Category: Guest

EDITOR’S NOTE: Today’s post is a Friday guest post in a short summer series running on Fridays while I’m traveling. Today’s author is irieriley, a manufactured spend gigachad who’s been featured on the blog multiple times in the past.

One of the most exciting parts of this hobby is the emergence of a new play. When you find something, especially if it’s particularly lucrative, it’s tempting to start scribbling some ballpark math on the back of a cocktail napkin. 

After all, you need to start planning what color of Lambo you’re going to buy when you hit this play every day to the deposit limit for the next year straight. There’s no way this play won’t last forever, right?

Unfortunately, nothing actually lasts forever in manufactured spend (MS) and plays die without warning. For example, a growth stage fintech that lets you make “kalls” on election results will quickly wonder why they are paying so much interchange (and how “debit cards only” didn’t actually apply) to users that aren’t profitable. 

Even archaic financial institutions founded in the 1800s will eventually have a Western region VP of accounting realize they’re absolutely hemorrhaging money.

Knowing that lucrative plays have a finite lifespan from the second they’re discovered, here’s my advice. Outside of very rare situations (i.e. causing a shutdown at Amex or your primary hub, and also, don’t break the law, for obvious reasons), you will regret not going hard on a target vs. pacing yourself, trying to keep it alive long-term. 

You may not be hitting it hard, but whales, miracle doctors, and their small army of players are, and you’re collateral damage. Make your money, accept the shutdown because you aren’t a profitable customer, and move on (hopefully with an increased balance that matches your napkin optimism).

I speak from experience on counting my chickens too early. 2 years ago, I did some napkin math on profit based on maximizing employee card slots across Amex charge cards for myself and P2, since we had been targeted for them a ton in the months preceding. Guess who has virtually never been targeted to add ECs since that exercise?

I ended up making more money that year than my napkin math suggested, through entirely different plays. And yes, those plays are all dead now, too. But as my P2 loves to say, “there always seems to be a new scheme around the corner when you’re sad about one dying”. Stay frosty, my friends.

– irieriley

Pictured: a whale opening the gullet to inhale 100k lbs of chicken, er, krill.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Today’s post is a Friday guest post in a short summer series running on Fridays while I’m traveling. Today’s author is the juxtaposition of a Prius mixed with an accounting Professor and generally needs no introduction but will get one anyway: Florian.

In the churning world expectation value (EV) and math are afterthoughts based on my experience in many semi-private groups.

There are a few things to remember:

Knowing your EV and return on investment (ROI) can help you better than going with your gut or your emotions, which both bring the dilemma “Should I risk getting  shutdown for this?”

For example, Synchrony doesn’t like it when one gamer goes on a cycling spree like a drone buzzing over its target, many do this, without further consideration. Let’s do  some math to illustrate the best outcome:

  • Assume your best game is buying espresso form JerrryBrothers with your Venmo for 3%
  • Assume you also buy espresso with other Synchrony cards that earn less
  • Assume you can earn more on the payment side, maybe 2%
  • If you spend $40,000 per month and earn a blended average of 3%, you’re earning $1,200 monthly

That’s $1,200 a month for the value of your Synchrony relationship. Assuming one spends month a year in Isle of Man, you’ll net 11 * $1,200 , or $13,200.

If you’re shut down though and it takes you 8 months to get back in, that’s about $9,600.

So, if your edge or game is worth losing $9,600 if it fails then go for it. Remember though, the less you know the more the risk, as you don’t know if and when you get back in.

There are many such games with similar analyses, especially like getting kicked out of Target world or Costco world which might upset P2. You can’t price this risk, you want the P2 happy, 

I guess the message is: Always probe like a bot on or not a bot, and knowing your EV and ROI helps you make better decisions.

– Florian

Pictured: The decoder ring used to translate today’s post from Florianish, which is a loose derivate of English, to English, which is the most unstructured language I know of.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a special guest post from irieriley, a churner who went from crawling to marathon long sprints in a short time.

