Category: Shenanigans

Giftcards.com has a negative cost promotion running through September 11th for 5% off of the total cost of eVisa gift cards using either promo codes EOS5 or ENDOFSUMMER, which brings the total cost of a $250 eVisa to $243.45. Given the long duration and potential for scale, let’s go in depth with this site’s peculiarities:

  • Purchase limits of e-gift cards are $2,000 per rolling 48 hours per account (The T&Cs say 24 hours, but we all know that T&Cs don’t match reality much of the time, right?)
  • Most portals will pay out on no more than $2,000 in purchases per month per giftcards.com account (The CapitalOne portal currently has no total limit language but it’s too young to know how it’ll behave at above $2,000 in spend)
  • The T&Cs say there’s a limit of $1,500 in gift card purchases or $75 off per account, but again T&Cs often don’t really match reality
  • Orders under $1,000 in gift card value will track on portals very quickly, while orders of $1,000 and up will often take a couple of months to track

Given the above, how do we scale?

  • The site seems to track accounts to the same person by address, email, IP, and phone number so switch those up for new accounts (notably, they don’t seem to track by cookies or credit card numbers, and sometimes the IP tracking is minimal)
  • Their system seems to have a public records verification lookup in the backend, so keep that in mind when messing with addresses and names
  • Keep track of your rolling 48 hour spend and order again when the time is right
  • Consider a particular portal burned for payouts for the entire month when you hit $2,000 in spend through that account, unless perhaps CapitalOne Shopping really has no limits (note that via the Capital One Shopping mobile app the payout is 6% versus 3% on the website)
  • Place your gift card orders in under $1,000 face value increments for better shopping portal tracking

Sometimes Giftcards.com will make you feel like Don Quixote and decide that it doesn’t like an email address, a physical address, or a credit card and your orders will be cancelled every time. When that happens there’s nothing you can do but move on to the next iteration and try again.

These cards are Metabank gift cards so have a liquidation plan. These e-gift cards are often easier to liquidate at home than their physical counterparts, but your mileage may vary.

Pictured: Tilting at windmills can actually work; or, not all quixotic endeavors are quixotic.

Introduction

In early 2021, a churning favorite payment processor and US Bank partnered to offer up to $5,000 in fee-free payments to new accounts when using a US Bank credit card through the end of the year. At face value, this was a nice way to meet a credit-card spend bonus and move on; but if that were the whole story we wouldn’t be talking about it today, right? Enter IT.

Bad IT

The software development team’s job was essentially to:

  • Look for US Bank credit card BINs
  • Add up all payments made with those BINs in a counter
  • Don’t charge fees while the counter is less than $5,000 and the BIN is US Bank’s

The developers did something like this, but they messed up the last step; instead of not charging fees when the card is a US Bank BIN, they didn’t charge fees unless the card was a US Bank BIN. So, as long as you never used a US Bank credit card, the counter would always be less than $5,000 and payments were fee-free. Those experienced with web browser DevTools could even see the counter in backend website requests.

The payment processor figured out their coding error on September 22, 2021 and the promotion worked as originally intended from that day forward. It probably goes without saying, but some churners were able to get quite a bit of volume through the lifecycle of the bug, and it was a sad day when the hole was plugged.

Lessons

What can we learn from this? A few of these are MEAB classics but there are some specifics too:

  • Always be probing
  • T&Cs aren’t always implemented or enforced
  • Try looking outside of a partnership for partnership promotions
  • If you know how to use web browsers’ DevTools, look at what’s going on under the hood
  • When a company gets basic logic like this wrong, they’ve probably gotten other logic wrong too

Happy weekend friends!

The lead developer’s car in the payment processor’s parking lot.

Introduction

We talked about Bank of America shenanigans about a year ago, and US Bank shenanigans about six months ago. As a result I think many of you have card anniversaries and half-anniversaries to consider and it’s probably worth a re-read of both. That said, today we’re going to do the same for Barclays because they’ve just increased sign-up bonuses on three of their main four co-brand cards:

  • Wyndham Earner Business: 65,000 points after spending $2,000 in 60 days and another 10,000 points after a single purchase on an employee card (Update: corrected bonus from 60,000 to 65,000 points. Thanks to Miles)
  • JetBlue Business: 70,000 points after spending $2,000 in 90 days and another 10,000 points after a single purchase on an employee card
  • Hawaiian Business: 80,000 points after spending $2,000 in 90 days

If you live in New England or Florida, the JetBlue card is a great option. If you live near a Speedway, the Wyndham card is a stand out. If you like churning satire, the Hawaiian card can’t be beat.

