Up until the implosion of PayPal Bill Pay a few weeks ago, funding new deposit accounts was a favorite side-effect for certain types of manufactured spend, partially because it was one of the main quick-hit arising when you opened new target accounts. All of those new funding data points and subsequent shenanigans lead to a counterintuitive principle:

Banks and credit unions prefer old school hand-written checks for initial deposits over just about everything else.

Why is this? Frankly I have no idea, but I can tell you that one of the fastest ways to get compliance looking into your activities is to ACH, wire, or bring cash into a new deposit account right out of the gate. For some reason though, those hand-written checks side-skirt initial “stolen funds” and other fraud concerns because reasons known only to the depths of KYC.

Have a nice weekend!

The bank’s “Know Your Customer” team cubicle.

For a quick diversion today, I’ve created a library of free-to-use AI generated images for sensationalist travel blog posts. Feel free to use in any way you see fit, these are public domain and sure to come in handy soon!

Airline tug collides with duck during pushback!

Airline lavatory overflows!

Bedbugs at Lubbock, TX hotel!

Man strips to undergarments for airport security!

Southwest companion pass allows unlimited free travel!

Seatbelt extender breaks mid flight!

Pilot smokes in cockpit and spills coffee on the seat!

The Chase Sapphire Preferred’s biggest ever sign-up bonus ends next month!

Teen Instagram model kicked off of flight for wearing too much makeup!

American Express claws back 93 Membership Rewards!

Cathay Pacific’s amazing business class food spread.

No smoking placard falls off of ceiling mid-flight, pilot saves the day with duct tape!

Herd of goats fly in business class for zoo charter flight!

Senator misses flight, runs out onto tarmac to stop the plane!

Exclusive: Inside look at New York air-route traffic control center’s new janitorial closet!

Kurt Cobain’s estranged daughter plays “Smells like teen spirit” on Spotify for the whole plane!

Disgruntled man secretly cut’s Mr. T’s hair when his hair blocks the in-flight entertainment.

Travel blogger pokes fun at travel bloggers instead of enjoying the beach!

Have a nice day friends!

Foreword: There were a few high profile AmEx shutdowns yesterday, but it’s too early to know much about what happened other than most of them probably involved a big volume of online MS. Stay tuned for future updates when we know more, and don’t forget the Sneak Attack Strike Back if you’re concerned you might be next. If you haven’t heard about these before now, you probably don’t need to be concerned. I’ll do a writeup with lessons if and when we learn more.

Airlines have become overly concerned with what day it is this week, as we’ll soon see:

  1. Clear.me has a new promotion for a $75 Uber voucher with a new clear account with promo code SAVETIME75. These are great for cashing out American Express Clear credits as Uber vouchers, but you’ve got to be creative on the redemption side because there’s a limit of one $75 Uber voucher per account. (Thanks to jnjustice)
  2. Southwest has a “Business Spring Loyalty Bonus” Rapid Rewards points after registering for the offer, booking a flight through a business channel, and flying before May 10. The bonus is tiered:

    – two one-ways: 5,000 total bonus points
    – six one-ways: 15,000 total bonus points
    – eight one-ways: 30,000 total bonus points

    I believe based on on the terms and conditions an American Express Travel phone booking would qualify, but I can’t be certain. Alternatively you can book through an SWABIZ account. (Thanks to sctrader)
  3. JetBlue has $25 off of a one way flight, or $50 off of round trip flights booked by tonight for travel between March 19 and June 12 with promo code SPRINGTRAVEL.

    Because it’s JetBlue and because JetBlue hates giving meaningful discounts, these only work for travel on Monday through Thursday and don’t work for international flights or Mint cabins.
  4. American has an economy award sale for flights that depart on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Saturday in April or May. There are some good deals here, including 5,000 miles for short-haul and medium-haul international flights.
  5. Southwest has a fare sale for travel between March 26 and May 22 and booked by March 14, but only for flights on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

    My existing bookings had no discounts, because like I diva I don’t have travel booked on Tuesdays or Wednesdays.
  6. The Gift Card Shop has fee-free $500 Visa gift cards through Friday night using promo code NEWLOOK. The code worked for both physical and egift cards in my experiments. Note that:

    – Purchase limits at InComm sites like this one are typically $10,000
    – InComm has been silently throttling the number of cards that can be used at the same merchant within a given time since Christmas.

