Never take those limits at face value. For over a month there’s been a profitable play with language similar to the above and the stated limits are actually stated suggestions. Keep in mind that experimenting could net you a few thousand dollars and just take a couple of minutes of your time. Remember ABP: Always Be Probing.
Am I being intentionally obtuse? Unfortunately yes and I apologize for not sharing more on this one right now, but we’ll give a recap at some point in the future to help find similar deals. Good luck!
A store as empty as the direct information in this post.
Unfortunately Plastiq continues to be running many real debit cards and several “debit” cards at the higher 2.85% credit card fee. If you have a real debit card that’s running at the credit card fee, I’d consider asking Plastiq to fix it in the hopes that everything else is also fixed.
Here are a few things to keep on your radar today:
If you want the new third generation iPhone SE for churning and resale, or just to have, there’s a good deal at Visible right now. (Additionally, cell phone churners should look for a targeted offer from Visible for a $25 Amazon gift card on top of the normal $20 off of a monthly payment for both the referrer and the referred in their email inbox.)
+ $5 first month payment (use a referral link, ideally one of your own) + $25 second month payment (join any Party Pay party) + $25 third month payment (thanks to Austin for nothing the third month is required for the Mastercard) + $429 for the iPhone SE 3 – $200 for a Mastercard gift card – $30 using a shopping portal
= $254 net cost (or $209 if you refer yourself and get the Amazon gift card)
Visible will automatically unlock the phone in 60 days, and the resale value will likely be around $400. In the mean time, you can use the phone number for all sorts of St. Patrick’s day hijinks, or maybe non St. Patrick’s day hijinks in a pinch.
Before we dive in today, a cautionary note: Plastiq has started charging higher fees for some payment types. If Plastiq is part of your arsenal, make sure you’re double-checking what’s being charged before you submit.
Now, let’s talk about a few happier topics to jump into the middle of the week:
Hyatt is having a “private sale” which is open to the “public”, yay marketing. They’re advertising it as 25% off of paid rates at “more than” 975 hotels, which to me means 976 hotels (again, yay marketing). To see the rates, use promo code PRIVATE, book by March 22, and stay in April or May.
Despite the snark there are a few good options so it’s worth checking any paid bookings you’ve got to see if you can lock in a lower rate. (Thanks to iheartpoints via the MEAB Slack)
Do this now:Register for Choice Hotels’ newest bonus offer for between 5,000 and 8,000 points after two stays by May 8. Despite my warranted misgivings about Econolodge there is value to be had in the Choice Hotels program, largely with stays in the Ascent Collection booked on points from Citi ThankYou Point transfers.
Coin season 2022 is starting tomorrow at the US Mint with the 2022 American Eagle Gold Proof Four-Coin Set (22EF). Right now the cost of the coin will be somewhere around $5,000, and commissions are likely to be in the $300 to $400 range. The play is to order a coin-set to your house and resell it to a dealer for more than it cost; typically you lock the price and commitment in before you order.
These are good manufactured spend opportunities, especially because you’re being paid approximately a small credit card bonus sized commission for your trouble. I’m not specifically endorsing any buyer, but the following are reputable and you may want to onboard with them today if you want to take part tomorrow:
– Amit’s Coin Buying Group (email or WhatsApp) – Boxy’s Resale Group (Discord, paid group, but the trial lasts through the coin sale) – DCB’s Buying Group (email or WhatsApp) – Vinh’s Coin Buying Group (Web)
The new US airline Breeze airways is adding new routes on its Airbus A220 fleet, and currently the new routes have one-way economy fares of $49 and one-way first class fares of $99. Their press release is the easiest way to see the new routes that I’ve found. The A220 is a very comfortable aircraft, especially in first class, so it’s worth looking into if their routes align with your travel patterns.
In case you’re not familiar with Breeze, it’s founded by JetBlue and Westjet founder Dave Neelman. The airline is headquartered in Utah, but doesn’t operate flights to or from Utah because reasons.
CashApp has a boost for 10% off of all Sam’s Club online purchases with a maximum discount of $20. It’s valid once a day for the next four days and works with gift cards including Disney, Visa, and Mastercard.
– 5% cash back at groceries and drugstores (uncapped) – 3% cash back everywhere else (uncapped) – A $60 annual fee – An Apple Watch series 7 as a sign-up bonus ($429 in statement credits spread over the first year)
There’s a catch of course, and depending on your personality the catch is untenable or is a home run: If you don’t have 150 minutes per week of elevated heart-rate, your cash-back rewards are cut in half to 2.5% at groceries and drugstores and 1.5% cash-back everywhere else.
If you’re lucky enough to live in Southern California, 150 minutes per week with an elevated heart-rate is called your weekday commute.
There’s inexplicably a lot of noise out there in the travel-hacking community this week. Can I offer a suggestion? Before you decide to spend five or so minutes reading an article, read the headline and ask yourself about the author’s motivation. For me it’s become a very effective filter for what’s worth my attention and what isn’t.
