Category: Portals

  1. Walmart is 6x in-store at Rakuten, up from 3x last week. The terms and conditions haven’t otherwise changed but I think the likelihood of cancellation for heavy hitters is higher at 6x than 3x because Rakuten seems to investigate high balance accounts.

    If you’re tech savvy and can isolate your digital footprint well, you can scale with multiple Rakuten accounts.
  2. With the end of the month approaching, don’t forget that you’ve got through Wednesday to:

    – Spend your AmEx Gold $10 dining credits
    – Spend your AmEx Business Platinum $10 wireless credits
    – Spend your Chase GoPuff $10 credits

    In my opinion, Shake Shack gift cards, T-Mobile credits, and in-store pickups are the best way respectively to maximize each of these three credits with a minimum amount of time and breakage.
  3. Staples has fee-free Visa gift cards in-store through Saturday, limit eight per transaction. As usual, try for back-to-back transactions if you’ve got the liquidation capacity to minimize your time spent in a dying, overpriced, one employee per 1,500 square foot, big-box office supply retailer.

    These are Metabank Pathward gift cards so have a liquidation plan ready before you buy enough to stand up as a fifth leg for your desk.
  4. Truist has a $400 personal checking account bonus through July 25 for opening a new account and having two direct deposits totaling $1,000 or more in the first 90 days. When signing up, use promo code TRUISTCHKQ223, and note that DoC says this is state limited; that’s not been my experience with Truist though (in general if you can’t sign up online, pretend you’re Lady Gaga).
  5. There’s a 30% transfer bonus for Membership Rewards to Virgin Atlantic through June 14. This program has some great sweet spots, but double check availability before transferring anything in. I don’t have any particular inside knowledge but I think a devaluation of this program is near.
  6. Dell is currently at 12x on Rakuten, so it’s a good time to try and cash out your American Express Business Platinum Dell $200 Q1/Q2 credit and have your order cancelled.

Pictured: Dave pretending to be Lady Gaga to get a Truist bonus. Little does he know they’ll lock his account for shenanigans in T-58 days.

  1. A few of the airline Cartera shopping portals have cumulative spend bonuses for purchases through May 15:

    – United: 2,000 bonus miles after $400 in spend
    – Alaska: 2,000 bonus miles after $400 in spend
    – AA: 2,000 bonus miles after $600 in spend

    Bonus AA miles don’t count as loyalty points, but the unbonused portal earnings do. United and Alaska have card linked in-store earning too, but the stores are largely trash for manufactured spend. Unfortunately, giftcards.com is still absent from airline portals.
  2. Office Depot/OfficeMax stores have $15 off of the purchase of $300 or more in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. Always experiment a bit here, but usually the games work better on the Visa side and the Mastercards are exactly as they seem. (Thanks to FM)
  3. FM notes that Air New Zealand is dumping business class award space for summer travel. This qualifies as an “ultra-rare” event but only because it just doesn’t happen that often, not because the product or service are stellar (both are perfectly cromulent though).

    Do remember that summer up here isn’t the same as summer down there and make sure you know what you’re getting into if you book something.

Happy Tuesday!

Stay alert! In New Zealand, winter penguins regularly cross the street to get to Office Depot Mastercard sales.

  1. Apparently everyone’s been in the know but me on the Bilt card’s unofficial sign-up bonus that’s been running for months: 5x for up to $12,500 in spend in the first five days after card activation for a total of 50,000 bonus points.

    The late news was enough to push me into an application after sitting on the side lines for years on this card. Application status, asked no one? Pending. (I wouldn’t be a blogger if I didn’t whine about trivial things occasionally right?)
  2. Kroger stores have a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards running through Tuesday, May 16. They’ve also got a 4x promotion on Friday only for all purchases excluding gift cards, but historically they’re bad at these.

    Fuel points account shutdowns seem to follow a sinusoidal pattern, and right now we’re near the bottom for smaller sized fuel points accounts for unknown reasons. Run with it while you can.
  3. Southwest’s shopping portal has a few new spend bonuses for cumulative portal spend through May 12:

    – 500 bonus points after $50 in spend
    – 1,000 bonus points after $150 in spend

    Unfortunately giftcards.com remains absent from airline shopping portals. I need one of you to call the Cartera CEO, who wants to volunteer?
  4. MyGiftCardsPlus, or MGCP as the brevity inclined call it, has 10% back on up to $1,000 in Delta gift cards and 10% back on up to $500 in airbnb gift cards through “while supplies last”, which I assume means until this afternoon.

    Side note, MyGiftCardsPlus is linked to UPromise, and despite popular opinion to the contrary, UPromise can deposit earnings directly to your checking account without being enrolled in college or getting involved in a 529 or similar plan.

A shirt with a catchy slogan for the brevity inclined.

  1. Staples is having a fee free sale on $200 Visa gift cards running Sunday through the following Saturday, limit eight per transaction. Don’t forget that the Mastercard version of this sale runs through tomorrow so you get exactly zero days off.

