase, AmEx, or Citi card slot

There is an asterisk or two to consider (giftcardmall.com and giftcards.com are excluded from the bonus 3x), but in general this card is a powerhouse for online spend. For example, yesterday the Rakuten portal was paying 10x for purchases at Sam’s Club. With the Rakuten card awarding an additional 3x by clicking through the portal, you were earning 13x for Sams. (And there were plenty of gift card deals at Sams that could be resold at or above cost, not including the insane MR earnings.)

If you don’t have a Rakuten account, get a referral from a friend. If you don’t have a friend with a Rakuten account, maybe use George’s at TravelBloggerBuzz. (He’s someone I respect and he won’t lead you astray.)

Buy.com logo
Buy.com was easy to pronounce and to remember, then Rakuten bought them and changed the name. Why? Really, why?