Let’s focus on news from a few banks today:

  1. Bank of America’s Preferred Rewards status was removed from many business accounts on September 6, and it seems related to early enrollment during new account setup. If you’re affected, there are two action items:

    – Consider whether you want to pause spending on Bank of America cards until it’s fixed
    – Consider contacting Bank of America and opening a case

    Generally speaking, calling a bank as a manufactured spender about missing rewards isn’t the best idea, it’s kind of up there with betting in Vegas on John McCain winning the 2024 Presidential Election; but in this case I think the team you’ll be working with (Preferred Rewards) is sufficiently distant from the rest of banking that the risk is low and reward is potentially high. You’re all adults, so make your own judgement call.
  2. If you’ve given full, non-Bank of America card numbers to Bank of America representatives recently, consider locking or replacing those cards; there are multiple correlated reports of fraudulent charges that surfaced yesterday stemming from Bank of America.
  3. Bloomberg reports that Barclays is nearing completion of a deal to purchase the Marcus GM portfolio of credit cards in a few months. If you’re banned from Barlcays, getting a GM card now could be a way back in. UPDATE: This didn’t work for people banned by Barclays when they acquired the Banana Republic card, so adjust your calculus as necessary.

Have a nice Thursday!

Bank of America’s vault mirrors the rest of their technology stack.

Background

Loops in churning are powerful because you can stack earnings as a dollar flows from a credit card, to a FinTech, to another, to yet another, and eventually (hopefully) back to your bank account to pay off your credit card. Instead of earning 3x on a single purchase, a loop might push the net earnings on that purchase well above 3x.

But if it’s good once, isn’t it better multiple times? Yes, but as you scale those loops across multiple cards, multiple players, and multiple charges in flight, tracking becomes a non-trivial load. Imagine keeping track of the following every day, knowing that any step in the chain might have a failure that needs manual intervention:

  • Buy a $499.51 sportsbook gift card
  • Load the sportsbook gift card into a FinTech account intermediary
  • Load the FinTech account’s funds into a sportsbook
  • Play through at least $499.51 in funds
  • Withdraw the $499.51±(profit/loss) into a FinTech’s rewards account
  • Use the FinTech’s platform to pay your credit card

Great! Now do that again 10 times per player, for 15 players, each with different initial gift card amounts for tracking, every day. Also, don’t forget to run your other plays that aren’t sportsbook related for the day too. Finally make sure you haven’t lost something along the way; I hope you’re good at Excel, Beancount, SQL, or something else to track it.

The Brick Wall

Some of the best churners I’ve met eventually take a few months or more off because tracking takes time, dealing with sludge when something goes wrong takes time, frozen accounts take time, and in net the mental load can push them to hit a brick wall and burnout.

Once you’ve burned out and stop manufactured spend, you earn exactly $0 per day, $0 per week, and since America Loves Math™, $0 per month too.

The Lesson

A loop can turn 3x earning into 6x, but too much looping and tracking can eventually turn into burnout which earns 0x. So, don’t forget simplicity and don’t be afraid to skip most of the steps in a loop to keep yourself sane when the world comes running at you.

Happy Wednesday!

Counterpoint: Sometimes brick walls are fake.

  1. The Barclays Wyndham cards have increased sign-up bonuses from a promotional email:

    – Earner Rewards: 45,000 points after $2,000 spend in 180 days, $0 annual fee
    – Earner Plus: 75,000 points after $2,000 spend in 180 days, $75 annual fee
    – Earner Business; 80,000 points in tiers after $15,000 spend, $95 annual fee

    The major use case for manufactured spenders is gas stations, which earn at 5x, 6x, and 8x respectively. On the burn side both both Vacasa and Wyndham have good options.
  2. American Express Offers has an offer for 15,000 Membership Rewards after $700 or more in spend at Leading Hotels of the World properties through December 8.

