Category: MS Hints

  1. The Capital One Venture Visa card has an increased sign-up bonus of 100,000 miles and a $250 travel credit through Capital One Travel after $5,000 spend in three months, but only via referral. (Thanks to DDG)
  2. American Express has been somewhat quietly shutting down certain churners for a little over a week. Major blogs have started to post stories, but none seem to have any deeper info so I guess it’s up to me to assuage some fears and summarize. Based on 34 data points (so take this with a √34 grain of salt) there are probably three types of shutdowns:

    – Buyers group shenanigans, but not the kind of buyers group that you’re probably thinking
    – Multiple large payments made from an account with a completely different name, even going back as far as 2019
    – Having the same or nearly the same name as someone involved in the above (I have the least confidence in this reason, but it fits the data)

    Most of you won’t need to worry about this unless you were already aware of what’s going on. If you happen fall into the third type of shutdown because of random luck though, the good news is that American Express is only axing certain cards, not all of them.
  3. Southwest released details about its new tier benefits, fare bundles, and co-brand credit card benefits. The summary:

    – Flight credits are valid for between 6 and 12 months for voluntary cancelations
    – Cardholders and elites get free checked bags for themselves and up to eight companions
    – A-List Preferred gets free extra-legroom seats at booking, A-List at T-48
    – Companions inherit status and card benefits
    – Basic economy gets no advanced seating reservations and no changes

    My major complaint with flying Southwest in the past was the lack of assigned seating. They are addressing that issue, but are replacing it with a bunch of other issues so yay private equity. (Thanks to Brian M)
  4. Reader Vince had a guest post at Doctor of Credit about Franki, a card-linked rebate program for restaurants with discounts as high as 20% off. If you have a checklist of things to do when you get a new card, adding it to Franki could be another item.
  5. Kroger stores have a 4x fuel points promotion running on third party gift cards excluding Amazon and fixed value Visa and Mastercard gift cards through May 13. (Thanks to GCA)
  6. Emirates Skywards miles are going through a mid-life crisis:

    – There’s an unannounced (maybe unintentional) 25% bonus from Capital One
    – At the end of next month, Chase and American Express transfers will be offline through summerish
    – Last week they transfers from non-premium Citi cards were devalued

    If you believe the rumor mill, transfers going offline are caused by Emirates switching its backend loyalty program to a new platform and rebuilding integrations, but I have no extra knowledge to help confirm or deny the rumor.
  7. Incomm gift card sites have fee free gift cards for Mother’s Day running now through May 11:

    – TheGiftCardShop fee-free $100+ Visa gift cards with promo MOM25
    – MasterCardGiftCard fee-free $50+ Mastercard gift cards with promo MOM2025
    – VanillaGift fee-fee $50+ gift cards with promo VGMOM25

    Each of these sites has relatively liberal purchase limits once you’ve got a good account, and none of them earn points or count toward sign-up bonuses on first party American Express cards.

Emirates mid-life crisis convertible.

  1. Do this now (if you hold a Chase Hyatt personal card): Register for Hyatt’s 20x bonus points promotion at Under Canvas hotels and at ULUM Moab for stays through June 10. The 20x promotion caps out at 100,000 points.

    You’ll also earn 5x points plus any base spend status boost you have, so I’m surprised they’re not marketing this as 25x, but what do I know? Either way I appreciate the honesty.
  2. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card has new mid-month spend offers. We’ve seen:

    – 250,000 Shop Your Way points after $750+ in online spend
    – 325,000 Shop Your Way points after $1,000+ in online spend
    – $100 statement credit after $1,000+ in online spend

    Online gas doesn’t usually work for a lot of reasons, but otherwise this category is fairly wide open. (Thanks to irieriley, Michael)
  3. The Capital One Venture X Business charge card has a new tiered sign-up bonus:

    – 150,000 miles after $30,000 spend in three months
    – 200,000 miles after $200,000 spend in six months

    If you’re in your “sign-up bonuses are a big part of my earn” churning era, this likely isn’t worth your time. If you’re in the “sign-up bonuses barely move the needle” churning era, earning 3.75x on $200,000 spend is hard to beat.
  4. The Synchrony Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Mastercard is now accepting applications. The most important vitals:

