Category: MS Hints

There are a few easy manufactured spend deals kicking around this week. The first, an old familiar, is that you can still get fee free physical Visa Gift Cards at vanillagift.com using promo code FLASH2020. You’ll pay $8.95 for shipping, even if you order $10,000 worth of cards. These cards don’t work well at Walmart but they work well most everywhere else.

The second is that Staples is offering fee free $100 MasterCard Gift Cards, limit 2. These are sold by Staples directly, so use a Chase Ink card or an American Express Business Platinum with the +4x office supplies offer. Fun side note and a random hint: Staples shut me down in 2014 because they didn’t like me buying a couple hundred hard drives a week for two months. Fortunately for me and for people like me (you), you can always get yourself back online with address, phone, and/or name variations. Different checkout methods work too. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

Third, you can still get two Ting SIM cards for $0.99 each at Best Buy. I’ve been able to get an order in every few days. You can still parlay each of these into ~$100 at Visible.

And finally there’s a bit of bad news: apparently Walmart Money Order fees are going up from $0.88 to $1.00 today. Boo.

Actual photo of the Staples representative who shut me down for buying too many of their clearance hard drives.

A couple to take you into the weekend:

1. Use promo code GOTENJAN or GO15JAN for $10 off of $20 or $15 off of $25 at UberEats, respectively. Have you scaled up on burners yet?

2. I wrote a guest post at Milenomics on the major US carriers’ travel banks and their rules. MS Hint: It’s a good resource for what to do with the results of cashing out premium card travel credits.

Have a great weekend hackers!

A young adult woman wearing a pink sun hat and a sundress slumped over a chair holding (presumably) a beer.
Not pictured: Grand weekend plans. Pictured: Actual weekend.

Are you participating in reselling or in buyer’s groups? I could write a book on the former after years of playing and scaling that game; but first I’d have to recover from my mental battle damage and figure out how to restate some of my feelings in a less hostile way, because it actually can be a very good gig.

In case you are, Amazon is sending out offers for $100 off of $300 for creating an Amazon Business account. To get one:

  • Create a new personal account — I used the same information as my normal personal account, other than the email address.
  • Get identified by Amazon’s algorithms as a business buyer — Buy a few things over a few months that are clearly for resale (high value electronics, not normal household items)
  • Watch for en email with the subject “Get $100 off your first Amazon Business purchase”

I already had another personal and business account, so I believe you can churn this. It’s not an instant money maker, but after a couple of months you’ll probably be able to get $100 in your pocket for buyer’s group or resale activities. Just watch for falling fireball-laden mind bombs.

A wooden crate on fire
3D rendering of my memories of reselling.

What’s the first thing you think of when you think of Walgreens? If you said slightly smelly poorly-lit pharmacies with aisles full of stale clearance candy from the last major holiday and dubious ties to Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes, then you’re wrong. The right answer is of course the Walgreens Prepaid Debit card. Ok, so the card isn’t available yet, but may I suggest that you put in on your radar and sign up for it the day it is?

MS Hint: There are a few prepaid debit cards out there that let you play shenanigans to fund them, an obvious example being BlueBird. But, there are others that aren’t as well known too. Look for them and see what you can do. This Walgreens one is likely to be a great tool for manufactured spend.

A picture of christmas candy with "50% off" signs at a Walgreens.
This is probably the most directly topical picture I’ve ever put in a post. I’m not sure how I feel about it.

1. The AA and UA shopping portals are running bonus mile promotions through January 19:

Usually I’d buy Visa or MasterCard Gift Cards from GiftCards.com to hit these bonuses, but they’re kinda small right now so just keep the bonuses in mind for everything else you’re doing. For example, if you’re using buyer’s groups, these could work for Dell or BestBuy. Hint: There is a play at Sam’s club that should work for these too.

2. Discover is offering a $10 statement credit for paying your phone bill 3 times, (I paid $1.00, $1.01, and $1.02, all back to back). It may be targeted, check for an email with the subject “Earn a $10 statement credit for paying your phone bill” or “Don’t forget your $10 statement credit offer”.

3. If you have any international travel coming up in the next couple of months, call a clinic or hospital in the foreign country you’ll be in and get a COVID-19 test scheduled now. As of January 26, the US will require that you have a negative test within 72 hours to reenter the country, citizens included and if you don’t book soon, you may not be able to get an appointment.

A football player in a red uniform counting to 3.
I think we got 3 today, right? Honestly, #3 felt over-covered in the blogosphere, but it’s important enough that it bears mentioning here so you don’t get trapped while trying to get home.

[Update: AmEx fixed this.] American Express Business Platinum cards get $100 in credits to spend at Dell every 6 months, but right now they seem to be reimbursing at the 2020-MVI rate of $200 every 6 months. If you have one of these cards, I’d buy $200 in XBox GCs ($50 cards move the fastest) and sell at 83% instantly or sell at a higher rate if you wait a few days. Don’t forget to use a portal for extra cash back or for miles. Both “Dell Consumer” and “Dell Business” work for portal bonuses in my experience.

Check Amazon for 40% up to $40 savings off when you use Membership Rewards points at checkout, but only use 1 point, the redemption rate is terrible other than this offer. If you don’t have organic spend, buy a 3rd party gift card for later use or resale. BestBuy is my normal go-to but it won’t move at higher rates until next month so keep that in mind, or liquidate today at around 97.5%.

I wish $200 in Dell credits knocked my top-hat off.

The Barclay Arrival+ card used to award 2.2% on spend when points were redeemed for travel, and used to be an OK card mostly for that reason alone. They nerfed it a few years ago, but I slacked and redeemed outstanding points for the annual fee rather than closing it like I should have. Now, Barclay is helping procrastinators like me by allowing you to redeem your points to cover charges at gas and grocery stores, minimum $50. I’ll be doing that and closing the card ASAP, if you still have one — prolly do the same. Get the Citi DoubleCash as a no-fee, better alternative.

But more importantly, please internalize a tip that affiliate bloggers can’t write about: Call and ask for a retention offer on every premium card you have at least once a year. You’ll get one more often than not and often they can be quite large, like sign-up bonus large. The language I usually use is “I’m thinking of closing this card given its large annual fee, but before I make a decision, I was checking to see if there are any retention or spending offers available”.

My Barclays Arrival+ getting ready to leave the sea of my sock drawer.

Do this now: Register your Chase partner cards for bonus miles at grocery, gas, drug stores, and/or at Amazon.

These offers are per month, Jan, Feb, and Mar 2021. As per usual, Visa, Mastercard, or BestBuy gift cards are your best options for liquidation at Grocery and BestBuy at Amazon, if you don’t have the organic spend already happening.

Hyatt card:

  • 5x at Amazon
  • 3x at Grocery
  • Max $1,500 per month combined (hit Amazon first)

United card:

  • 5x at Gas, Grocery, and Drug Stores
  • Max $1,500 per month combined

IHG card:

  • 5x at Gas, Grocery, and Drug Stores
  • Max $1,500 per month combined

All three Avios cards:

  • 15,000 bonus Avios after $5,000 spend
  • One time spread over all 3 months

Marriott cards:

  • 5x at Gas, Grocery, and Drug Stores
  • Max $1,500 per month combined
The Chase “bonus matrix”, presented with my apologies for being that kind of nerd.