Category: Gift Cards

  1. The Citi AAdvantage Aviator Business card has an increased sign-up bonus of 75,000 AAdvantage miles after $5,000 spend in five months, and the annual fee is waived for the first year.

    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.
  2. Wells Fargo Deals has a card-linked offer for 10% back on $100+ at Hilton properties through May 16, limit $65 cash back.
  3. OfficeDepot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Mastercard purchases through tomorrow night and according to their press release, “this time it workie for realsies 🥺👉👈”. For best results, buy these in even multiples of $300.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  4. 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)

Have a nice weekend!

ODOM personified.

  1. A few quick Pepper updates:

    – 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.
  2. The Capital One Venture card has increased its bonus to 100,000 bonus miles after $5,000 spend in three months via referrals because it was jealous that Chase got six articles in 12 h at a prominent travel blog for its 100,000 point bonus. This referral offer was around in February too, but more are now targeted.

    The non-referral public offer is still 75,000 miles so ask around before applying. (Thanks to David)
  3. Alaska MileagePlan Shopping has a bonus of 500 miles after $100+ spent through the portal by April 18.

    Perhaps pair with this week’s rage, a Tory Burch American Express $50 off of $250 or $100 off of $500 offer?
  4. Apparently the RebatesMe has a $45 referral bonus after the referred spends $10, though I couldn’t find it on my accounts, possibly because I use them? (Thanks to MtM)

Happy Thursday!

In other news, water continues to be wet and the mountain on your water bottle is only for illustration.

  1. The US Bank Smartly Visa is changing on Monday:

    – 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.
  2. ANA will be devaluing on June 24. The changes:

    – 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.
  3. Alaska has a paid and award ticket sale, and the redemption values are great:

    – Mid-continental flights at 6,500 miles
    – Trans-continental flights at 9,000 miles
    – Mexico flights at 12,500 miles

    Travel is valid through June 17 and there are route specific blackout dates.
  4. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards starting today and running through April 22. Amazon gift cards are excluded.

    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.

A soon to be collectors item.

  1. The American Express Business Platinum’s Dell and Adobe credits are changing starting on July 1:

    – 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.
  2. 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.

    There’s a Citi Merchant offer for 5% back up to $30 at Stop & Shop too. (Thanks to GCA)
  3. The best and worst performing major US airlines as measured by the stock market have Q2 shopping portal bonuses:

    – AA eShopping: 500 miles after $200+ spend through April 14
    – United MileagePlus Shopping: 500 miles after $100+ spend through April 14

    An obvious choice is giftcards.com.
  4. Chase Offers has an offer for 5% back at giftcards.com, and it’s potentially available on multiple cards for the same cardholder too too. (Thanks to Carl)
  5. The Chase Sapphire Preferred 100,000 Ultimate Rewards bonus is now available via referrals.

  6. US Bank’s business checking bonus for Q2 is here using promo code Q2DIG25. For both tiers of bonus, you need to maintain a minimum balance and have five transactions within the first 60 days. Last time I knocked this out, I scheduled five $1 ACHs. The tiers:

    – $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.
  7. United has an economy award sale for co-brand card holders with travel booked by tomorrow night for flights to Latin America through September 30. One-way fares:

    – 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.

  1. American Express has targeted more accounts with a bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards for enabling Pay over Time on its charge cards. A few notes:

    – 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)
  2. American Express has a Q2 referrer bonus for 5x earning on up to $25,000 spend in travel and transit for three months in addition to the 15,000-35,000 Membership Rewards the referrer typically gets.

    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)
  3. 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.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  4. Chase’s Sapphire Reserve used to earn 10x points on all Lyft purchases, now that drops to 5x through September 30, 2027 which matches the earn on Inks and the Sapphire Preferred. There’s a new monthly credit of $10 towards Lyft rides for the Sapphire Reserve only through the same time period.
  5. As of today Fiji Airlines award tickets can be booked with AA AAdvantage miles joins oneWorld and uses AA as its currency for dynamic awards. On average, that probably means today is the best day for redemption availability, so I guess there’s no time like the present eh?

April Fool’s day is every day but April 1 at MEAB, so here’s a boring image as your feed cleanser for the rest of the day’s onslaught.

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

Have a nice Monday friends!

Throwbacks gonna throwback.

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
  • Pepper will probably have extra runway for new development and enhancements, like maybe launching its AI product that (1) somehow knows your favorite color and shoe size, (2) ????, and (3) profit
  • 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.

Pepper’s Spring form revealed to the world.

  1. There’s a great sign-up bonus for $1,000 statement credit after $5,000 in spend on one of the lamer named credit cards on the market, the AmaZing Business Credit Card. It’s available for residents of Arizona, California, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, or Texas.

    The card is a no-annual fee business Visa that earns 3x at office supplies, telecom, and networking, 2x in categories better served by other cards, and 1x everywhere else. The application process for the card looks streamlined but is actually archaic; that can be a good thing though, amirite?
  2. American Express Membership Week has enrollable offers for:

    – $75 back on $250+ at Curio, Canopy, Tapestry, Motto, Tempo, and Graduate Hilton properties in North America through May 15
    – $70 back on $350+ at Hertz within the US through April 30
    – $50 back on $200+ at Lowes online or in-store through March 31
    – $50 back on $250+ at Dell through August 15

    These work with faux-cardpointers too, and if you’re not seeing them remember the 100 offer rule. Also, here’s your periodic reminder that often these work more easily on third party American Express cards at AmEx Connect.
  3. Kroger stores have a 4x fuel points promotion starting tomorrow and running through April 1 on third party gift cards excluding Amazon.

    The best options for a bulk resale are still Apple and Lululemon, because Pepper blew everything else up for funsies.
  4. Citi ThankYou Points has a 25% transfer bonus to Avianca Lifemiles through April 12. Best uses:

    – ANA First to and from Japan
    – Lufthansa First to and from Europe
    – Mixed cabin shenanigans
    – Taking advantage of loose definitions of regions
    – Travel between Asia and Oceana

    There’s decent economy short-haul value too, I guess. But that’s definitely not funsies.