    – 38,000 bonus miles after $3,000 spend in three months
    – $99 annual fee
    – 2x earn on dining, 3x on Cathay Pacific, and 1x otherwise

    Synchrony cards are often more valuable than they appear, maybe read deeper than the almost uniform negativity around this card in the space.
  5. The Hilton American Express NLL offers shared in the past continue to work:

    Aspire: 175,000 Hilton points after $6,000 spend in six months
    Surpass:130,000 Hilton points and a Free Night Certificate after $3,000 spend in six months
    Honors: 70,000 Hilton points and a Free Night Certificate after $2,000 spend in six months

    Why share again? They’re making the rounds in the community as though they were new, sometimes with the disclaimer that they’re modified or hacked leaks. People are wrong though, these are neither. They’re links from a US hotel’s captive WiFi page.
  6. David let me know that the AA eShopping portal added the following language limiting earning for Apple purchases for apparently your entire account life:

    Your rewards are subject to lifetime rewards limits of: (a) six (6) units per model in each of the following product categories: iPhone, Mac, iPad, Watch, Vision, Apple TV, and HomePod; (b) thirty-two (32) units of each of the following: AirTag 1-pack and AirTag accessories; (c) eight (8) AirTag 4-pack; and (d) ten (10) units of each of the following: AirPods and other eligible accessories. The lifetime rewards limit applies to any purchase you make from the Apple Store website and app. Rewards will not be issued once you exceed the lifetime rewards limit for a product.

    This change has spread to the other airline portals too, including the weirder ones like FlyingBlue and Virgin Atlantic. Likely each portal has its own lifetime limit, but that remains to be tested.
  7. American Express offers has an offer for $100 off of $500+ in spend at Delta, but flights have to be booked through American Express Travel. Fortunately this trick works on Delta too with slight tweaks.
  8. Breeze Airways has a sale for 40% off of base fares booked by tomorrow night for travel between April 30 and January 6, 2026 with promo code SMILE.

    There are a few blackout dates around major holidays, but the fact that this promotion runs all the way through next year gives us a good indication of fall and winter domestic travel demand.

A dapper churner reads deeper.

The Game

One of the most easily explainable and most accessible manufactured spend techniques is to prepay your taxes with a rewards card and get a refund for your prepayments as a check or ACH deposit after filing your return. Since today is tax day, that means that today’s your last day to make that work easily for your 2024 return and have still have a short window until your overpayment refund posts.

A few easy ways to do that along with limits per return:

  • Pay1040: 1.75% cost for most cards [2x]
  • ACI Payments: 1.85% cost for most cards [2x]
  • Plastiq: 2.9% + $1.49 [∞x, depending on Kirkland and Brooklyn’s moods]
  • Melio: 2.9% [∞x, but only for business payments]

If you see a higher transaction fee on Pay1040 or ACI using a business card, use PayPal for a reduced fee structure. Note that Plastiq and Melio payments take a few days to post to your tax account.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Generally nothing goes wrong, but there have been rare reported instances in the past of the IRS holding funds for overpayment refunds. These seem to be related to big scale that triggers an internal fraud warning. In the worst case, a whale once needed to get an IRS Taxpayer Advocate to help shake funds loose.

There also seems to be a periodic bug with American Express instant card numbers and tax payments not counting toward minimum spend without opening a case with American Express support. But I wouldn’t let that stop me from getting a new card and knocking out the spend in a single day.

Legal Crap

Obviously, I’m not a tax professional and I’m definitely not your tax professional, so don’t trust anything I say about any topic, ever.

Good luck!

Last week’s edition of “What could possibly go wrong?”

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.

  1. At least three Chase cards will have increased bonuses and possibly be retooled on Monday, with the retooled versions likely becoming available by referral around a week later.