In the world of manufactured spend and churning, it’s implied that there is a rigid structure of clearly defined rules that govern what you can and can’t do. Chase 5/24. Amex pop up jail. Don’t cycle Citi. Don’t cycle Synchrony*, etc. etc. etc.

A lot of this collective knowledge is sourced from smart folks that were willing to be the guinea pigs and push limits to understand exactly what those limits are.

But in the spirit of probing, you shouldn’t consider any of these rules as completely impossible to circumvent. I once cycled a Citi Double Cash 9 times back when I didn’t know it was an issue, and a large Citi balance was a prerequisite for a long, tedious afternoon of liquidation. I’m still alive years later, continued shenanigans and all. 

Now, I’m not saying to go throw in an application for the absolutely incredible Chase Sapphire Reserve Business™® if you’re way over 5/24, because it will be a waste of a hard pull. I’m just saying that historically, there’s been ways to get around these obstacles.

CoD streamers credit card bloggers ready to share the incredible CSR Biz news

Here are some common “rules” I’ve seen over the years that I wouldn’t hesitate to spend 5 seconds testing if I came across them:

  • No business cards
  • No Amex
  • Debit cards only
  • One deposit per day
  • Max $ deposit

Best case scenario, the rule doesn’t apply, and you make more money. Worst case scenario, the transaction doesn’t go through, and you proceed with your day. Medium case scenario, the rule doesn’t apply, but you get a terse email and need to get creative to keep your account open. The underlying systems and platforms that power our favorite banks, CUs and fintechs are just so finicky that you’ll never know until you try. 

While we’re on the subject of things not being what they seem, here’s some advice: In a lot of online communities, getting zero answers to a question you pose is likely a sign you asked a dumb question. But in this one, if your question is thoughtful and researched and nobody responds (or in my case, you are DMed to delete the question), you may be on to something. In this case, silence is deafening. 

– irieriley

*Ok, I will concede that not cycling Synchrony does seem to be sound advice.

A MSer continuing to enjoy the spoils of breaking the rules after realizing “debit cards only” did not apply in practice at his latest target

EDITOR’S NOTE: Some of the smartest members of the community have stepped up with guest posts during the holiday break in 2024 and now on Saturdays in early 2025. Special thanks to today’s author Jonathan, a second time guest poster, for taking the time to write an anecdote about characters encountered in manufactured spend. You can find his first article from last year here. Have a nice weekend!

Introduction

You know that inner debate we all have when driving home late: “Should I make another stop or just screw it and head home?” “It’s just 10 mins out of the way.” “But it’s late and I am tired.” “Yeah, but one stop is definitely worth it, and Sharalyn is there tonight.” Well, that night, I decided to make that stop. (Note: I’ve changed her name to Sharalyn to protect her anonymity—though I’m sure she wouldn’t care one bit. That’s just the kind of person she is.)

This was at my go-to Speedway for manufactured spend, the kind of place where you know the clerks’ schedules better than your own. I pulled up, expecting the usual, but noticed the door was locked during business hours. Strange. Then I spotted Sharalyn behind the counter, busy with something.

A Quick Backstory on Sharalyn: Sharalyn was one of my all-time favorite Speedway clerks. She’s the kind of person who doesn’t care at all what you do. She told me once she was 43, but honestly, she looked closer to 66—life has been hard on her, and her dental situation (4 teeth left) didn’t help. But still, she was a gem.

Anyway, I wasn’t about to let a locked door stop me. I went back to my truck and called the store. Sharalyn picked up:

Me: “Hey, Sharalyn, it’s Jonathan. Can I come in and do some gift cards?”
Shariee: “Ah, I’m having a bit of trouble right now… I $*!? my pants.”
Me:“Oh… well, that’s okay. It’ll just take a second.”
Shariee: “Alright, I’ll unlock the door.”

Now, at this point, I figured I’d walk in, see Sharalyn awkwardly holding her composure, and move on. I was surprised about what happened next.

