1. Meijer grocery stores have $10 back on on $150 or more in Visa Gift Cards. Make sure you clip the coupon first, and multiple accounts will help with scale. I’d personally buy a single $500 Visa Gift Card to maximize spend and minimize liquidation time.

2. Google Pay has an offer for 20% back at Walgreens, up to $25 maximum cash back. If you happen to be at a Walgreens, buy a $125 gift card to max this one out; BestBuy, Steam, or Home Depot (in that order) are likely your best options. Of course, put a card that bonuses at drug stores like the Chase Freedom Flex behind Google Pay if you have one.

3. Check any Chase co-brand card for a new spend offer at chase.com/mybonus. Try all of your co-brand cards (Hyatt, BA, Southwest, United, AARP, etc), but realize that if you got an offer in the last round that’s still going, that same offer is what you’ll see this time.

4. This weekend you were able to get up to three $250 Visa Gift Cards at 10% off at GiftCards.com, and it worked across multiple orders even though it wasn’t supposed to. I didn’t write about it since the Terms & Conditions said it would expire before yesterday’s post, but amazingly it’s still working (although the code has changed slightly, now it’s INDEPENDENCE10). It may be actually dead by the time you read this, but maybe not. If it does work, be sure to go through a portal for extra miles or cash back.

Remember, FLASH2020 at VanillaGift.com lasted about five months past its expiry so don’t be afraid to lob a few tries at GiftCards.com. Also, remember “Trust but verify” when it comes to the T&Cs, this is another great case study.

5. Ling let me know that Cash.app has a boost for 5% back at Sam’s Club Online this week. When the portal bonus for Sam’s is elevated, this can be a great deal, especially if you have a Membership Rewards earning Rakuten account.

A tombstone with the words: FLASH2020 VANILLAGIFT.COM GONE, BUT NEVER FORGOTTEN 2020 - 2021
We still miss you, FLASH2020.

Fuel points have become a big part of the manufactured spend landscape because they’re really valuable and as fuel prices go up, the market for them goes up too. Kinda like the ocean went up (in flames) this weekend. Oh, too soon?

Now, a software bug at Kroger means that since Wednesday, gift card purchases are earning 6x instead of the expected 4x promotional rate and as a result, the fuel points chatter in various MS groups has blown through the roof. Kroger appears to be trying to fix it — multiple times for multiple hours on Friday and Saturday only 2x, or sometimes 0x, was awarded at the register. So far though no permanent change has emerged.

There’s a further rub too, on Friday reports started coming in that say Kroger is shutting down accounts that generated huge fuel point balances, and it seems to be triggered by calling them which puts eyes on your account.

Side note: a hack that some take advantage of but I never felt comfortable with is that you can call Kroger, let the automated system know you’re missing fuel points, and as long as you tell it that 2,000 fuel points or fewer are missing, it would auto add them to your account… until last Thursday that is. Now reportedly the system transfers you to an agent after you tell it about missing points, and likely that puts eyes on your account.

Where am I going with all of this rambling? Now is a good time to earn fuel points, but keep your balances reasonable and keep eyes off of your account when you game the system. That last bit is good advice in general.

The boat in the upper left is the Kroger IT Department trying to put out the fuel points fire

I’m sure you’ve heard all about the new American Express Platinum changes ad-nauseam, but in case you haven’t there’s a nice overview here (short version: higher annual fee, more stupid benefits). Once we know a little more about what works for hacking the value out of the benefits I’ll make sure you’re all up to speed.

In the mean time though, I want to offer a piece of advice that will hopefully up your game: When it comes to the Terms & Conditions in credit card offers, shopping portals, spend bonuses, or anything else we deal with in travel hacking: Trust but verify. Here’s a concrete example for us to work with: The new, higher annual fee, stupified additional credit American Express Platinum card. If you read the Terms and Conditions for the card, you’ll see the following sentence at the beginning in big bold letters, slapping you in the face:

Welcome offer not available to applicants who have or have had this Card or previous versions of the Platinum Card.