    – Sapphire Preferred: 100,000 Ultimate Rewards after $5,000 spend in three months
    – United Explorer: 80,000 MileagePlus after $3,000 spend in three months, increased $150 annual fee
    – United Business: 150,000 MileagePlus miles, increased $150 annual fee, increased coupon-book credits

    Will the $95 Sapphire Preferred annual fee remain? It feels unlikely. Will the no annual fee ink card see an increased bonus of 90,000 Ultimate Rewards? It feels possible. What makes me say that? Chase’s tooling tends to work in groups. Do I understand that it’s annoying when someone writes repeated questions and then answers them? Yes. #sorrynotsorry
  2. The FBNO Amtrak Preferred Mastercard card has an increased sign-up bonus of 40,000 points after $2,000 spend in three months.

    These points are worth 2-3 cents each for travel on Amtrak. If you’re lucky maybe they’ll combine a hard pull for this card with a hard pull for a JAL card, useful especially because FBNO doesn’t mind a lot of spend on its cards. (Thanks to kingmaine)
  3. The Target RedCard flavors each have a sign-up bonus of $50 off of $50+ coupon at Target within the first 30 days. These cards are churnable, and if you don’t like talking to people you’ve got to wait about eight weeks in-between closing and reopening for auto-approval.

    There’s no credit pull for the debit or reloadable flavors of the card.
  4. Wyndham launched a new rewards debit card a few days ago that earns 0.5 points per dollar on general transactions, has a $6 monthly fee, a 2,500 point sign-up bonus with hurdles that make it not worth worrying about, and 7,500 bonus points annually. Wyndham points are worth more than Hilton or Marriott, but they’re still not usually worth much more than a penny each. I initially didn’t write about the card because this site’s goal isn’t to be an anthology of everything that happens in churning (there are other sites for that), and so I didn’t think it was worth my time or yours.

    But a few days of percolating have changed my opinion. The card is issued by Sunrise bank which is usually happy to give anyone an account, and it has a different BIN than other debit card BINs that have been blocked at some banks, credit unions, and bill pay services. I’ll be getting one to toy around with, but just because I’m doing something doesn’t mean you should do it too.

Happy Thursday!

Chase’s credit card bonus retooling machine.

  1. American Express has a newly targeted offer for 20,000 Membership Rewards for turning on Pay Over Time. You’ve got two shots:

    – Check the generic landing page for an offer on every charge card
    – Check this specific link for an offer on every charge card

    Make sure you set a reminder to turn off Pay Over Time in 121 days, and if you get the bonus offer on multiple charge cards, consider activating them in separate tabs as close together as possible. All of this is obviously because reasons.
  2. American Express Offers has new targeted offers for:

    – $50 back on $250+ at Grand Hyatt through April 15
    – $300 back on $2,000+ at Qatar through April 30
    – $150 back on $1,000+ at Emirates through April 30
    – $100 back on $500+ at Mandarin Oriental through May 6
    – $100 back on $400+ at SLS hotels through May 14
    – $200 back on $900+ at Four Seasons in the Americans and Europe through May 21
    – $40 back on $200+ at Ceasars though June 30

    Gamers gonna game.
  3. Meijer MPerks has a promotion for 50,000 bonus points with a $500 third party gift card purchase, limit 50,000 points per MPerks account. Obviously it’s impossible to have multiple MPerks accounts, right?

    In normal times there are plenty of brands that are well suited to this promotion, but in the current Pepper-pocolptic market, the workable brands are basically Apple and Lululemon.
  4. The Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card has an increased sign-up bonus of three 50,000 point free night certificates after $3,000 spend in three months, and the $95 annual fee is not waived in the first year. The main utility in this card is that it has an upgrade path to the Chase Ritz-Carlton card after one year; it’s definitely not found in three 50,000 point certificates which will work at a lower end US airport hotel if you’re lucky.

    The same offer will probably be available through referrals by the end of the week too, so check referrals before applying.

Happy Tuesday!

Sample US Airport hotel currently priced at 50,000 Bonvoy points nightly.

How about that sports ball yesterday, amirite? That was [awesome / awful] (choose one). Anyway:

  1. There’s a new link for getting a $75 Uber voucher with a new Clear sign-up bonus using promo code VDAY25, a promo code that’s clearly named for Veterans Day on the 25th. These promotions are effectively a way to turn a nearly worthless American Express $199 credit into a $75 credit that’s actually worth about $50.