No Pants, No Problem

As I walked up, true to her word, Sharalyn unlocked the door—wearing NO PANTS.
She had on a sweatshirt that was juuuuust long enough to make this a PG-13 situation. She went right back to the register while I grabbed my cards. Let’s just say the “Speedway” name was fitting.
I paused for a moment, feeling a mix of surprise and sympathy. “Sharalyn, do you want me to grab you a pair of pants or something?” I offered, genuinely concerned for her.

Meanwhile, another guy walked in behind me, froze mid-step, and said, “Wow… you know you’re not wearing any pants, right?”

Sharalyn, unfazed as ever, ignored him completely. I purchased my cards, gave her a nod of respect, and left.

The End of an Era

Unfortunately, that was the last time I saw Sharalyn. The store was closing, and apparently, she didn’t transfer to another location. I looked for her at many other speedways in the city. Wherever she is, I hope she’s still rocking that I-don’t-give-a-#%&$ attitude.

– Jonathan

Speedway: Where the receipts never stop printing, and neither does your safety paranoia.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Some of the smartest members of the community have stepped up with guest posts during the holiday break in 2024 and now on Saturdays in early 2025. Special thanks to today’s author Jim for his reinforcement of the gospel of SSB. Have a nice weekend!

I just finished reading MEAB’s annual mistake of letting the inmates run the asylum, and need to RAT (calm down, Amex MSers, just a phrase) out Slideshow Bob 223 and reveal his true identity:

Since he showed up around the time Ronald McDonald was no longer showing up in commercials, it is obvious that Ronald got axed, and, having no other marketable skills (like most MSers) got a “job” MSing.

Now, don’t get me wrong: most of what SlideshowRon223 said about MSers needing to avoid opening Citi and Chase bank accounts if they want to continue raking in the points, is right on target.
Especially the part where he warned that images of unemployed clowns trapped in rooms filled with rakes and annoyed at MSing P2s could be very disturbing. (At least that’s as best as I can remember, as Barbra sang in The Way We Were: “what’s too painful to remember we simply choose to  forget”.)

So, to get those disturbing images out of my mind (think: writing therapy) I wanted to amplify on Ron’s Slideshow on Citi and Chase.

Citi is not only, as Slideshow and the guy who is letting the inmates run the asylum (whose identity I will not mention) one of the worst cancerous lesions of unbridled American capitalism, but they are Shameless (very funny show, BTW) about it: After Citi told me I could open a bank account, deposit numerous money orders and it would all be good, and after I did what they specifically said was OK, they axed me. They took the position that it did not matter if they lied to me and then closed my account when I relied on their lie.

Their clause in the terms and conditions about letting them close accounts for any reason, permits them to close accounts because they do not like the nature of their money order deposits, the color of a clown’s hair, the color of a person’s skin, and let’s them lie about it to prospective customers.
Sounds like a job for …CFPB (Commission F*ed up Pretty Badly).

When I asked them for help, it turns out the CFPB is like the Wizard of Oz: a toothless figurehead hiding inside some really scarily impressive trappings. They were fine with letting a major bank (Citi) set the precedent that, as long as they had the close for any reason clause it would justify whatever other slimy actions they took.

Only good thing about the CFPB/Wizard of Oz experience is it helped me come up with a one word description of Citi: Wicked.

The few readers who have taken enough of your meds to still be reading this may be wondering: how did I know to ask Citi if they would axe me for depositing tons of similar looking  money orders?
That’s because Chase axed me (and several family members guilty by association) for that many years ago.

But since MEAB is supposed to include not just disjointed ramblings, and Citi Piti Parties, here’s an actual important MS PSA: even if you are on Chase’s Lubbock list, they take a little while to figure it out and axe your newly opened account.

My family has gotten ~10 opening bonuses for spending quickly, and qualifying for the opening bonus before the axe falls. In fact a Chase CSR  told me that as long as you qualify, they will give you the bonus even if they know they are going to axe you and have scheduled your final MS meal.