    These are Metabank Pathward gift cards, so have a liquidation plan in place.
  2. Simon’s online volume site has 100% off of shipping and processing fees on $4,000 or more in cards per order through May 1 with promo code MAY23FLASH100. You’ll still pay purchase fees of $3.95 per card.

    Most of these are Metabank Pathward gift cards, so have a liquidation plan in place.
  3. Delta has a rare shopping portal bonus for 500 bonus miles after $100 or more in cumulative spend through May 5. Dell or Saks are often good options in the absence of giftcards.com on airline shopping portals.
  4. A reminder: Kroger has a one day 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards running today only.

    A note: These one day sales seem to confuse Kroger IT, and there are indications that they continue to be confused. Always be probing.

Have a nice weekend!

A sample of what you might discover at Kroger.

  1. Two more airlines have joined the shopping portal bonus bandwagon for Easter(ish):

    – Alaska MileagePlan: Spend $100 by April 17 and earn 500 miles
    – United MileagePlus: Spend $100 by April 16 and earn 500 miles

    Still no giftcards.com, so Saks or Dell may be your best option for a quick mileage grab.
  2. The American Express Platinum card has an increased referral bonus for the referred:

    – 150,000 Membership Rewards after spending $6,000 in six months
    – $200 statement credit after spending at least $200 in the first three months

    Of course, the referrer should ideally refer from a personal Gold or similar for a bonus +5x at grocery on $25,000 in spend in addition to the referral bonus of 15,000-35,000 Membership Rewards.
  3. Now that ZIRP is a fading memory, earning reasonable interest rates on cash is much easier than it used to be and now largely available to any sized balance. There are now two banks that offer 5.02% savings rates nationwide and may be worth moving to as hub banks for manufactured spend (but not necessarily for money order deposits):

    – UFB Direct
    – CFG Bank

    Making one of these banks your hub could easily net you a few grand if you’ve got six figures on average flying around out there. Happy hunting! (Thanks to DDG)
  4. Office Depot / OfficeMax has $15 off of $300 or more in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. Good things have been known happen if you scale this one in the right way, and always remember:

    – Try for multiple transactions back-to-back
    – Link each of your cards to Dosh

    These are Pathward gift cards so have a liquidation plan in place.

Commemorative mug not included, but at 5.02% you can get yourself one.

  1. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard, an original MEAB Unsung Hero, now allows for points redemption to Visa e-gift cards at the same redemption rate as other gift cards, making this the new best points cash-out option and making the card even more valuable.
  2. Lowe’s has an in-store promotion for a $15 Lowe’s gift card with the purchase of a $200 Mastercard gift card. The Mastercards are Pathward and have an activation fee of $5.95 to $7.95 depending on the variety, and the resale rates on the Lowe’s card are between 82% and 84% making this a profitable deal without considering credit card rewards.

    There’s a limit of two per $15 Lowe’s cards per email address, but someone told me it’s possible to get more than one email address. I know, sounds weird right?
  3. Fake Points Travel Blogger notes that the Bilt credit card company (Bilt Technologies, Inc) is suing another company also named Bilt (technically BILT, Inc) over trademark infringement for a mobile app that’s existed longer than credit card company, and that lawsuit spawned a counter-suit. Also revealed in court filings is that since its inception, the credit card Bilt has made a total of $41.4 million in revenue through January of this year.

    The action item on this one? Start thinking up new names for the Bilt rewards program and share them around your circles. I can’t wait to hear what you come up with.
  4. Reader Kevin was the first to let me know that there’s good (?) news to go along with yesterday’s bad news that Walmart has $3.74 load fees BlueBird cards: You can now load BlueBird cards at Family Dollar fee-free, just like with Serve cards.
  5. You’d better sit down for this, because I think you’re going to be blown away, err, wait. The opposite actually:

    Staples will be selling fee free $200 Visa gift cards in-store starting Sunday and running through the following Saturday, limit eight per transaction. As usual, try for multiple transactions back-to-back to minimize the time spent in a 12,000 square foot store manned by two employees, one of whom is in the back room watching TikTok.
  6. American Express’s Delta co-brand cards have increased sign up bonuses:

    – Personal Gold: 75,000 SkyMiles after $2,000 spend in six months
    – Personal Platinum: 75,000 SkyMiles and 10,000 MQM after $5,000 spend in six months
    – Personal Reserve: 100,000 SkyMiles and 10,000 MQM after $5,000 spend in six months

    AmEx used their random number generator with these offers so if you don’t see them, switch browsers, go incognito, connect to a VPN, try mobile, yell at Richard Kerr between lawsuits, or something similar until you do see them. (Thanks to rep-swe)

Have a nice weekend!

The real surprise isn’t Staples, it’s what’s at the bottom of the slide.