    As usual, buying a gift card at the front desk is the easiest and most above board way to game the offer, but gamers gonna game.
  3. Singapore Airlines has a 25% discount on all economy award redemptions and business and premium economy redemptions for travel between January 15, 2025 and May 29, 2025 booked by September 22. (Thanks to TheSultan1)
  4. The Southwest Rapid Rewards portal has a new spending bonus for 2,000 Rapid Rewards after $350+ spend by September 18.

    Giftcards.com still hasn’t returned to the main Cartera white-labeled airline portals, but it is now on JetBlue Shopping, Emirates Skywards Shopping, and Virgin Atlantic Shopping. I still pick Rakuten over those though.
  5. United has an economy award sale for flights booked today for travel between the US and London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, or Frankfurt between September 15 and December 12; but only for Chase cobranded card holders. Prices are 50,000 MileagePlus miles round trip. (Thanks to TheSultan1)

Happy Tuesday!

The Wingate by Wyndham Lubbock is a good redemption for masochist elites with suite upgrades, so there’s that.

  1. Do this now: Register for bonus JetBlue TrueBlue miles with IHG hotel says through November 30. You’ll earn 1,000 miles for one or two night stays, or 3,000 miles for three night and longer stays. The maximum bonus earned for this promotion is 15,000 TrueBlue miles.
  2. Do this now (if you have a Chase Southwest Business card): Register for 6,000 bonus points after $6,000 in spend through November 30.

    For the math challenged, that works out to be an extra 1x on $6,000 spend. In fact, it works out that way even if you’re not math challenged. (Thanks to Brian M)
  3. The Barclays Lufthansa Miles & More personal card has an increased sign-up bonus of 80,000 miles after $3,000 spend in 90 days. The $89 annual fee is not waived the first year. This is the highest bonus seen on this card since last year, when it was 100,000 miles for a short period.

    The main use case for this card is for good access Swiss First Class award space for Miles & More members which costs 182,000 miles between the US and Europe, after a status match. You can also pair the bonus with 150,000 additional miles for $1,960 through September 30 . Or skip it, Swiss F is great but at a cost of $1,960+$89, so are plenty of other things.
  4. The Korean Skypass Visa has an increased sign-up bonus of 70,000 Skypass miles after $5,000 spend in 90 days. The $450 annual fee is not waived the first year. I believe this is an all-time high bonus.

    The main use case here is good access to Korean Business (Prestige) and First award space, which cost 80,000 miles and 120,000 miles between Asia and the US, respectively.
  5. Staples has fee free $200 Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. Because Staples likes messing with churners, this time the limit is nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward gift cards.

Staples messes with non-churners too, as Portsmouth discovered after contracting sign design.

Sometimes the path a dollar takes through a loop during advanced manufactured spend is staggering; As a semi-real world hypothetical, a manufactured spender might loop money around with a recipe like:

  1. Run a charge with credit card on a fintech (earn on spend, perhaps pay a load fee)
  2. Use a fintech virtual card to load another fintech (earn on spend, perhaps pay a load fee)
  3. ACH out of the second fintech into a bank with a rewards debit (no earn or fee)
  4. Pay the original credit card with your rewards debit (earn on spend, perhaps pay a payment fee)

Most of those steps have an earn component, and most have a fee component too. Calculating your total earn is really just a matter of adding all the earn and subtracting all the fees, and the goal is that the entire loop earns a nice spread.

Once you’ve developed a money loop like this, it’s easy to think of all spend fitting into the loop in someway.

But, and here’s the point of today’s article:

Sometimes skipping the middle steps earns just as much as the loop you’ve developed, or maybe earns slightly less but loops faster. Sometimes simplicity wins.

Have a nice weekend!

Simplicity can go too far, or sometimes not too far enough; which one is this churner’s house?

  1. Check for targeted spend bonus offers on your Chase cards, but only if $15 off of $100-$150 in spend on utilities, insurance and other less useful categories is worth your time.

    Side note: I can’t decide if this deal is above the line or below the line for this site. $15 is below, but n*$15 may not be, so I’m choosing metaphorical violence today I guess. #sorrynotsorry
  2. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion on Happy, Choice, One4All, and sportsbook gift cards through September 24.
  3. The best way to cash out Shop Your Way Rewards points, at least since Sears effectively disappeared from the planet, is Visa gift cards. Those cash-outs are 5% off through September.