Rules

Barclays doesn’t have as many loopholes as legacy banks, but there are some. Here’s what you should know:

  • Barclays will combine hard pulls in the same day
  • Barclays will approve up to three credit cards in the same day
  • Barclays business cards won’t appear on a credit report
  • Barclays’ reconsideration department will work with you more than most banks will
  • Barclays won’t let you have multiple versions of the same card

To contact Barclays reconsideration, dial (866) 408-4064 for business cards or (866) 408-4064 for personal cards. When you call, a simple “I was hoping that you’d take another look at my application and help me find away to get approved. I’m happy to provide any additional information you may need!” may be enough to negotiate your way into an approval after you’re denied.

How I’m Playing It

I don’t need more JetBlue points and I really don’t need more Hawaiian points, but Vacasa redemptions via Wyndham are hard to beat. So even though the AA Business co-brand card offer isn’t at a relative high, I’ll be pairing it with the Wyndham card application for a combined hard-pull without messing with my quest to drop below 5/24.

Good luck!

Barclays reconsideration staff is much friendlier than it looks.

A couple of notes for today:

  1. Check your Chase card offers for 15% back on Hyatt House and Hyatt Place properties, up to a strangely specific $38 cash back. If you like to think about card linked offers in terms of spend, thats an also strangely specific number: $253. (Thanks to joremero)
  2. The CapitalOnTap Business Mastercard now has options for gift card redemptions with rewards points, and currently all gift cards are discounted at 2% off of face value. It’s still got a $750 sign-up bonus and is reportably churnable with multiple EINs, and supports online debit card payments to boot.

Have a nice Thursday!

A strangely specific window view from a strangely specific Hyatt Place in Lubbock, TX.

Phone In Offers

The glory days of adding up to 99 American Express employee cards are in the rear view mirror and at this point every known call in offer has been nerfed. There are still bonuses to be had, but instead of a maximum of 1,980,000 Membership Rewards or $19,800 in statement credits, the best offers are now topped out at 495,000 Membership Rewards or at $4,950 in credits.

First, here are the current statement credit offers:

  • Hilton Business card: $50 in statement credits for spending $1,000 per employee
  • Marriott Business card: $50 in statement credits for spending $1,000 per employee
  • Lowe’s Business card: $50 in statement credits for spending $1,000 per employee

And, there are points offers for cards too:

  • Delta Platinum or Reserve Business card: 5,000 SkyMiles for spending $1,000 per employee
  • Blue Business Plus: 5,000 Membership Rewards for spending $2,000 per employee
  • Business Green: 5,000 Membership Rewards for spending $2,000 per employee
  • Business Gold: 5,000 Membership Rewards for spending $2,000 per employee
  • Business Platinum: 5,000 Membership Rewards for spending $2,000 per employee

Of course these bonuses stack with normal category spend bonuses, so the normal 4x earning at gas stations on the Business Gold card while spending up to $2,000 at with an employee card will net 6.5 Membership Rewards per dollar.

To get these offers, you have to call the number on the back of your card, speak to a customer service representative, then ask if there are offers for adding employee cards to your account.

Online Offers

There were public links for 20,000 Membership Rewards after $4,000 in spend on an employee card with a limit of five cards to the Business Green, Business Gold, and Business Platinum last fall. The offer terms list an expiration of March 30, 2022. But, terms aren’t always enforced, right?

There are multiple private reports and now a public report sharing that online offers for adding up to five employee cards on the Business Platinum or Business Gold card continue to work, even if you added the employees after March 30 and also met the spend after March 30. So, if you want to take a (relatively safe) gamble, you can try your luck at these links:

Good luck!

Looking at past American Express employee call in offers in the rear view mirror.

Points earning at American Express is exceeding plaid speed. Here’s what we know so far:

The Offers

Sometimes things are available at only when you know to call in and ask about them as we learned with the 99 employee card offers. This time it’s business card sign-up bonuses though, and they’re big:

  • 180,000 Membership Rewards for a Business Gold card with $20,000 spend in six months
  • 250,000 Membership Rewards for a Business Platinum card with with $30,000 spend in six months

Both may also offer 10,000 additional points for adding an employee card and spending $1,000 in six months. To see if you’re eligible, call (855) 531-3491 and navigate your way through the phone tree to reach a customer service representative, then ask about the offer you’re interested in. You’ll have to specifically mention the 180,000 or 250,000 Membership Rewards bonus as appropriate. (Thanks to FM for background)

Notes

What we know about the offers:

  • They don’t seem to have lifetime language
  • You may not be eligible for a bonus even if the rep sees the offer
  • You’ll get a popup before submitting the final application if you’re not eligible
  • You probably have to specifically call out the bonus to get the representative to acknowledge the offer

Hacking the Offers

We can always level up our game a notch, right? Here are a few ways:

  • You can be approved for both of these on the same day, so don’t be afraid to try for both
  • You can quadruple dip the $200 Dell Business Platinum credit with a single annual fee, getting it for Jan-Jun 2022, Jul-Dec 2022, Jan-Jun 2023, and Jul-Dec 2023 (annual fees can be refunded up to 30 days after posting)
  • After a couple of weeks, you’ll probably be eligible for a call in offer for adding employee cards, each with a 5,000 Membership Rewards bonus for $2,000 in spend up to 99 employee cards or 495,000 additional Membership Rewards in total
  • Bonus categories and offers stack, so if you can manufacture spend in shipping or gas with employee cards you can earn 6.5x Membership Rewards per dollar
  • You can probably get a retention offer after 2-3 months, but then you’re locked in for another 12 months and another annual fee if you want to stay out of the penalty box

No word yet on whether these cards bypass the 11 or 12 charge card limit, but you can bet I’m going to try.

This guy closed his American Express Business Gold card three months after a retention offer. Don’t be like him.

Introduction

Brex, a purveyor of business bank accounts, has been a great rewards making machine for both sign-up bonuses and for certain types of manufactured spend; it’s also uniquely suited for churning companies in low-fee incorporation states in order to scale sign-up bonuses, like the current 75,000 points after spending $1,000 (sponsored by TravelBank) bonus. I know many found use with Brex accounts for making your own “direct deposits”, and for fee-free wires too.

Unfortunately, last week a wave of shutdowns came. According to the founder, Brex closed all company accounts for companies that hadn’t received an investment (VC, Angel, crypto, etc.). Based on my data points, they closed:

  • All sole proprietorships
  • All single member LLCs

I haven’t yet heard of a closure for a multi-member LLC, whether or not the company has received an investment, or for an S-corporation or C-corporation. I know first hand of an LLC that definitely never received an investment and didn’t get the axe too. It was also multi-member, which further leads me to believe that business structure is the current criteria for shutdowns. (UPDATE: Data-points have started to roll-in for non-single member LLCs too, but the ratio of single member LLC shutdowns to non is about 10:1. So far, all non-single member LLC shutdowns used the original OMAT 100,000 link, not a later link, so it’s looking like that may be another criteria)

The shutdowns and new policies give us two options to make lemonade with Brex’s lemons:

What to do with Closed Accounts

Relay financial will offer you a $150 sign-up bonus with a $1 or more deposit into a new account, provided you forward your Brex cancelation email [email protected] after opening a new account. I’m going to do this for each business I have that that was impacted.

How to Move Forward with Brex After a Shutdown

So far it seems like a multi-member LLC is going to be eligible for a Brex account, especially if it looks like the company has received an investment. I don’t currently believe Brex is validating investments directly, but in case that changes I’d make sure your company is listed on Crunchbase before opening your new Brex accounts.

Good luck friends!

I was today years old when I learned that charcoal lemonade was a thing, and that people choose to make it. First, gross. Second, maybe offer a glass to Brex when you sign up for your next account to let them know how you care.

The $189 Clear credit has rapidly diminishing returns for those of us with more than a handful of Platinum cards, especially after P1, P2, and Pn have memberships. So, what are we to do after everyone already has it?

There’s a good option, and even without Platinum cards it could be interesting if you’ve got the current American Express offer for a statement credit of 50% for up to $189 at Clear on another card:

So, we can effectively trade a $189 Clear credit for 10,000-15,000 United MileagePlus miles, which is probably worth at least $400 according to out of touch some loonies on the interwebs (but in all seriousness, miles are worth zero until you spend them, and you’re not going to get more than 1.6 cents per MileagePlus mile worth of value as a loose rule when you do spend them.)

How do we scale? Just sign-up multiple times, but based on experience from past deals:

  • You are limited to one promotion per MileagePlus account, but surely you control more than one of those, right?
  • You don’t have to sign up with real info other than a valid MileagePlus number and matching name
  • You don’t have to go to the airport to finish registration despite the terms and conditions stating otherwise

What about that AmEx offer? In that case, you’re trading $94.50 for 10,000-15,000 MileagePlus miles (and an extra $94.50 worth of rewards from AmEx spend). That’s probably still a decent deal.

Good luck!

Travel blogger valuation of a cup of lemonade.