  1. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard, an original MEAB Unsung Hero, now allows for points redemption to Visa e-gift cards at the same redemption rate as other gift cards, making this the new best points cash-out option and making the card even more valuable.
  2. Lowe’s has an in-store promotion for a $15 Lowe’s gift card with the purchase of a $200 Mastercard gift card. The Mastercards are Pathward and have an activation fee of $5.95 to $7.95 depending on the variety, and the resale rates on the Lowe’s card are between 82% and 84% making this a profitable deal without considering credit card rewards.

    There’s a limit of two per $15 Lowe’s cards per email address, but someone told me it’s possible to get more than one email address. I know, sounds weird right?
  3. Fake Points Travel Blogger notes that the Bilt credit card company (Bilt Technologies, Inc) is suing another company also named Bilt (technically BILT, Inc) over trademark infringement for a mobile app that’s existed longer than credit card company, and that lawsuit spawned a counter-suit. Also revealed in court filings is that since its inception, the credit card Bilt has made a total of $41.4 million in revenue through January of this year.

    The action item on this one? Start thinking up new names for the Bilt rewards program and share them around your circles. I can’t wait to hear what you come up with.
  4. Reader Kevin was the first to let me know that there’s good (?) news to go along with yesterday’s bad news that Walmart has $3.74 load fees BlueBird cards: You can now load BlueBird cards at Family Dollar fee-free, just like with Serve cards.
  5. You’d better sit down for this, because I think you’re going to be blown away, err, wait. The opposite actually:

    Staples will be selling fee free $200 Visa gift cards in-store starting Sunday and running through the following Saturday, limit eight per transaction. As usual, try for multiple transactions back-to-back to minimize the time spent in a 12,000 square foot store manned by two employees, one of whom is in the back room watching TikTok.
  6. American Express’s Delta co-brand cards have increased sign up bonuses:

    – Personal Gold: 75,000 SkyMiles after $2,000 spend in six months
    – Personal Platinum: 75,000 SkyMiles and 10,000 MQM after $5,000 spend in six months
    – Personal Reserve: 100,000 SkyMiles and 10,000 MQM after $5,000 spend in six months

    AmEx used their random number generator with these offers so if you don’t see them, switch browsers, go incognito, connect to a VPN, try mobile, yell at Richard Kerr between lawsuits, or something similar until you do see them. (Thanks to rep-swe)

Have a nice weekend!

The real surprise isn’t Staples, it’s what’s at the bottom of the slide.

  1. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard, an original MEAB Unsung Hero, now allows for points redemption to Visa e-gift cards at the same redemption rate as other gift cards, making this the new best points cash-out option and making the card even more valuable.
  2. Lowe’s has an in-store promotion for a $15 Lowe’s gift card with the purchase of a $200 Mastercard gift card. The Mastercards are Pathward and have an activation fee of $5.95 to $7.95 depending on the variety, and the resale rates on the Lowe’s card are between 82% and 84% making this a profitable deal without considering credit card rewards.

    There’s a limit of two per $15 Lowe’s cards per email address, but someone told me it’s possible to get more than one email address. I know, sounds weird right?
  3. Fake Points Travel Blogger notes that the Bilt credit card company (Bilt Technologies, Inc) is suing another company also named Bilt (technically BILT, Inc) over trademark infringement for a mobile app that’s existed longer than credit card company, and that lawsuit spawned a counter-suit. Also revealed in court filings is that since its inception, the credit card Bilt has made a total of $41.4 million in revenue through January of this year.

    The action item on this one? Start thinking up new names for the Bilt rewards program and share them around your circles. I can’t wait to hear what you come up with.
  4. Reader Kevin was the first to let me know that there’s good (?) news to go along with yesterday’s bad news that Walmart has $3.74 load fees BlueBird cards: You can now load BlueBird cards at Family Dollar fee-free, just like with Serve cards.
  5. You’d better sit down for this, because I think you’re going to be blown away, err, wait. The opposite actually:

    Staples will be selling fee free $200 Visa gift cards in-store starting Sunday and running through the following Saturday, limit eight per transaction. As usual, try for multiple transactions back-to-back to minimize the time spent in a 12,000 square foot store manned by two employees, one of whom is in the back room watching TikTok.
  6. American Express’s Delta co-brand cards have increased sign up bonuses:

    – Personal Gold: 75,000 SkyMiles after $2,000 spend in six months
    – Personal Platinum: 75,000 SkyMiles and 10,000 MQM after $5,000 spend in six months
    – Personal Reserve: 100,000 SkyMiles and 10,000 MQM after $5,000 spend in six months

    AmEx used their random number generator with these offers so if you don’t see them, switch browsers, go incognito, connect to a VPN, try mobile, yell at Richard Kerr between lawsuits, or something similar until you do see them. (Thanks to rep-swe)

Have a nice weekend!

The real surprise isn’t Staples, it’s what’s at the bottom of the slide.