My offer was 3,000 bonus miles after booking and flying a trip with a fare of at least $100. I looked at rebooking my one existing paid flight on United, but the fare difference was approximately $200; fortunately for me I’m not bad at math (or at least I’m conceited enough to think that I’m not bad at math).
– Buy in even multiples of $300 for a bigger percentage discount – Don’t forget American Express $20 monthly credits on Business Gold cards – Look for the Everywhere variety of cards which have different liquidation profiles – Try for multiple transactions back-to-back
You can double dip these if you do it and have multiple tax IDs by applying for one card, waiting 8 days, then applying for a second card. Don’t hit minimum spend until you have both cards in hand, and definitely don’t get more than three AA card bonuses in a year unless you want Toby to visit you in your sleep.
There’s an interesting $625 bonus stack for a SoFi Checking and Savings new account bonus requiring $5,000 in direct deposits within 45 days, and it requires the use of a referral link:
1st: $325 bonus from SoFi via referral 2nd: 45,050 MyPoints, worth approximately $300 (about 0.67 cents per point but can be more valuable with games)
The $325 bonus doesn’t exist without a referral link. I’d prefer you find a friend or other player’s referral link to use to maximize your payout, but you can email me for one if you can’t find another option. Yes, I’m extra. Note that the stack requires you to click the referral link first, then click the MyPoints link and apply through that tab. (Thanks to USCCS)
– Pepper has two processing backends, PayArc and Stripe – AmEx cards work if you have Pepper on PayArc, but not on Stripe – Merchant coding has changed from software to advertising on PayArc – Exceeding purchase limits is no longer obvious, and your account gets locked if you do – This isn’t new, but as a reminder, new Pepper accounts don’t see increased payout rates until (1) Pepper decides they should, or (2) they spend a lot of money in a short amount of time – Pervasive errors generating gift cards continue to be pervasive
The company’s plan to drop bonus payout rates “toward sustainability” happened last week, but this week’s publicized step-down hasn’t occurred as of this writing.
– Boosted 4x, 3x, and 2.5x earning will be capped at $10,000 spend monthly – Funds in brokerage, savings, or retirement accounts will no longer be eligible for boost – There are new exclusions to boosted spend including education, gift cards, bill payment services, and tax payments
You can still get the older, better version of this card through Sunday night, so consider going for it now if it’s been on your radar, and especially so if you don’t have an Altitude Reserve.
– High season redemptions all increase in cost, in the worst cases at 50% – One way award bookings will be supported – Round-the-world tickets will no longer be bookable
American Express Membership Rewards transfer to ANA but it’s not instant. If you want a round-the-world ticket, there’s still time for one last hurrah.
Pepper continues to push the market for many third party cards down, but brands that Pepper doesn’t sell like lululemon and brands that Pepper limits like BestBuy are currently good options.
– The Dell credit will be $150 annually, plus another $1,000 after $5,000 in spend at Dell – The Adobe credit will be $250 off of $600 in Adobe products
You can take advantage of the current credits before July 1 and still be eligible for the updated credits when they come. I’m personally disappointed that Dell isn’t gone so that I don’t have to think about it any more, but for people playing Dell buyer’s groups games, the new structure is probably better.
Zift Zillions cards earn 12x points at Giant, Martins, and Stop & Shop through Wednesday Thursday (Thanks to Eugene for the correction). Note that Giant Food stores are owned by the same conglomerate but are only paying 4x.
– $500 for bringing $5,000 and maintaining at least that between days 30 and 60 – $900 for bringing $25,000 and maintaining at least that between days 30 and 60
Both are interesting if you time it right, and holding $5,000 in a business checking account with US Bank is a great way to shake-loose credit card approvals. If you’re not in the US Bank footprint, opening a brokerage account or CD first will get you in the door.
– 9,000-11,000 for Mexico – 18,000 miles for Central America – 30,000 miles for South America
If you choose your route correctly, lie-flat business class cash upgrades can actually be quite reasonable and there’s no cancelation fee so you don’t have to slum it in the back if the cheap upgrade doesn’t materialize.
Happy Tuesday!
Eight cardboard computers at Dell will soon earn a $1,000 statement credit.
– Set a reminder to disable Pay over Time after 121 days to be eligible to be retargeted – If multiple cards are targeted, activate quick on all of them
What happens if you turn off Pay over Time before then? To the penalty box! (Maybe)
The offers available to the referred haven’t changed, but referring to a business card that you close quickly without hitting a sign-up bonus is one way to play the game. (Thanks to mra101485)
Kroger has fee-free virtual Visa and Mastercard $100 gift cards online with promo code NOFEEMADNESS through tonight, and these will earn Kroger fuel points too. This also marks the first time that I’ve seen Mastercards sold at Kroger.com since they transitioned from US Bank to BlackHawk Network for gift card fulfillment.
From at least 2017 through 2021, the Walmart mobile app had functionality for making bill payments from your phone through CheckFreePay, much like their in-store money center bill pay option. With the right gyrations it was a great from-home liquidation channel, supported plenty of volume, and in some cases even served as a liquidation channel of last resort.
In Spring 2021 though, Walmart updated the user interface framework and the interface for its mobile apps, and in the process killed bill pay functionality. But, technical users could install an old version of the app and keep access to bill payments. Those payments continued to work for months, and even worked better than before, probably due to decreased transaction load and volume.
Why bring this up today? Is this a timely post? Two answers:
No, it’s not timely because there are always games to play with older apps
Yes, it’s timely because there are always games to play with older apps
On most days since early 2024, the the Pepper platform offered bonus promotions on gift card purchases, and those bonuses crept up to the point of absurdity where Walmart, Delta, Home Depot, and other high value gift cards paid 30%. That all changed yesterday when a few things happened:
Tuesday morning bonus drops came hours later than normal
When they did come, payouts fell from 30x to 18-25x on the best bulk brands
In-app deal terms specified that even lower bonuses will be coming next week
They announced through multiple channels that lowered bonus payouts were permanent and that bonuses would be shrinking weekly until the business reached sustainability
Why did Pepper pivot? I think it’s been obvious since last year that these rates were unsustainable and that Pepper was losing money on every transaction (and oh yeah they just told us so), so a change was needed for the company to continue operating.
My most controversial blog post in terms of volume of discussion it produced was that based on how venture funding in big tech works, I guessed there was a 50/50 chance that Pepper would either run out of money or that they’d get new funding in March. I think the latter has probably happened and is exactly why we’re seeing all of these changes, and as a corollary I think that means that it’s probably as safe to use Pepper as most any other startup FinTech at this point. It’s also possible that it pivoted for an entirely unrelated reason, but I haven’t thought of another reason that lines up with the public and private data I have.
Regardless of why Pepper changed though, the fact that it did means that likely:
Bulk resale rates will creep back up as old, discounted inventory is sold
Floated coins in Pepper are probably safer than they were
People holding gift cards bought in the last couple of months can soon sell for big profits
Gift card resellers have a new post from a rando on the internet to debate repeatedly, and empirically, approximately 12 of those debaters won’t even bother to skim the article before debating
What’s my action, asked nobody? I hit Pepper coin-zero just last week after gradually drawing down my float, but I no longer feel like I need to be there. When resale rates return and deals are profitable, I’ll be playing the Pepper game like it was Summer 2024. I’m also buying some cards at the current bonus in anticipation of the bonus falling next week, and I expect I’ll be holding those cards for a while. Remember though, just because I’m doing something doesn’t mean you should do it too; in fact often it means you shouldn’t.
