Editor’s note: My mail software was daylight savings naive and thus didn’t update yesterday’s delivery time with the time zone change, probably because it was developed by zonies according to reader Jim. You can access yesterday’s post here.
This is a credit card, and the limit of credit cards per social security number at American Express is either five or six, depending on, I dunno, I guess the color of the shirt you were wearing in your 5th grade glass photo.
Meijer MPerks has $10 off of $150 or more in Visa gift card purchases through Saturday. This version requires that you clip the coupon in your MPerks account, and it can’t be clipped more than once in the same account. I wonder if it’s possible to create multiple MPerks accounts through some sort of internet sorcery? I guess we’ll never know.
Meijer sells both Pathward and Sunrise gift cards. (Thanks to GCG)
You must fund the account within 15 days, and hold it for 105 days after. The APR is currently 4.30% so the opportunity cost of holding funds is much lower than most recent bank bonuses.
– 500 miles for the first statement – 1,000 miles for the second statement – 1,500 miles for the third statement – 2,000 miles in addition to the above for all three statements
As we’ve discussed in the past, the holidays present a rare opportunity for manufactured spend because:
It’s normal to buy lots of gift cards during the holidays
Opening new credit lines is passé, perhaps even normal
Some cashiers are care-free when you’re wearing a turkey or Santa hat
Stores are busy, so cashiers have more to worry about than a gift card at self check out
The holidays also typically mean plenty of gift cards go on sale at relatively steep discounts, hot merchandise commands a huge resale value, and plenty of stock everywhere.
If you’re playing the third party or gift card resale game, you’ll need buyers, naturally. The best rates will come from sourcing buyers directly, but there’s also plenty of value in letting a specialized broker take a cut of your spoils, also known as the Homer garbage man philosophy: “can’t someone else do it?“
So, let’s talk about some generally well respected goods and gift card buyers, in randomized order. Note: I’m not endorsing any of these buyers, but generally speaking I’ve had a good experience with all of them. Please do your own research and make sure you’re comfortable before engaging. Sometimes things go wrong. My general advice applies: Never float more than you can stand to lose if everything goes pear-shaped.
The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard has new targeted offers for utility spend, once per month for November, December, and January, delivered by both USPS mail and email. We’ve seen:
– 10% back for $600 or more in spend, up to $700 in spend – 10% back for $450 or more in spend, up to $500 in spend – 5% back for $500 or more in spend, up to $1,200 in spend
Giftcards.com has 5% off of $100 Visa gift cards with promo code SPOOKY5 or SCARY5 through November 6, maximum $15 back per order.
Normally these range somewhere between a good deal and a great deal when stacked with portal bonuses, however apparently they sent an email to affiliates saying that there’s no payout on orders places utilizing these codes. There’s a small chance that the email is wrong, so if you’ve got a gambling mindset today then you’ve found your mark. (Thanks to GCG)
A common manufactured spend and churning question is, “how am I going to spend $15,000 in the next three months to meet my sign-up bonus?” This question is especially prevalent when you’re getting started, and focuses primarily on what methods you can use to meet your target.
At some point, your capacity for manufactured spend may grow substantially with experience. When that happens the question often becomes, “what cards do I have that support $100,000 in spend today, and how can I pay them off tomorrow without fraud locks, ACH kiting, or SAR reports?” When you’re asking this question, you’re no longer focusing on methods to meet spend, but instead on how you can increase throughput and move money and credit lines to meet the demand.
When You’re Operating with Big Numbers
The relevant follow-up questions for someone operating in the latter regime become:
How do I cycle money through my accounts without kiting?
Which card issuers are going to be upset by this kind of spend?
What’s the best return I can get on a workhorse card?
The last question is interesting because it shows a big shift in how churning works. Realistically you can’t hope to get enough new cards with sign-up bonuses in a month to support even a few days of six-figure spend. So, the percentage of your profit from sign-up bonuses becomes small, and to an extent unimportant because the proportion of them that you can earn relative to your spend is negligible.
What’s Your Point, Poindexter?
When offers like 99 bonuses of 15,000 Membership Rewards for $4,000 spend come around, several readers typically ask me why anyone cares. The question usually means that the reader hasn’t developed a huge manufactured spend volume, and that’s ok; not everyone wants or needs to hit that volume to be successful. If they do however attain big volume, then the reason becomes instantly clear: it’s a way to increase your return on large spend that’s repeatable 99 times, or maybe even 99*n times.
2022: +4x on transit and travel on $20,000 in spend
There’s a definite trend and it’s clearly headed in the wrong direction. Which brings us to now: The current October 2023 Q4 referral bonus is +0x on all spend, uncapped.
That is, American Express seems to have decided it was too generous on the last versions and hasn’t yet released a Q4 promo for referrals, and probably won’t at this point.
The New Hotness
Rather than a referral bonus, American Express’s October 2023 surprise is a new set of offers for adding employee cards by phone to a primary business account. We’ve seen two variants, and both variants have been seen on the Blue Business Plus, the Business Green, the Business Gold, and the Business Platinum:
7,000 Membership Rewards on $4,000 spend in six months per employee card
15,000 Membership Rewards on $4,000 spend in six months per employee card
Each of these is good for up to 99 employee cards, which if maximized turns into 1.485 million Membership Rewards in addition to the base rewards earned for $396,000 in spend.
It’s likely that the Plum card has the offer too, but the Venn diagram intersection of churners and Plum cards is about the same as the Venn diagram of satisfied customers and the Baymont Wyndham in Lubbock: virtually non-existent.
Happy Monday friends!
Say what you will, but at least the Baymont Wyndham offers a choice of room scent.
It’s time to jump into the pre-Halloween weekend, but before you turn into a pumpkin:
Southwest has extended its schedule through August 4th, which includes most of summer’s travel season. As a general rule, booking summer travel in autumn often means there will be schedule changes, and with Southwest schedule changes often mean a free change to any other flight between the same city pairs ±2 weeks.
Chase Southwest cards have increased sign-up bonuses of 75,000 Rapid Rewards points on the personal cards, or 80,000 points on the Rapid Rewards Business card. These offers aren’t all-time highs, but they are interesting getting two of them and hitting the spend threshold for the bonuses after January 1, 2024 will earn you a Companion Pass through 2025.
No one out there seems to remember the downside of the Companion Pass though: you’re still on Southwest.
– Consider that maybe multiples of $300 might behave strangly – Link your credit cards to Dosh – Try for multiple transactions back-to-back – Don’t forget about the American Express Business Gold $20 credit, which you can use twice during the promotional period
These are Pathward gift cards, and often only work with PIN transactions for a total of $480 every six minutes per store. (Thanks to DoC)
– In conjunction with Bank of America Preferred Rewards Platinum Honors status, this is a 2.625% everywhere card – You probably still have time to get it before More Rewards Day on November 9
Don’t forget that with Bank of America, one card is nice, but more is better. (Vague much, MEAB?)
Have a nice weekend!
Pictured: Your 23 year old companion after the fourth leg on Southwest between Eugene, OR and Greenville, SC.
