Category: MS Hints

In manufactured spend, churning, or practically any other walk of life, there’s always someone going bigger or having more success than you.* You can take that information in multiple ways, but the most common reactions I see are some form of:

  • I need to try harder, my volume is tiny
  • I doubt it’s even possible to do that much volume

After those initial reactions though, consider:

  • If you’re earning enough to sustain your travel, spending, DoorDash credits, or streaming habits (I guess), then you’re golden
  • If you earn more points then you spend, the points left behind are worth exactly $0, so earning more doesn’t make even sense without learning liquidation via the churning black arts
  • Churning and manufactured spend is a hobby, but it’s also a form of work – your work-life balance needs aren’t the same as anyone else’s

So run your own race, and have a nice weekend friends!

* Yes yes, mathematically that’s a stupid statement, but as a physicist who believes in the power of the spherical cow, it’s close enough.

Close enough, right?

    1. Meijer stores have a coupon for $10 off of $150+ in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, and this seems to be the type of MPerks coupon that can be reclipped immediately after redemption.

      I’m not here to tell you what to do, but it doesn’t take a ton of action to make this a profitable trip to Meijerland if you’re not already in it. Meijer sells both Pathward and Sunrise gift cards.
    2. Staples online has fee-free $200 Visa gift cards online through Saturday, limit five in theory or four in practice, and in an unlikely twist these do actually code as office supply purchases.

      These are Pathward gift cards. (Thanks to Dave 37 for the MC → Visa correction)
    3. DoC shares a helpful note: Use any $200 American Express Platinum Fine Hotels and Resorts credits remaining before September 18, because the credit changes to $300 and resets after that date.

      You don’t need to stay by September 18 for the credit, you just need to book by September 18.
    4. Staples in-store has fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

      These are Pathward gift cards.
    5. The Barclays GM Business card has an increased sign-up bonus of 100,000 points after $5,000 spend in three months, and is a 3x everywhere earner. The points are, for the most part, only useful for new car purchases or paying for GM parts or service.

      There was a time where several churners churned their way to a new GM car, but that was in the before-Barclays times and the before-GM points crackdown times. In current times, you can find cards that earn 3%+ cash back everywhere with games, and you don’t have to spend that cash back on a GM car.
    6. Chase has a transfer partner updates:

      – 100% transfer bonus to IHG through September 4 (meh)
      – Ending relationship with Emirates Skywards on October 16 (meh)

      Ultimate Rewards are valuable for plenty of things, but both of these options aren’t on the high end of the spectrum.

    Happy Monday friends!

    The punk-churner Ultimate Rewards value chart illustrated.

    Generally, the quickest way to move cleared funds between deposit accounts in the US is via wire transfers. Churners often like wires because:

    • Limits are huge
    • Funds are guaranteed (they can’t bounce)
    • Fees are often minimal

    Wires have a dark side though: For the exact same reasons that they’re useful for a churner, they’re risky for a sending bank. Because of that risk banks often have fraud analysts look at your wire and your account activity before releasing funds, and if you play lots of manufactured spend related games, I’m guessing a fraud analyst won’t like what they see.

    I get a report at least monthly from someone who had a bank or credit union shutdown after sending a wire, so keep your activity, bank history, and profile in mind before sending one from an account you care about.

    Happy Tuesday!

    An analyst looks into an infamous churner’s deposit account.

    1. I don’t normally report on rumors unless they’re funny or actionable, and this one probably qualifies as both: The Chase Southwest Visa portfolio’s annual fees are probably increasing according to referral links and losing the annual $75 Southwest credits:

      – Plus: $69 → $99
      – Premier: $99 → $149
      – Priority: $149 → $229
      – Premier Business: $99 → $149
      – Performance Business: $199 → $299

      If you want one of these cards, I’d apply for it ASAP (obviously not via referral), unless the referral is worth more to you than the annual fee increase and lack of a $75 Southwest credit.
    2. Kroger stores have a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards on Friday only. Amazon gift cards are excluded and will still only earn 2x. Sometimes weird things happen with gebits on these sales too.

      Pepper at this point is probably dead forever, and the gift card resale market seems to have fully healed across all brands. Yes, there is a Pepper post-mortem post coming. When? Post this post, when they’re confirmed dead forever.

    Happy Thursday!

    Another actionable or funny rumor.

    1. I’m sure the rebooted Sapphire Reserve launch will be the noisiest in churning history, and I’m sure you can find a few dozen articles in literally less than a minute about why 200,000 points is the new black. The bonuses seem to be:

      – Personal: 100,000 Ultimate Rewards + $500 Chase Travel after $5,000 spend in three months
      – Business: 200,000 Ultimate Rewards after $30,000 spend in six months

      Let’s emphasize four points to help you wade through the impending onslaught of never-ending Sapphire Reserve crap:

      – Offers are probably available via referral from another player, no need to use a blog link
      – 100,000 Ultimate Rewards is nice, but 250,000 Membership Rewards is probably nicer
      – $30,000 spend for 200,000 in Ultimate Rewards isn’t actually a great return
      – Newly launched business cards often bypass 5/24

      Don’t let forced pseudo-urgency drive your decisions, be deliberate.
    2. Accor Live has registration open for double points on reservations booked by July 31 for stays through September 12, but only in the US, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Panama, and Brazil.
    3. Staples has fee-free Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

      These are Pathward gift cards.
    4. American Express offers has an offer for $100-$140 back on $350-$375+ spend at Marriott properties in North America through August 20.
    5. Gift of College cards are now sold at both Stop & Shop and Hannaford. Obviously this is useful if for college tuition expenses, but there are nuggets to be found in old school blogs too.

