Category: MS Hints

AAA, your favorite legacy roadside assistance company, has teamed up with your favorite legacy big box electronic store because… well, because reasons. The pairing is offering you BestBuy gift cards at 95% of face value at participating AAA locations. You can pay with a credit card, and purchase limits are high ($10k+), though your mileage may vary. The promotion runs until December 24. Reportedly at least one location is asking you to use a AAA credit card, but I think that’s also YMMV.

Be aware that there was a Black Friday BBY gift card secondary market liquidity crisis, though the market has recovered and you can again sell BBY gift cards at 98-100% of face value with reputable brokers, or above face value if you’ve nurtured a relationship with a buyer.

Next up, NYPD partners with BestBuy to sell discounted HDMI cables at NYPD precincts.

On Saturday and Sunday, Target Gift Cards are 10% off, limit $500. The limit is per account if buying e-gift cards, or per transaction for in-store physical gift cards. You can buy these at self checkout too, where the number of transactions is limited only by your level of self-consciousness and by how much you care about those waiting in line behind you. Unlike previous years though, you have to clip a one time use coupon in Target Circle. What does that mean? Burner account time.

The miles and points angle? You get credit card spend, and you can sell these for above break even for most of the year. Historically, rates have dipped in December and January as a glut of supply hits the market so plan on holding for a couple of months if that’s your game. Don’t forget that target.com is a Discover 5% cash back category in Q4, bringing your total discount to 15%.

Levels of this deal:
0: Save on stuff you’re going to by anyway (use the card yourself)
1: Sell the card at 90% of face (break even + CC spend)
2: Sell the card at above 90% of face (profit + CC spend)
3: Buy a higher spot-rate gift card with your target gift card (more profit + CC spend)
4: Organize a hostile corporate takeover of Target using discounted gift cards (own a Fortune 500 company + CC spend)

A stand up circular target for bow & arrow practice, with arrows scattered on the ground and stand but none hitting the target surface.
Hitting the target deal perfectly

HSBC has been offering me $30/month for using my debit card and sending a few bill payments. It’s almost not worth my time other than I automated it through debbit (a free/OpenSource tool). If you’re slightly technical and can configure it, debbit lets you put recurring charges on a debit or credit card automatically, either fixed value or random within a range. I set it up months ago and use it for $0.50 Amazon reloads and $0.10 Xfinity payments. It works well for keeping dormant credit cards alive or for high interest bank accounts too.

I started using debbit for something else — SoFi has offered to “round up” transactions for a total of $50 between now and Christmas, and guess how you make that one almost trivial too? Yep.

My advice to you: Spend 15-30 minutes now and let the automation make you money now and going forward, but only if your technical level is at least at the writing excel formulas level.

Drinking bird in front of laptop
My automated spending setup on the beach.

For a more complete treatise, see this article at Independently Financed on Saverocity.