(Note: any Chase RAT people reading this do not need to track down the author and bar him from opening Chase accounts in the future: he was tragically crushed to death by large piles of unused Amex AU cards falling on him, after he submitted this post)

In any event, I likely could have and would have avoided these MS faceplants if I had shared intel with other MSers. The easiest way to do that is to join a insiders group, but for those that are too lazy, or can’t pass the mental health background check ( I’m talking to you, SlideshowRon 233), just find an informal group.

For extra bonus points you can share not only MS tips but pool your resources for mutual benefit, e.g. let MSer with incredibly profitable Kroger play who has maxed out CL use your CL and share the profits.

Two suggestions for informal groups: MEAB Matt (not just saying that to suck up to him so he will publish this post: he  really is good); and AA (does not stand for Awards Anonymous, he is a real person: not mentioning his name here but email me for contact info.)

Likewise, the previous inmate post asked if there is a better way to cash out Membership Rewards points than transferring to airline partners or Schwabbing.

There is and I can email it to you offline. Matt does not want it broadcast online, and even tho it is pretty clear he is not editing or reading these inmate posts, i thought I would err on the side of caution and not divulge it here.

Sideshow Bob as the wicked witch of the west Citi, as imagined by creepy AI.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Some of the smartest members of the community have stepped up with guest posts during the holiday break in 2024 and now on Saturdays in early 2025. Special thanks to today’s author who needs no introduction for following up on the Early Warning Service warning (under duress). Have a nice weekend!

Everyone loved my Early Warning System (EWS) post last year, and by everyone I mean at least 2-3 people, so Matt asked me to post a bit more on the topic. I said no, but he threatened that he’d force me to load more money into Juno if I didn’t so here comes my update.

Image of the conversation of MEAB threatening me

You’re thinking to yourself “SideShowBob233 what else do you have to add here” (and this time you didn’t say the 33 out loud but kind of trailed off like someone who just got his Pepper account locked by buying too much Best Buy). Well, I will tell you. In the most rambling way possible.

I advised everyone to use a business account if at all possible, but it turns out not all business accounts are excluded from EWS reporting. Several victims reached out to me to let me know that BOA biz checking for sole proprietors does report to EWS. I don’t know if that applies to all sole proprietors or only some (I don’t have a sole proprietor account at BOA because the voices told me not to). It’s possible that other banks also report biz checking for sole proprietors, feel free to reach out on Telegram, WhatsApp, passenger pigeon, or via telepathy to send me your DPs.

But Bob you’re saying (maybe you’re getting a little too familiar with me considering we only met once and that was in a dream, albeit one where there were no clothes) why should I care if all my transfers are tracked by EWS? Who really cares? Well I’ll tell you who cares. Your mom. Also bank compliance officers (which may or may not include your mom, I haven’t tracked her career since we broke up) who when they get nervous about shenanigans we just pulled will then grab your EWS report to try and get more info on you. If they can’t find much information they may still shut you down, but if they get a 500 page report showing tons of money going everywhere you can bet they will be shutting you down faster than you can yell for your mommy.

To summarize, don’t step on a rake, instead use a business checking that does not report to EWS.

– SideShowBob233

Your punishment for not listening to me last year.

EDITOR’S NOTE:Some of the smartest members of the community have stepped up with guest posts during the holiday break in 2024 and now on Saturdays in early 2025. Special thanks to today’s author mforch for reflections on the hobby. Have a nice weekend!

We are in a golden age of opportunity. We can gamble on the outcomes of a game, presidential election or digital money. New platforms pop up almost weekly, but the strategies that worked last year, last month, last week- don’t always work today. That’s the nature of the game designed to keep you chasing, not winning. But sometimes it isn’t about beating the game—it’s in learning to adapt, redefine, and turn what looks risky into the next big play.