    Have a nice Monday friends!

    A 1920s vintage advertising blogger gets affiliate links.

    1. Do this now (if you hold a Chase Southwest card): Register for Southwest’s promotion for 10x points on up to $500 spend at Southwest through Sunday.

      In the post-Elliot Southwest universe, award ticket fees are your best gamer bet. (Thanks to Dave)
    2. Bank of America’s Spirit card has an increased sign-up bonus of 65,000 points and a $100 companion flight voucher after $1,000 spend in 90 days, and the annual fee is waived for the first year. Redemptions on Spirit are often in the 2,500 – 7,500 point range.

      Note that you’ll need a promo code, and reportedly 110662 works, though generally with these any six digit number starting with a ‘1’ also works. (Thanks to DoC)
    3. Kroger has a 4x fuel points sale on third party gift cards and fixed value Visa and Mastercards running through Tuesday, June 17. Amazon gift cards continue to be excluded.
    4. The Incomm sites are playing their Incomm tricks:

      – MasterCardGiftCard: Fee-free cards with promo DAD2025
      – VanillaGift: Fee-free cards with promo VGDAD25
      – TheGiftCardShop: *crickets*

      Science is still trying to determine what the reason for this promotion is. We may never know. We do however know that these cards work better than others for certain big box retailers, in certain circumstances with certain velocity limits.
    5. Citi ThankYou has Apple gift card redemptions at 10% off, and with $100 Apple gift cards reselling at 90%+ you’ve got a slight edge over a one cent per point cash-out.
    6. Chase Offers has an offer for 10% back on $250+ at Southwest up to $400 through July 2. Obviously this pairs nicely with today’s lead.

    Have a nice Thursday!

    If gaming Southwest was a fridge, it’d be like a bachelor fridge.

    1. Bank of America’s increased bonuses for the Customized Cash Rewards and Unlimited Cash Rewards cards is scheduled to start on June 1, but applications are occasionally already showing the enhanced bonus because BofA’s IT department has yet to discover a futuristic technology called “the calendar”. Anyhoodles, we’ve now seen what bonus cash-back will look like with Platinum Honors uplift with these offers:

      – Unlimited Cash gets an extra 0.5% cash back in the first year regardless of status
      – Customized Cash’s rewards are boosted based on status

      You know what they say though: IT that hasn’t mastered calendars probably hasn’t mastered boosted rewards either.
    2. The Citi AA Executive card has an increased offer of 100,000 miles after $10,000 spend in three months.

      When this card was introduced, you could open eight of them at the same time, hit the minimum spend, and cancel all before the annual fees hit. Those days are long gone from Citi, but not every bank is Citi.
    3. The Citi Rewards+ card, notable for its 10% rebate on redeemed ThankYou Points, will be converted to the no-annual fee Citi Strata card on July 20. The 10% rebate will either go away in July 19, 2025, or July 19, 2026 if you’ve held your card for less than a year so it’s time to redeem while the redeeming is good. The Citi Strata’s interesting bonus categories are:

      – 3x at grocery, transit, gas, and EV charging
      – 3x on a selectable category which is largely lame

      If you want the Strata card, you’ll be able to apply on July 20.
    4. Bank of America’s Alaska card’s bonus often bounces between 60,000 and 70,000 miles, and whenever it bounces there’s discussion. But, alaska75k.com has been around for a long time and continues to work. Can we stop talking about the other ones yet? [end micro rant]
    5. United is removing the Excursionist Perk and elite YBM upgrades from its MileagePlus program on August 21, and removing its upgrade award chart on November 24. But don’t worry, award redemption rates continue to outpace inflation, so #winning?
    6. Kroger has fee-free Visa gift cards online through Tuesday with promo code CLASSOF2025. These will also earn fuel points.
    7. Stop & Shop, Giant Foods, and Martins earn 10x points on Zift Zillions cards through Thursday. Their little step brother Giant earns 4x over the same time. No, Giant Foods and Giant being the same company but different isn’t confusing, why would you think that?
    8. Blit Rewards added Qatar Airways as a transfer partner at a 1:1 ratio (Or according to their poor layout on the “Participating Loyalty Partners” page, it’s actually a -1:1 ratio).

    MEAB factoid of the day: The Toyota Blit can transfer you to your Qatar flight, completing the circle of award life.

    1. Kroger has a 4x fuel points sale on third party gift cards other than Amazon starting tomorrow and running through Monday evening.

      And with Target resale rates recently returning to 91%+, I think it’s safe to say the major brand bulk gift card reselling market has healed from its Pepper burns.
    2. Blit Rewards* cut earnings on rent payments made with a credit card to 0.5x.
    3. Bluebird and Serve will be shutting down in June 2026, which gives you *checks notes* a full year to finish abusing them, ideally with five per social security number.
    4. Citi ThankYou’s reduced value cash-out for Strata Premier cardholders won’t affect those with linked Rewards+ or Double Cash cards in their ThankYou Points accounts. To link your Premier and another card to the same ThankYou Point pool, call 800-842-6596.

      Note that linked cards can be unlinked in the future, but it does weird things to points held in your account and may inadvertently cause points expiration depending on your card portfolio. To be safe if you ever unlink, make sure every card has earned at least one point in the last 18 months.

    *The company gets too much undeserved press, so (1) I’m not linking them, and (2) quoting reader Jim’s sage advice “I don’t care what  the media says about me as long as they spell my name right.”

    Blit Reward’s company kitchen shopping list.