    The throttle started out with certain BINs on certain products, then moved to other BINs on other products, and they’ve now hit a major, high volume product with the same limit. If one of your plays involves high volume InComm cards, maybe run a few tests before your next big order.

    For everyone else, assume that most InComm products now have a three card limit per liquidation trip.

Have a nice Wednesday!

New elite status award for Southwest A-List members.

  1. American Express has new, heightened bonuses available via the Random Number Generator™ (which can be played by trying different browsers, going incognito, using a mobile device, hitting the landing page through a search engine, or by tossing cheese up into the air between each keystroke). The offers:

    – Blue Business Plus bonus of 50,000 Membership Rewards after $8,000 spend in three months.
    – Blue Business Cash bonus of $500 after $8,000 spend in three months

    There are variations of these offers available via referral with slightly higher spend requirements of $10,000 in three months too, and are those are much better for the referrer. (Thanks to robdajewels)
  2. American Express Membership Rewards has a targeted 20% transfer bonus to Etihad Guest miles through April 4. I wasn’t targeted, but this program is a sleeper program and one of the only ones I’d transfer a few miles into speculatively.
  3. Two airline shopping portal have new spend bonuses:

    – Southwest: 1,000 Rapid Rewards after $300 or more in spend through March 18
    – AA: 500 AAdvantage miles after $150 or more in spend through March 11

    In other non-news, giftcards.com remains available on major shopping portals.
  4. Turkish Miles and Smiles has a 20% rebate on award tickets booked on Turkish metal booked by August 31 for tickets booked by the mileage account holder. Tickets booked before yesterday won’t qualify though.

    The rebated miles expire at the end of 2025, regardless of the other mileage expiration dates or activity.

An child suffers the unfortunate side effect of the American Express Random Number Generator™ game.

Today’s post is brought to you by baby sized offers:

  1. Do this now: Check your US Bank Products and Offers page for each credit card on the website or in the mobile app for a targeted offer for double cash back on card linked offers between March 27 and 30, activation required.
  2. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard, an original Unsung Hero, has new targeted spending offers for March. Reported offers:

    – $50 statement credit after six $60+ purchases once per month for March, April, and May
    – $75 statement credit after five $75+ purchases once per month for March, April, and May
    – 5% back in Shop Your Way Points when redeemed for Visa gift cards

    The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card also has interesting payment options that aren’t necessarily available on other Citi cards too. (Thanks to birt, Ben, and JEB)
  3. Citi sent targeted offers via email to Double Cash and Premier card holders for 4x on up to $625 in spend, activation required.

    As a general reminder: Citi does retention offers by phone, and they stack with these offers too. (Thanks to Santosh)
  4. Dan’s Deals put together a nice United Airlines award chart with updated pricing for March 2024.

Have a nice Monday!

The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards baby offers hits above its weight class.

EDITORS NOTE: In 2024, I’ve introduced Guest Post Saturdays. I’m still looking for more guest posts, please reach out if you have something interesting to share with the community! Today’s guest post is from a strong community contributor, and the official churning historian, Hank.

Confucius’s churning manual says that if you want to know the future then study the past. With that in mind it’s time to get out the popcorn and enjoy some unicorns from 10+ years ago.