That’s pretty easy to understand — if you’ve had a Platinum card, you’re not eligible for another bonus. Ultimately if you absolutely, positively must have this sign up bonus or you don’t want the card, you should probably trust what the terms say because that’s the legal framework that you’ll be working under if something goes wrong. However, (you knew there was a “however” coming, right?) that statement is verifiably not actually how sign up bonuses have been working in practice. Despite what the T&C says, you’ll get the bonus with American Express unless they give you a popup during the application that says: “… you are not eligible to receive the welcome offer. We have not yet performed a credit check. Would you still like to proceed?” The flip side is true, you may be eligible for a bonus according to the T&C, but you may still get the popup and you definitely won’t receive the bonus in that case.

So much of what we do in this hobby is reliant on the Terms and Conditions, and certainly if you ever go to mediation or court with a company, the Terms and Conditions will be hard to walk away from. That said, a lot of what we do in this hobby is to hide in the noise, and sometimes the noise is simply just overzealous T&C that doesn’t actually govern what happens in practice.

So, know what’s in the Terms and Conditions, but verify within in the community to see if they’re actually enforced. If you don’t, you’ll be missing out on a fair number of hiding “in the noise” opportunities.

Happy holiday weekend, don’t blow up your face with a firework.

Yes friends, even the firework’s Terms and Conditions “do not hold in hand” term isn’t enforced.

After a heavy week of posts, it’s time for a return to normalcy. (Yes I mean the pre-COVID kind. No, I don’t actually have a way to get us there, but thanks for believing in me.) So, let’s jump in with a quadruple:

1. Check your inbox for a targeted free $100 from Delta to use by August 31. To search for it, I’d use the query: “in:anywhere from:delta subject:100“. I didn’t get it, but maybe they’ll like you more than they like me.

2. Kroger has a digital coupon for 4x fuel points on gift cards starting yesterday and running through July 13. Expect to see a lot of Marshall’s, Nike, Best Buy, and Home Depot demand from gift card resellers over the next two weeks. The two put together can easily make this a money maker deal before the credit card rewards, and a gonzo deal after them.

3. For your manufactured spending needs (except American Express), Simon has a code for 44% off of fees for purchasing Visa and Mastercard gift cards with the code: FS44JUN

4. Apparently this has been around for a while but it’s new to me: Create a dummy award booking with Delta and during the checkout process you may find an offer for a Delta Personal Gold card with 70k bonus miles, a 20k miles rebate, and no annual fee in the first year. I’d take that offer if I could. Just close it after when the annual fee hits after 12 months, or better yet get an upgrade or retention offer on the card for a juicier win.

A picture of a human leg muscle group, with arrows pointing at the quadriceps muscles. The muscles are labeled as: Delta $100, Kroger 4x, Simon 44%, and Delta Gold 90k.
Presented without additional commentary.

I alluded to some of the weekend train-wreckage that was happening in private groups on Monday, but now that the situation is public and many in the community are affected, I think we should go over a few points:

  • A semi-well known /r/churning Redditor, JonLuca, allegedly examined Chase’s source code last summer and manufactured or found links that bypassed Chase’s backend business intelligence rules (it’s unclear to me what is meant by “source code”, perhaps just looking at the HTML/JavaScript at chase.com, or perhaps something else).
  • This weekend in private groups there was a discussion about leaking the JonLuca hacked no-lifetime-language, pre-approved Chase business credit card links to the greater community as an attempt to shield a few heavy hitters from potential shutdown by overwhelming Chase’s fraud team with sheer numbers, allowing them to blend into the noise.
  • After a long discussion, the links were shared in several private groups, then at a semi-public event, and finally on Reddit. To be clear, I think the motivations were different for each case, and disclaimers ranged from none at all to very cautionary/”this might get you shutdown”. Certainly not all actors were malicious but some probably were and the cat jumped way out of the bag.
  • Yesterday, a wave of Chase shutdowns came and according to several other private groups, they keep coming. There are mixed data points, but it seems like if you used at least three of those links, or perhaps just two, you’ve been shutdown or you shouldn’t be surprised if you get shutdown over the next couple of days.