    Even though the language says that enrolling at airport is required after registering online, that’s never been enforced prior and probably won’t be this time either, just ask your aunt, dog, or lampshade.
  2. There are two shopping portal bonuses for airline portals:

    – United MileagePlus Shopping: 500 bonus miles for $150+ spend through today
    – Alaska Mileage Plan Shopping: 500 bonus miles for $150+ spend through Friday

    Obviously you should hit these in a particular order, perhaps even with giftcards.com.
  3. The American Express Marriott Bonvoy business card has a heightened sign-up bonus of 125,000 points after $8,000 spend in six months. I prefer points only offers on this card to its low-cap free-night certificate bonus offers, but 125,000 Marriott points won’t even get a single night at some hotels so there’s that.
  4. British Airways has a 20% transfer bonus for incoming miles from Chase Ultimate Rewards through March 31. The bonus isn’t instant, expect it to take 24+ hours.

    Because Avios transfer freely between British Airways and other Avios airlines, this is really a transfer bonus for FinnAir, Qatar, Ibera, and Aer Lingus too.
  5. The Barclays Hawaiian credit card has a sign-up bonus of 70,000 bonus miles after making a single purchase and paying the $99 annual fee. You need to enter a random flight attendant code, like 001111 (which is binary for 15 because that’s how many people will find that joke funny).

    Because Hawaiian miles transfer freely to Alaska, this is really a great sign-up bonus for a Alaska miles. This product will turn into a pumpkin soon so it’s getting close to now or never.
  6. The American Express Delta Business cards have new heightened sign-up bonuses (the personal ones have been heightened since January 17):

    – Reserve Business: 110,000 SkyMiles after $12,000 spend in six months
    – Platinum Business: 100,000 SkyMiles after $8,000 spend in six months
    – Gold Business: 90,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months and a waived first year annual fee

    Each of these cards have Delta Stays credits, and since they’re business cards you’re not stuck with the same product for the first year due to the CARD act.
  7. American Express Offers has a targeted card-linked offer for a $60 statement credit on $300+ in spend at Hilton properties. Gamers gonna game in multiple ways.

Happy Monday!

Celebrating yesterday’s win.

  1. Do this now: Register for Best Western’s Q1 promotion for a $50 gift card after each two nights stayed, up to a whopping 2x$50.

    In what might be the lamest churn known to the community: You can book the Best Western Hollywood Plaza Inn for $76.80 with AAA or similar discounts, and 2*$76.80 =$153.60. That means you can churn $50 Best Western gift cards for only $153.60, and get two nights in a hotel that probably won’t kill you and two elite night credits too.
  2. Kroger stores have a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards other than Amazon, and on fixed value Visa and Mastercards through February 18.

    Pepper: (1) is still alive, (2) maybe got a bridge loan, and (3) continues to kill the bulk resale market for everything but BestBuy and lululemon.
  3. Meijer MPerks has 50,000 MPerks Points with the purchase of most $500 third party gift cards including BestBuy and Apple through February 15, limit 50,000 points per account.

    Marrying MPerks and buyer’s groups are an occasionally profitable way to cash out mPerks Points on something other than paper towels. (Thanks to GCA)
  4. Southwest will extend their schedule tomorrow morning for flights between October 2 and November 1. Southwest expert Brian M predicts that flights around this window are highly likely to have substantial schedule changes, so gamers will game (but only starting tomorrow).
  5. Turkish Airlines has two February promotions:

    – 50% rebate on mileage bookings in all cabins for two passengers traveling by February 23
    – 15% off of paid flights for card holders with code USCARD15 booked this month for travel by the end of April

    If you don’t already have the credit card, it’s probably not worth your time, just get a Citi Double Cash and Strata Premier instead for much better earning, especially when paired with a Rewards+ for its 10% redemption rebate.
  6. FlyingBlue’s February promo rewards include the following US cities for travel through July 31:

    – New York
    – Denver
    – Houston
    – Raleigh/Durham
    – Boston

    Prices are 18,500 miles in economy with good availability, or 60,000 miles in business with better than normal (but still not good) availability.

Happy Wednesday!

Best Western Hollywood Plaza warning: The Front desk doesn’t know random facts about an airport over 15 miles from the property. Imagine!