Are you participating in reselling or in buyer’s groups? I could write a book on the former after years of playing and scaling that game; but first I’d have to recover from my mental battle damage and figure out how to restate some of my feelings in a less hostile way, because it actually can be a very good gig.

In case you are, Amazon is sending out offers for $100 off of $300 for creating an Amazon Business account. To get one:

  • Create a new personal account — I used the same information as my normal personal account, other than the email address.
  • Get identified by Amazon’s algorithms as a business buyer — Buy a few things over a few months that are clearly for resale (high value electronics, not normal household items)
  • Watch for en email with the subject “Get $100 off your first Amazon Business purchase”

I already had another personal and business account, so I believe you can churn this. It’s not an instant money maker, but after a couple of months you’ll probably be able to get $100 in your pocket for buyer’s group or resale activities. Just watch for falling fireball-laden mind bombs.

A wooden crate on fire
3D rendering of my memories of reselling.

1. Watch for mailers from American Express for Delta SkyMiles cards with a big bonus and small spend (e.x., 70,000 points for $2,000 spend). Reportedly some of these have no lifetime language attached to them, so you can get the bonus even if you’ve already gotten it in the past.

2. Do you have a P2 or a close friend with an AmEx card? Have them refer you for a Business Platinum card. The referrer gets up to 30,000 membership rewards and the referred offer could be as high as 110,000 membership rewards. If the offer isn’t showing as 110,000 points, try incognito, a mobile device, FireFox, Edge, Safari, standing on your head, and/or a VPN. It is around for most with some effort. Note that there is a high $15,000 over 3 month spend to earn the bonus on the cardholder side, the referrer gets the bonus on card approval.

A random spinning wheel with an arrow and 50 potential values.
Just spin a 3.1415 to win a 110,000 membership rewards sign-up bonus.

There have been theories floating around the community for a couple of years regarding how many American Express credit cards (not to be confused with charge cards like the Gold, Platinum, and Green) a single person can have. Depending on who you ask or where you look, you’ll find some consensus at a limit of either four or five.

New evidence is emerging on Reddit and in private channels that suggest a limit of below five cards is caused by holding one or more charge cards with Pay-Over-Time enabled. So, I’d like to again suggest that you un-enroll from Pay-Over-Time at this link to free up more slots for AmEx credit cards, especially if you’re close to or right at the five-ish card limit. AmEx also sends gifts for charge cards not enrolled in Pay-Over-Time, so double win.

A wallet that is comically stuffed full of cards and papers.
Do you really want to fit a charge card in one of those slots?

Martin Luther King holiday is a strange holiday in the western US; as far as I can tell it’s not treated with the same deference here as compared to the east, and especially the southeast. I bring this up because I wanted to offer wishes for a nice holiday weekend — but for some, especially in the west, it’s not a holiday at many employers, so “gee, sorry your mom blew up, Ricky” I guess.

1. Merrill will pay you from $100 to $1,000 to move your assets, even in a retirement account, over to them and hold it there for 6 months. Unless all of your wealth is in a 401k held at your current employer, you can probably move it to Merrill easily without changing your holdings or positions. It’s also a lower total asset move than normal bonuses of this size.

2. Chase will pay you $2,000 to upgrade your account to a Chase Private Client account, which gives you a debit card that says “Chase Private Client” as the main perk (BlueCat mentions that the Arts & Culture program is a big benefit too). This one has a minimum balance of $250,000 held for 90 days though, so the barrier to entry is higher than the Merrill deal. As with that deal, you can move retirement accounts, investment accounts, or other banking system assets. This doesn’t have to be a checking account transfer.

A picture of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 cast in the theater watching a backdrop of a quarter with the words "Money Talks!" overlaid.
MLK3K $3K, err, wait what?

F’up 1: The Staples fee free $200 Visa gift card Zombie deal came back from the dead again, because it’s a Zombie and that’s what Zombie’s do. It’s still limit 5, and you should still buy with a Chase Ink Cash or similar 5x office supply card (some AmEx Business Platinums should work for 5x too, if you’ve added the offer.)

F’up 2: Alaska Airlines decided it wanted to be part of the fun we had in Wednesday’s Triple, but it decided too late. You can earn $1,000 Alaska miles by spending $300 through their shopping portal. As with before, this bonus isn’t amazing so just keep it in mind for buying you’re already doing.

A white coffee mug with the slogan: 'The "F" stands for "Friendly"
That means F’up = Friendly-up

What’s the first thing you think of when you think of Walgreens? If you said slightly smelly poorly-lit pharmacies with aisles full of stale clearance candy from the last major holiday and dubious ties to Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes, then you’re wrong. The right answer is of course the Walgreens Prepaid Debit card. Ok, so the card isn’t available yet, but may I suggest that you put in on your radar and sign up for it the day it is?

MS Hint: There are a few prepaid debit cards out there that let you play shenanigans to fund them, an obvious example being BlueBird. But, there are others that aren’t as well known too. Look for them and see what you can do. This Walgreens one is likely to be a great tool for manufactured spend.

A picture of christmas candy with "50% off" signs at a Walgreens.
This is probably the most directly topical picture I’ve ever put in a post. I’m not sure how I feel about it.

1. The AA and UA shopping portals are running bonus mile promotions through January 19:

Usually I’d buy Visa or MasterCard Gift Cards from GiftCards.com to hit these bonuses, but they’re kinda small right now so just keep the bonuses in mind for everything else you’re doing. For example, if you’re using buyer’s groups, these could work for Dell or BestBuy. Hint: There is a play at Sam’s club that should work for these too.

2. Discover is offering a $10 statement credit for paying your phone bill 3 times, (I paid $1.00, $1.01, and $1.02, all back to back). It may be targeted, check for an email with the subject “Earn a $10 statement credit for paying your phone bill” or “Don’t forget your $10 statement credit offer”.

3. If you have any international travel coming up in the next couple of months, call a clinic or hospital in the foreign country you’ll be in and get a COVID-19 test scheduled now. As of January 26, the US will require that you have a negative test within 72 hours to reenter the country, citizens included and if you don’t book soon, you may not be able to get an appointment.

A football player in a red uniform counting to 3.
I think we got 3 today, right? Honestly, #3 felt over-covered in the blogosphere, but it’s important enough that it bears mentioning here so you don’t get trapped while trying to get home.

SoFi is offering $25 in round-ups for January. For me, this took about 12 seconds to take advantage of, which really consisted of re-enabling my SoFi debit card for Amazon and Xfinity tiny payments in debbit, a free program that you run on your own computer. If you haven’t sent up debbit yet, it might be a good time. I realize $25 isn’t that exciting, but you set debbit up once and keep taking advantage of deals like this and the cash adds up to something substantial.

Yeah, $25 is small potatoes, but $25 buys a lot of small potatoes.