We’ll be quick today:

  1. Meijer has a $10 store gift card with $75+ in Happy gift cards through Saturday. This one is limit one per coupon, but you can re-clip the coupon after each purchase. A favorite technique with these gift cards is to use a few of them to purchase something in the Meijer electronics department that you can ship to a buyer’s club.
  2. AA’s portal has 1,000 bonus miles for installing their browser toolbar and spending $25 through the AA portal and toolbar by Halloween, provided you’ve never gotten an AA shopping toolbar bonus in the past. You’re supposed to keep the extension installed for 30 days too, so either set a reminder in your phone, create a new browser profile that you use for the bonus and then never use again, or be offline when you uninstall the extension. (Thanks to GC Galore)
  3. Simon.com/volume has 50% off of purchase fees of Visa and Mastercard gift cards using promo code OCT22SAVE50. Note that most of these are Metabank gift cards.

Have a nice Monday!

Example high demand buyer’s club item at Meijer, maybe?

  1. Bank of America has a promotion on Saturday, November 5 for an extra 2% back or 2x bonus miles on all non-cash advance purchases, which really means any normal spend or normal manufactured spend. In preparation:

    – Open another round of Bank of America cards as soon as possible
    – Make sure your credit lines are paid off by November 3rd
    – Set aside time on November 5th to maximize your earnings
    – Bypass the Preferred Rewards 90 day waiting period by opening a business account in branch and asking to be part of the program

    And some related but general advice prosthelytized by Sam and Robert at Milenomics: You should always be ready with a basic game plan for when a big event like this lands so you can spring into action.

  2. Giftcards.com is back up to 8% cashback on the mobile Capital One Shopping portal. Just watch out for the $2,000 gotcha.
  3. Kroger online has $10 off of $150 or more in Visa or Mastercard gift cards through Tuesday
    with promo code OCT2022, and you’ll earn fuel points to boot. While Kroger offers better cards in-store, the online variety is Metabank. (Thanks to GC Galore)
  4. Shop n’ Save stores have $10 off of $100 in Visa or Mastercard gift cards through Wednesday, limit five per account. These are also Metabanks. (Thanks again to GC Galore)

I can’t argue that this isn’t a plan, but it’s not exactly what I had in mind.

  1. The current Staples fee free $200 Visa gift cards promotion that was set to expire over the weekend has been extended through Saturday of this week, and the limit is still eight. The cards are also still Metabank, so have a liquidation plan in place and note that there are from home and in-person liquidation plays that work.
  2. There’s a Chase offer for 20% back up to $50 at Quill.com, which is $250 in spend for those of you who can’t or won’t math. Quill.com sells Visa gift cards, though they’re still Metabank no matter how you math.
  3. Lowe’s is running a promotion for a $15 Lowe’s gift card with each $200 Mastercard gift card purchased through Wednesday (though it is limit of two per email address, but you have a few of those I’m guessing?) The resale rate on a $15 Lowe’s card is between 85% and 89%, so you’ll make a little more than $6 after the activation fee for each $200 gift card purchased. Alas, these are Metabanks too.
  4. The dying Morgan Stanley American Express Platinum card has a heightened sign-up bonus of 125,000 Membership Rewards after $6,000 in spend in six months. Remember, there are a few obvious and at least one non-obvious reasons that this card is interesting. Also, you can feel fake bougie when you throw down a Morgan Stanley embossed Platinum card.

    You can still be eligible to for this card by opening a Morgan Stanley Access Investing account and funding it with $5,000 with this backdoor application link.

  5. Check United MilePlay for a personalized promotional offer. For me, I got “Book and take a trip one time to get 2,500 bonus miles”, and in the fine print it says the trip must cost at least $300. So, big meh.
  1. According to an American Express Aspire Hilton credit card statement shared by Kyle (K), the COVID-era policy that Hilton Free Night Certificates are valid for any night, not just weekend nights, is now permanent.
  2. Office Depot OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Visa gift cards through Saturday. As usual:

    – Try for multiple transactions back-to-back to optimize your time
    – Link your credit cards to Dosh
    – Add a pen, paperclips, or some other item to your transaction for Dosh longevity
    – Buy the “Everywhere” cards for a lower fee and usually easier in-person liquidation

    These are Metabank gift cards, have a liquidation plan in place before buying a bunch. (Thanks to DoC)

  3. Staples has fee-free $200 Visa gift cards, limit eight per transaction. If you encounter staff that wants to limit you to fewer than eight, pull up the linked add and show them the bottom of page 9.
  4. Marriott is running a lame promotion through Thursday in classic Marriott fashion, and of course they’re also pushing it like it’s the best deal in travel. It’s largely forgettable, but some properties are offering discounts on cash bookings and others on award bookings, so double check anything you’ve got on the books for price drops. (Thanks to VFTW)
  5. IHG has an interesting fast track to elite status offer, registration required:

    – Stay two nights before December 23 for Gold status
    – Stay three more nights before December 31 for Platinum status

    This is very easy, low-hanging fruit for Platinum status, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to earn it either because, well, let’s say Holiday Inn Express.

Marriott’s special Oktoberfest promotional meal, also available through Thursday.