In the end, I think a fair number of shutdowns happened to people who probably weren’t going into the links with their eyes wide open or with full information, and that sucks. This game can be very caveat emptor and you should always be slightly weary.

Where do I stand in all of this? I didn’t use the links or share the links because I didn’t think they were safe, so I’m fine and I hope you’re right there with me. What’s the difference between these links and the American Express links I shared yesterday? The main difference is that the American Express links are low risk to me because they are semi-public, they don’t bypass any American Express backend eligibility checks, and they’re widely targeted.

My advice for you: Don’t use backdoor applications that bypass eligibility checks unless they’re public links you can find at the bank’s website, or if the links are widely targeted. Definitely never, ever use links that were hacked out of an examination of a bank’s source code, whether or not that source code was public. If you don’t know where a link came from, research it, ask around (feel free to ask me if you don’t know who else to ask), and do some diligence. Stay safe out there!

A stuffed cat emerging from a bag.
A freeze frame capture of the actual moment the cat jumped out of the bag.

A new set of bonus offers for American Express Personal and Business Platinum cards started floating around on June 16, via email and regular mail. The best versions of these offers are for 20,000 Membership Rewards points for adding an authorized user or employee card and spending $2,000 with the authorized user’s card. For both the personal and business platinum, there are no-fee versions of the extra cards, so don’t think you need to pay $175 to get an employee Platinum card or something. This weekend, there were some new developments that are worth mentioning:

  • A link surfaced for the Personal Platinum card’s version of this bonus with 20,000 points for each added Authorized User (log in to americanexpress.com first, then click this link to see if you’re eligible).
  • It’s been reported on Reddit and confirmed by several people (including me) that you can call in and probably get the Business Platinum version of the offer even if you didn’t get email or snail mail about it. If you call, just be nice and say something like: “I’m wondering if there are any bonus offers for adding employee cards to my business charge cards.” Remember, employee cards at American Express are special — you can activate them without a social security number and they’ll stay open for 60 days.

If you go for either of these deals (I would and did). Perhaps ask yourself “How can I scale this?“

A picture of a woman laying on a curb using a slice of pizza as a pillow.
Go home AmEx, you’re drunk.

What a weekend eh? There was a lot that happened on the underground MS scene that honestly made me feel like I was watching a train-wreck happening in slow motion. I don’t have any direct information to share from that, but the action item for you is to remember that blogs are always going to be a good source of semi-public information and hints for bigger bonanzas, but the best information will be found in small, private groups. I’d suggest looking for a few of them to up your game if you’re craving more.

On that happy note, let’s follow up on a few items and talk about the Schwab devaluation, and maybe offer a bonanza hint along the way:

1. A lot of you had your Brex 100,000 points offer post on Friday or Saturday. Personally, I had the bonus post on one company’s account but not the other. In case yours didn’t post either, give it a few more days. If that doesn’t work, forward the emails that the PayPal sales rep you spoke with to [email protected] from your email address on file with Brex. It may be a (small) battle, but it’s one you’ll almost certainly win.

2. In case you haven’t read my affiliate link free post on cashing Membership Rewards yet (spoiler alert, none of you have because it’s still being written, slowly, over the course of the last several months), the Schwab Platinum card is the easiest reliable high-value Membership Rewards conversion to cash that currently exists. The redemption value is 1.25 cents per point which is great, but it’s even better because it’s a tax-free way to generate income, or in theory a way to increase your Roth IRA contributions beyond the normal limit without paying taxes or penalties. (I’m not a financial advisor, never take my advice, maybe about anything.)