    Side note: Again, violence I guess.
  4. Chase Offers and BankAmeriDeals have spending offers for 10% back, up to $57 each, at various Marriott Brands:

    – Townplace Suites
    – Renaissance Hotels
    – Sheraton Hotels
    – Aloft Hotels

    As usual, the least sus way to game these is to buy gift cards at the front desk. What’s the most sus way? Look, I’m not choosing that much violent. (Thanks to DDG)
  5. US Bank has updated its regular business checking sign-up bonus for new accounts with promo code Q3AFL24 or Q3BUS24, depending on your state. The bonus:

    – $300 with a $5,000 deposit
    – $800 with a $30,000 deposit

    If you deposit the money on day 29 and withdraw on day 61, then you’ve only got the money tied up for 32 days and are still eligible for the bonus. You can’t have had an existing US Bank Business checking account in the last 12 months.

Apparently, today’s motto.

  1. US Bank has opened a waitlist for its annoyingly named Smartly Visa credit card. The card’s earning structure is 2%-4% cash back depending on your balance in an equally annoyingly named Smartly Savings account; you’ll need to keep $100,000 parked there for 4% earning.

    The annual fee is currently unspecified. (Thanks to LiftBroski)
  2. Southwest has a fast-track promotion to earn a two month Companion Pass. The requirements are:

    – Book two one-ways or one round-trip by tomorrow night
    – Fly both legs by November 20
    – Both legs must be paid flights, and existing bookings don’t count

    The promotional companion pass is valid between January 6 and March 6, 2025.
  3. Rakuten in-store offers has 1% back or 1 Membership Reward per dollar spent at Giant Food stores. As usual, once you use the promotion you’ve got to re-add it to your account after an hour, though any purchases in the first hour after use will continue to track.

    Apropos of nothing: Giant Food stores sell gift cards.
  4. AirFrance and KLM’s FlyingBlue program released its September promotional rewards. North American cities include Phoenix, Las Vegas, Washington DC, New York, Montreal, and Ottawa.
  5. Breeze Airways has 50% off of base fares with promo code BIGDEAL for travel between September 18 and May 13, 2025 booked by tomorrow night.

    What they’re not telling you is that the big deal isn’t as big as you’d think because they blocked out lots of days from the promotion, so don’t listen when they say “I’m kind of a big deal”. In fact, that’s just good general life advice. (Thanks to FM)

Happy Wednesday!

Sioux City takes a swing and a miss at Lubbock.

  1. Clear has an offer for a $75 Uber voucher with a new membership, using the same promo code as in August, BETTERTRAVEL75 through September 6.

    This remains one of the best ways to cash out AmEx Clear credits, especially because you don’t need to show up in airport to validate anything.
  2. Rakuten In-Store has:

    – 4% or 4x back on Lowes purchases
    – 1% or 1x back on Food Lion purchases

    Both offers are good for 75 days after adding, and have to be re-added to your account one hour after purchase, and both stores sell open loop gift cards too.
  3. Publix stores have $10 off of $150 or more in Visa or Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit one per transaction, and you must clip the digital coupon.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  4. American Express Membership Rewards has a 30% transfer bonus to Hilton Honors points through September 30, making the transfer ratio 1:2.6. Note that you’ve got to login to see the transfer bonus.

    If we value Honors points at 0.5 cents each, then, since America Loves Math™, value = 2.6 * 0.5 = 1.3 cents per Membership Reward. It’s pretty big I guess.
  5. American Express Membership Rewards also has a 30% transfer bonus to British Airways, Ibera, and Aer Lingus Avios through September 30.
  6. Thirteen Star Alliance airlines have a status match for SAS Eurobonus elite members, which may or may not work with matched status from last week.

    Star Gold is a sweet spot for elite status, since it gives access to United Clubs even when flying domestically, provided the status isn’t from United. (Thanks to Connor)

How is E.T. like today’s post, asked no-one?