  • Funding Citi checking accounts for $100k/pop on 4% everywhere cash back card.  No elaborate shenanigans.  Build a $100k CL on the Barclays Travelocity MasterCard (MEAB Unsung Hero card 2009 – 2015), fund account, repeat.
  • Venmo no fee $3k/month unlimited accounts. For it’s first several years Venmo allowed up to $3k/month of fee free credit spend per account. An account was an email address, a phone number (google voice), and a unique credit card (employee card).
  • 20+ BOA cards in one sitting. While nowadays BOA has credit line rules in place to throttle velocity historically a good “App-o-Rama” could net 20 cards in a sitting. The downside: highest cashback bonus was $200. Upside: easy to combine credit lines for other shenanigans.
  • Buy GC sell same platform 3% profit. Gift card reselling websites didn’t used to have strong guardrails. You could buy (for example) Target gift cards, stack rebates, and sell the same gc back for a profit. Repeat, scale.
  • Gold bullion by the pound. While the better known play was dollar coins from the US mint the back saving move was gold coins on Ebay. By stacking a series of rebates you could earn 2-5% spread + points. Limits were float (things haven’t changed) and your comfort levels with constantly driving 6 figures of bullion to the post office in a beat up old ford.

While the specific plays above are long gone there are variations of each circling around to this day. EDITOR’S NOTE: Always be probing

– Hank

Scrooge McDuck explaining to a police officer why thousands of dollars of dollar coins are spilling out of his trunk after a traffic accident.

  1. American Express Offers has a gamable offer for $200 back on $1,000 or more in Icelandair flights booked by April 1. (Thanks to TeddyH)
  2. Do this now: Register for Cathay Pacific’s AsiaMiles 10% incoming mileage transfer bonus from both Citi ThankYou Points and American Express Membership Rewards through March 31.
  3. In a move that should surprise only someone who can’t remember their name when waking up, Staples has fee free $200 Visa gift cards starting Sunday and running through the following Saturday, limit eight per transaction. (Staples Visa gift card promotions always follow the week after a Mastercard gift promotion.)

    These are Pathward gift cards so have a liquidation plan in place. Also, marvel at how Pathward, formerly Metabank, earned $60 million by changing their name to appease Mark Zuckerberg. (Thanks to GCG)
  4. I believe everyone around here knows how I feel about Marriott in general. Nonetheless, there are two Marriott cards worth having:

    – First, the Chase Ritz-Carlton which is only available via product change
    – Second, the AmEx Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card in year one, because the credits on the card wipe out $300 in annual fees, and you’ll get an 85,000 point free night certificate if you time things right which is arguably (barely) worth the rest of the annual fee.

    There’s now a highest ever offer on the Brilliant card through May 1 for 185,000 Bonvoy points after $6,000 spend in six months. Use a referral though, not a public link.

Have a nice weekend friends!

The Marriott Courtyard Lubbock is a nice metaphor for the Marriott Bonvoy program.

  1. Do this now: Register for Wyndham’s new promo, 7,500 bonus points for two nights stayed through May 13. You can earn the bonus up to a whopping two times, for a total of *checks supercomputer* 15,000 bonus points. (Thanks to FM)
  2. Putting a nice bow on one of the worst Februaries on record for devaluations, shutdowns, and general #bonvoyness, ANA is devaluing its award chart for tickets booked on or after April 18.

    For better or worse, this is inevitable as the paid price of tickets increases with inflation and with spend based mileage earning, so eventually the mileage program will necessarily bow to inflation too. You can plan for that though.
  3. Bilt has a new benefit: FlyingBlue Gold status for Bilt Platinum members who activate a status match, which requires 10,000 points transferred to FlyingBlue during the activation. This will be a recurring Bilt yearly benefit, at least until they decide that its not.

    The main benefits of FlyingBlue Gold are lounge access on international SkyTeam airline tickets like Delta, and for free checked bags on the same airlines. You no longer get access to book La Premier awards with Gold status though, so the value is marginal at best.
  4. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion on sports betting gift cards through March 19, which as far as I’m aware is a new type of fuel points promotion.

    Sports books provide a good outlet for manufactured spend volume in states that allow it, but it comes with a big set of gotchas too. Typical plays involve mainline arbitrage across multiple sites and playing through all funds at least once. (Thanks to GCG)

MEAB running super-computer simulations for maximizing point earning.