  1. Meijer has $10 off of $150 or more in Mastercard gift cards with a clipped digital coupon through Saturday. This one is limit one per account, but you do have multiple MPerks accounts if you live in the footprint, right?

    If you have a cheap way to liquidate these cards and a good earning rate on credit card spend at grocery, this could easily be worth a trip to Meijer land. (Thanks to GC Galore)

  2. SoFi and Swagbucks offers combine for a $475 sign up bonus with a $5,000 direct deposit in 25 days when signing up for a SoFi “Better Bank Account”. You should be able to knock this one out in under a week making it a nice bonus.

    For ideas on manufacturing a direct deposit, check out Episode 28 of The Daily Churn, or use a business bank account that lets you enter a memo on outgoing ACHs and set the memo to “Payroll”.

  3. TastyWorks was probably the easiest bank or brokerage bonus that I did in 2021 because the bonus posted two days after transferring in funds and was completely painless. For 2022, they have a new bonus with the referral code TIERED_2022:

    – $100 bonus with $5,000 in new funds
    – $500 bonus with $25,000 in new funds
    – $2,000 bonus with $100,000 in new funds

    Unfortunately for me, this offer is only valid if you’ve never funded a TastyWorks account in the past.

Good news for those with the Super 8 in Beloit, WI on their aspirational travel list: It’s only 15 minutes from a Meijer so you can knock out two birds with one stone.

  1. Do this now: Register for Southwest’s latest promotion for double tier points, and for award flights to count toward A-List and A-List Preferred status through November 20. As usual, you’ll still be flying Southwest so there’s that.
  2. Apparently not content to go more than two days without a fuel points promotion, Kroger has a new 4x fuel points bonus both in-store and online for Happy, Choice, and Giving Good cards through October 4:

    Online portal
    In-store coupon

    Most Krogers now carry physical St. Jude’s Giving Good cards which can be converted online to BestBuy, and there are also multiple options for converting to Home Depot. Fuel points resale rates have crept back up which can make these deals break-even or better before credit card rewards.

  3. Staples has fee free Visa $200 gift cards, limit 8 per transaction, starting Sunday and running through Saturday, October 1. Don’t forget to try for back-to-back transactions and to link your cards to obscure card-linked programs like Payce.

    These are Metabank cards, so have a liquidation plan in place before you buy a bunch of gift cards that turn into an unwieldy stack on your desk.

  4. Some American Express accounts have been producing Personal Platinum referral links with a sign-up bonus of 150,000 Membership Rewards after $6,000 spend in six months for several weeks. Reportedly more people are now targeted, so it’s worth checking again.

    The referrer will also get between 15,000 and 30,000 Membership Rewards on card approval, making this the best personal AmEx Platinum bonus that I’m aware of (unless you can take advantage of 10x points on $25,000 in restaurant spend and a 125,000 Membership Rewards bonus with the Resy Platinum card).

Reflecting on life after flying enough Southwest Award tickets to earn A-List Preferred.

  1. Do this now: Register for Q4’s 5x spend on rotating category cards at Chase and Discover.

    Chase’s Freedom and Freedom Flex, 5x at PayPal and Walmart
    Discover IT: 5% back at Amazon and on digital wallet purchases

    The US Bank Cash+ and Citi Dividend registration links haven’t yet updated for Q4.

  2. Do this now (too): Register for Cathay Pacific’s incoming mileage transfer bonus for mileage transfers from credit card flexible currencies through November 12. Registering gets you two things:

    – A 10% bonus on transfers of less than 30,000 miles, or 15% on larger transfers
    – Resets expiration on miles in your account earned prior to 2020

    In October 2021, there was an American Express Membership Rewards 20% transfer bonus to Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles. If that or something similar from Citi or Capital One appears I’ll be making a large transfer into the program. (Thanks to FM)

  3. Simon’s volume site has 65% off of purchase fees through tomorrow on both Visa and Mastercard gift cards using promo SUPER22SAVE65. These are Metabanks so have a liquidation plan, like, I don’t know, using one of the satellite registers at Walmart for something other than a money order.

A satellite cash register, I guess?

  1. There’s a new offer for turning your American Express Platinum and Business Platinum Clear credits into a $75 Uber voucher. In the past you’ve only needed a new email address to get these to work even if you already have Clear, and I assume this time is no different.
  2. Meijer has a promotion for $50 off of $500 in many third party gift card purchases. This is the less lucrative version of this offer versus a straight discount, but still generally very lucrative. Notable exclusions are Apple and Amazon, and worthwhile inclusions are BestBuy and Home Depot. (Thanks to GC Galore)
  3. There are multiple reports in the MEAB slack and elsewhere that Mastercards from MyPrepaidCenter have been fraudulently drained since late last week, likely from a site-hack based on the data-points and given that the site was offline for much of yesterday. If you have any of those cards, I’d suggest you drain them as soon as possible, or at minimum double check the balances. If you have cards that were compromised you should be able to dispute the charges and get your original balance back, but it’ll probably be a slog.
  4. Check your email for a targeted offer from Discover bank for $100 or $150 bonus for brining either $10,000 or $15,000 in deposits into the bank by the end of September, and maintaining an average balance of at least that much through the end of November. The terms and conditions are here. (Thanks to 5 via MEAB slack)

A scammer liquidating a gift card.