Gambling to me isn’t about the game; it is The Game. Gambling has always been a tool. At the start, the game was simple: win. Win big, win often, and stay ahead of the curve and then hello millions (well, maybe more like thousands). But if you’ve been in the game long enough, you know that the rules change. Arbitrage opportunities disappear. Phone armies get found, fake mustaches no longer work and casinos no longer will taek us. The tricks that worked so well yesterday dry up overnight. But maybe, it’s not only about winning—it’s about not losing. It’s about figuring out a way to just be in the game where you have an edge. If you’re following me this far then high5! And while low margin plays may not sound sexy, that’s what built Vegas.

Here’s the dirty secret: casinos, loyalty programs, rewards schemes are all designed to encourage you to make sub optimal decisions. Maybe it’s redeeming points for gift cards or Amazon purchases, their game is praying on human nature to take the easy way out. But if you learn to harness some basic strategy—like leveraging venture capital to offset losses, using a credit card signup bonus to scale your points game, or simply figuring out how to play long enough without getting burned—you can flip the script.

This is where gambling and travel hacking converge. They’re both about understanding the system and finding leverage points. Sometimes, that means knowing how to lose strategically to set up a win. Sometimes, it’s as simple as knowing when the odds have flipped. Other times, it’s just 4x Entertainment. The tools may change, but the principles stay the same.

Knowing that their game is to take advantage of human nature, playing the long game is a superpower. Small edges can become large rewards over time with consistency. The people chasing flashy wins are the ones funding your business-class seats or your five-star hotel suite. And the people designing these systems know that 99.9% of people will never stop to think about how the game works. That’s what keeps the game going. But if you’re in the 0.1% of people who can adapt, scale, and stay ahead—you’re playing a different game entirely.

Ultimately, the goal isn’t just to win (well it kinda is). It’s to stay in the game long enough to see opportunities others miss. Long enough to realize that sometimes losing isn’t losing- fake money can be real money. As long as you’re still playing, you haven’t lost. What’s old is new again. Because here’s the thing: losing isn’t the opposite of winning.

– @mforch

More lessons on opposites.

EDITOR’S NOTE:Some of the smartest members of the community have stepped up with guest posts during the holiday break in 2024 and now on Saturdays in early 2025. Special thanks to today’s author, Graham from TC Tailwind, for his enumeration of failures in the hobby. Have a nice weekend!

Introduction

We are, almost as a rule, optimizers in this hobby. Optimizing is supposed to pay off (for some definition of “pay off”), but it doesn’t always. I’ve failed in a lot of interesting ways when optimizing, and I console myself in those failures by telling myself I’ve learned something from them. For your benefit –or at least entertainment– I’ll enumerate some of my failures, and the tactics that I’ve developed to avoid repeating them.

My Failures

Taking on more complexity than I could understand

As a Canadian student earning internship money in the US, I had a brilliant idea to stash that money in a TFSA (the Canadian equivalent of a Roth IRA). I was planning to (and did) return to the US to work full time, and I knew the US didn’t respect the tax free nature of TFSAs. But I was also smart, and knew that the US doesn’t charge you tax on your investments if you don’t sell them, so I figured I could safely stash the money there tax free until I returned to Canada eventually.

It turns out I wasn’t smart enough. I did not know that the US has a special designation for money you invest in passive investments outside the country, and that it applied to Canadian ETFs. Nor did I know that they had an extra special tax treatment for them. I also didn’t know they had a handy little 4 page form that you have to fill out per ETF you own, and which no tax software I know of supports. In the end, this little stunt saved me nothing, and cost two rounds for foreign exchange fees on the money, and burned through countless hours of my time across multiple years of tax filings.

My tactic to avoid repeating this failure is:

  • If you have a clever idea, validate it with some experts first: I could have saved a ton of pain if I’d talked to an accountant. The churning world doesn’t have certified professionals you can go to, and it isn’t exactly known for its openness, but I’ve always found folks in the chat groups I’m in to be willing to call bullshit on a bad plan. Turns out people like correcting you when you’re wrong on the internet, who knew?