We’re in a good news/bad news situation with the card now: As of September 1, the cash-out will drop from 1.25 cents per point to 1.1 cents per point; but the good news is: 1) if you have the card you’ve got time to cash out, and 2) if you don’t, it’s another sign-up bonus for you (60,000 Membership Rewards). When I first signed up for the card I cashed out 1 million Membership Rewards points the day it arrived in the mail, so there’s no real waiting period to speak of. To be eligible to open it, you have to be a Schwab customer but all that takes is a free brokerage account and $10 so the bar is quite low, almost as low as AA closing accounts and canceling tickets on the day of travel for churners.

FYI – there are other loopholes for cash-out that will pay at a higher rate with the Business Platinum card, but they’re either slightly sketch or not completely reliable.

3. Staples has fee free $200 Mastercards between now and Saturday evening, limit 5 per person (or, probably limit 5 per transaction.) There are absolutely still ways to liquidate these Metabank Mastercards for a low cost, but they are slowly being zapped like mosquitos in front of a bug zapper (sorry, it’s Monday, my metaphors are weak and you can see them coming from a mile away, like my alma mater calling me to “see how it’s going” which really means “give us a donation”.)

Nah, this image isn’t the Bonanza hint.

Friends, we’ve finally reached the goalpost: American Express’s monthly PayPal credits are going away after June, so you can take that one off your laundry list. With that in mind, let’s talk about the things to wrap up as June and Q2 draw to an end:

1. Spend any American Express credits in Uber Eats or Uber by Wednesday night.

2. Check for any annual fees that posted this and call the bank for a retention offer. I suggest saying: “I’m thinking of closing this card given its high annual fee, but before I decide what to do I was wondering if there are any retention offers or spend bonuses.” Hopefully you can’t add this much longer, but it’s still kosher to say: “COVID has made it really hard to use the benefits, I wish it would end soon”.

American Express specific note: If you accept a retention offer, plan on keeping that card for 12-13 months to avoid getting popups that deny credit card bonuses going forward.

3. If you have an American Express co-branded personal card (Marriott, Delta, Hilton), make sure you’ve attached the dining offer to your card and that you’ve spent it by Wednesday night. The easiest way to do this from home is to buy an exact value DoorDash gift card on Fluz. Amazon Meals is another decent option. As always, find a Fluz referral from a friend to make their day if you don’t have an account already, they’ll earn something and so will you.

4. Spend any American Express co-branded business card wireless credits by Wednesday, but make sure you’ve added the offer to your cards first. I prepay my cell phone bill with this one, and at this point I’m prepaying into 2022.

5. Make sure you’ve spent any $10 American Express Personal Gold dining credits. My go to is the local coffee shop; a couple of lattes and a pastry jump just north of $10 on GrubHub. I know ShakeShack works for a lot of you, but honestly I’m just not a big burger guy.

6. Cancel any cell phone burner accounts that you’re done with (and for which you didn’t use a virtual credit card number that already expired).

7. Spend your AmEx Personal Platinum $30 PayPal credits. The easiest way to get these out under the wire is with PayPal Digital Gifts which has been paying the credit even though the T&C says that it shouldn’t. If you’re set up as a gift card reseller, you can alternatively buy gift cards for resale on Fluz or eBay gift cards on Slide. This is the last month you have to worry about this one 🎉🎉.

8. Finish off any Q2 5x bonused spend. Check the current Q2 categories your strategies, and don’t forget that you can now get $500 Visa gift cards at Sam’s Club.

9. Make sure you’ve spent any American Express Personal Platinum Sak’s $50 credits. Usually the items have to ship before the charge posts, so use your free ShopRunner benefit to make that quick. Don’t forget to go through a portal.

10. Cash out any remaining American Express Business Platinum Dell $100 credits. I like to buy and resell Xbox gift cards. The XBOX10 promo card is still working on this one too. Make sure you go through a portal.

The party scene as American Express Platinum $30 credits draw to a close.