With that out of the way:
1. American Express has partnered with Delta to offer targeted status matches to regular American Express Platinum cardholders. You can sign up at this link, and see your matched status tiers at this link. A few notes:
You need to have United, American, Alaska, JetBlue, or Southwest status to match
You’ll be matched to a higher tier at Delta than your existing tier
The terms and conditions say the offer is targeted, but my guess is that it’ll work for anyone
Don’t forget, you can get AA status through spend on a co-branded card.
2. The Point debit card has 10x back at Target up to $500 in spend. If you have a Target Redcard credit card, perhaps the best play is to make a payment in-store. If not, Visa gift cards are your best bet, and make sure you go through a shopping portal in case the purchase tracks.
As usual, if you want the Point card use a referral link for a better sign-up offer than is publicly available. As of yesterday, the sign-up offer is $100 back after spending $1,000.
3. Capital One has a 20% transfer bonus to Aeromexico and Avianca. The latter has a few nice sweet-spots, like:
First Class (Lufthansa) US-Europe or vice-versa for 66,000 Membership Rewards, no fuel surcharges
Economy US-Africa or vice-versa for 31,000 Membership Rewards, no fuel surcharges
Business Class US-Europe or vice-versa for 49,000 Membership Rewards, no fuel surcharges
Economy continental US-Caribbean for 10,000 Membership Rewards, no fuel surcharges
Hint: There are others too, and they often involve a misunderstanding of basic world geography.
4. Check for email from Citi for a targeted offer of 5x at electronics stores and game stores (and a few categories that aren’t interesting) on both Premier and Prestige cards. Reportedly the subject is: “[Firstname], Use Your Citi Card to Earn Bonus ThankYou® Points on Eligible Purchases. It’s So Simple to Activate!” (Thanks to TheSultan1 and FearTheZ)
UPDATE: Oliver let me know of a similar offer on the Citi AA Business card. His offer was for 5x at electronics stores up to $500 in spend by May 31.
Note: I’m now back from a disconnected vacation but still catching up. I hope to respond to everyone by the end of the day today though.
Let’s talk about a few interesting deals that have surfaced:
1. The Target Redcard debit card $80 sign-up bonus is back-again, (you get $40 off of $40 in-store and another $40 off of $40 online) with no hard-pull through March 15. As usual, you can churn this one during the promotional period and use a P2 to get the deal at least a couple of times for each person, see Target Redcard Hacks for more information.
Recent reports suggest that you should wait five business days between closing an old Redcard and opening a new one to avoid any hiccups.
2. Costco online is selling $500 Southwest and Alaska gift cards for 10% off. These may be ever-so-slightly interesting for gift card resale, but they’re definitely interesting if you’re looking at paid travel on one of those airlines anyway.
3.Kroger.com has $10 off of $150 or more in Visa and Mastercard gift cards using promo code MAR2022. Even if you don’t live in an area with Krogers you can still purchase these. The bad news? They’re not US Bank gift cards like in-store, but rather they’re Metabank gift cards processed by Blackhawk.
The other bad news? Your order will probably be cancelled if your account is less than 30 days old.
Any good news? Well, Metabank does issue different BINs.
Note: I’ve been on a disconnected vacation for a little over a week and I’m traveling home today. If you wrote me, I will get back to you soon. Normal posts will resume tomorrow.
Getting $50 for Three Months from Point
The Point debit card is giving a point for each dollar of “direct deposit”sent into your account in March, April, and May, up to 5,000 points per month. You also need to spend $100 on the debit card each month to be eligible.
Of course direct deposit can always be emulated. For the best luck:
ACH from a business account
Ideally, use a business account that lets you add an ACH memo when sending
Set the ACH memo to “Payroll”
I’d set up a $5,000 transfer to my Point account, wait three days to avoid the appearance of ACH kiting, then set up another $5,000 transfer back out. Even better, schedule all three months now and you can largely forget about it.
As always with Point, use a referral link if you sign up for the card because the public offer is smaller than the referral offer of $100 after spending $50.
Note: I’ll be on a mostly disconnected vacation this week, and while I’m still planning on posting M-F, expect slower than normal responses from me. If you do write a note though I will get back to you.
1.Citi has a 15% discount on Apple gift card ThankYou Point redemptions and the spot rate for Apple gift card resale rates is in the 91-93% range, so there’s a spread to push your redemption value up by about 8% (100% / 85% * 93%). In other words, you’ll be getting about 1.08 cents per point by using Apple gift cards as a middle-currency.
3. The Point debit card currently has 5x on Walmart up to $1,000 in spend in both February and March, which makes this $100 back on $2,000 in money orders spread over a couple of months. (In the past money order purchases have triggered Walmart spend bonuses, so likely that’ll be the case again.)
As usual, if you don’t have the Point card and you’re considering getting one, use a referral link to sign up because the sign-up bonus is much higher than the public link at $100 back after spending $50.
Happy Tuesday!
A Tuesday triple threat for reader @BlueCat: a peanut-butter, cheese, and canadian bacon omelette. Yummy I guess?