Not considering the opportunity cost

When purchasing my house, I was very proud of how I used a 0% offer on a Chase Freedom Unlimited card and some credit limit transfers to get $43,000 loan for no cost. This was a fun act of financial engineering, and I calculated that it saved me about $654 in interest on a loan I’d taken against my assets. Putting that spend on my Chase Freedom, however, meant that I wasn’t using it to hit sign up bonuses. That $43,000 would have been enough for seven Chase Ink Cash/Unlimited sign up bonuses, at $750 each (or a mix of equivalently lucrative offers). That means I gave up a chance to make $5250, just to save $654.

My tactic to avoid repeating this failure is:

  • Consider the opportunity cost of your plan: Any time you undertake an optimization, think whether it precludes you from doing something else (especially if that’s something else you’d normally be doing, like I would have been in this case). Calculate the value of the alternative, and make sure it’s less than the value of your plan.

Being too early

I’ve always been the type of person to try and get things done early, and boy have I found a million ways in which that can burn you. Closing a credit card with lounge access? Of course I end up with a last minute flight and no other lounge options in that airport. Burning my Dell credits on something frivolous on Jan 1? Of course I end up needing a new router that I could have gotten for free with those credits. In each case, my desire to get things done early meant I gave up optionality that I could have used later.

My tactic to avoid repeating this failure is:

  • Wait until the last minute, if there’s no benefit to being early and little risk of losing the opportunity: Credit cards have well known annual fee refund rules. If a bank will refund your money 30 days after the fee posts, there’s no benefit to cancelling it the day the fee posts. Set a reminder for a few days before tha last possible day instead. Similarly, if you have an annual benefit you’re clearly entitled to, there’s no reason to blow it early on something you don’t want at the beginning of the year, when you might want it for something else later in the year.

    There are some huge caveats here. If something is too good to be true and might get nerfed, or it is less than above-board that might get patched, you should absolutely continue to get on that ASAP.

Not valuing my time

For a great take on this, which highly resonated with me, read Kai’s post from last year’s blogging vacation. For my concurring take, read on.

I love Doctor of Credit, and I was hooked on getting their deal alerts after I got a free phone out of one. But one day, I caught myself responding to one of those alerts by spending 10 minutes punching my personal information into a random website to get a free cookie dough bar. In retrospect, I view saving a dollar or two on a thing I didn’t even want as a failure (and it’s indicative of dozens of other micro-optimizations I’ve done, like the time I’ve wasted going through 1% back shopping portals on ~$20 purchases).

My tactics to avoid repeating this failure are:

  • Set a minimum dollar value on your time: I have a hard $200 / hour rule for my time now. Obviously I don’t spend every hour focused on making / saving money, but if I’m doing something to make / save money, it better meet that bar.
  • Remember free can still be too expensive: Just because something is free, doesn’t mean it’s worth taking. There are extra costs in terms of time, the environment, your health, etc., even on free items. If you don’t actually want it, don’t waste your time on it.

Not valuing my comfort

I recently flew home from Tanzania, and booked the cheapest business class ticket that I could using points. The problem? It involved an awkward 6 hour overnight stay at Cairo airport (a completely wonderful airport with no faults at all). Even finding a soft place to hole up in a lounge, I barely slept and I was a miserable traveller for the rest of my trip. In retrospect, not paying the extra ~50k points for a better flight was a failure to value my comfort appropriately.

My tactic to avoid repeating this failure is:

  • Set hard rules for your comfort: I can’t put a dollar value on comfort as easily as I can on time, so instead I make strict rules for myself. I already had a hard line that I don’t do red eyes in economy. Now I have a new rule that I don’t do overnights in an airport. These hard and fast rules help me feel mentally compelled to take the options that I know are better for me, even if they’re more expensive.

Want more content like this?

If you’re interested in content like this, check out my blog. There’s a subscribe box at the bottom of every page, if you’re interested in seeing new posts as they come out. And if you think I’ve missed something, gotten something wrong, or should write future posts on a particular topic, please drop me a line.

– Graham

Other fails in no particular order.