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TraderStav posted:Is this the place (if any on SA) to talk about manufactured spend? This would probably be it.
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Feb 15, 2015 15:06
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Swingline posted:This would probably be it. Great, didn't want to bring it up if it wasn't a welcome topic for any reason. Recently I got bit by the bug to start cranking out the miles/points. I picked up two Redbird cards from Target which allow you to load up at the register using a Credit Card (currently doing SPG since it transfers to Delta with a 25% boost) for a max of $5K a month per card. The trick is that you can only have one Redbird card per person so after your spouse you would need to hit up close family and friends that don't mind using their SSN to get the card, but it's not tied to any credit so it's only used to track the one card per person. I swing by my local target, load it up ($1k per tx max, $2.5k per day) and then send the cash right to my bank account. It's a pretty sweet cycle that is likely to end very soon. Is anyone here doing any MS? I know that there are other ways to do it that probably won't have loopholes closed but are more of a PITA with finding $500 gift cards and then loading with those.
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Feb 15, 2015 15:41
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^^^^please continue to discuss manufactured spend I now have the USAir MC and have made (and paid off) my purchases and the annual fee. Since this is my 1st rewards card, I'm assuming the bonus miles show up after the 1st billing cycle. The fine print looks like this is the case, correct? I read this post about applying for up to 3 USAir MCs for the bonuses and getting approved through a glitch in the Barclay system. The fine print on the MC paperwork basically says 'if this isn't your first USAir MC, and you receive a bonus for which you're not eligible, Barclay may direct USAir to revoke the bonus miles or charge the card for the fair market value'. Are people going to get surprised by getting their points revoked?
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Feb 15, 2015 16:35
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Just a quick note about credit card churning and manufactured spend, I think it's fine to talk about here but I want to emphasize that it's not important for 99% of credit card users. You also shouldn't bother with it unless you already have a long and positive established credit history. Someone applying for many credit cards to get the sign up bonus needs to keep track of things like what credit bureaus each credit card company reports to, if they will allow you to get the same card twice, how long after cancelling a card before you can reapply and get another sign up bonus, if having 20+ credit inquiries will cause them to be automatically rejected, if certain purchases on certain cards will be classified as cash advances and many other potential issues. I have an Amex Serve card which I haven't actually used. Using the card I could fund $500/day up to $1500 month using a credit card and use that money for a full featured online bill pay system and pay rent, utilities, or even other credit card bills. There are a few catches though, the card has a $1 monthly fee (waived for me because I live in NY), the limit you can fund with a credit card is much lower if you don't apply for the card using the "softcard" mobile payment app, only available on a few phones. I haven't used it because I haven't needed it to meet any credit card minimum spend requirements and I don't want to worry about it being changed one day to classify funding the card as a cash advance.
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Feb 15, 2015 18:15
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THF13 posted:Just a quick note about credit card churning and manufactured spend, I think it's fine to talk about here but I want to emphasize that it's not important for 99% of credit card users. You also shouldn't bother with it unless you already have a long and positive established credit history. Definitely a good disclaimer post. You must be paying off your credit each month for MS and have a good credit limit to make it worthwhile. I haven't started looking into churning new cards for rewards yet but would be very constrained with it despite having excellent credit and income to support it.
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Feb 15, 2015 18:25
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Further disclaimer about MS is that you should only do this if you're okay with having your relationship with that bank/card axed if they find out about it. Amex and Chase have both been known to fire customers who excessively MS, and the definition of 'excessive' can change on a day-to-day basis.
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Feb 15, 2015 18:42
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Closest thing I do is switched from autopay on my cellphone, to picking up the reload packs at the gas station. 1% vs 5% cash back for me.
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Feb 15, 2015 18:49
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Yeah, my main concern would be that playing games means I end up earning 0% cash back for the next few years.
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Feb 15, 2015 18:55
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I know folks that MS about 300-400k spend a year with one bank and have been doing it for over a decade. I feel that I'm a small fry compared to these monsters. A colleague of mine and I were trying to figure out who gets the shaft on these deals. SPG/Delta/etc sell the points to Amex/etc so they are whole. The banks make money on swipe fees from the vendor. The big box stores may be the ones who ultimately are holding the bag assuming that the increased spend on their cards is less than the amount they pay out in swipe fees. I also wonder if there are any income statement benefits to having a lot of sales of these cards. I don't know if it shows up as unearned revenue or an actual sale since it's not a gift card but a purchase with a third party banking service. I'm not too terribly concerned about losing my banking relationship as it seems the biggest offenders I've seen (flyer talk, etc) are really greedy and push the limits of the system too far. At the end of the day though, my credit card company allows me to spend and carry a balance of $XK. How I spend it, provided it's legal, is of no consequence to them. At least that's what goes through my head. Tactical talk: the biggest constraints I've encountered are managing your credit limit within the billing cycle and handling fraud alerts. Granted I think I had trouble at first due to having a new account but the app on the phone will help in clearing future ones.
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Feb 15, 2015 19:08
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blugu64 posted:Closest thing I do is switched from autopay on my cellphone, to picking up the reload packs at the gas station. 1% vs 5% cash back for me. I went through thepointsguy beginner's guide when I looked at this last year. I don't do manufactured spending but I have gone through to maximise the points I get for spending. I've got an Aus/NZ amex which gives me the most points for supermarket spending. Buying gift cards that I'm spending on anyway seems to be the best way to get some benefits. Ideally getting a prepaid credit card would give a good pay back on general spending so long as you don't lose the remaining balance and the card can be reloaded. Also collecting air miles/points on transactions and shopping online with air miles/points malls. I've dramatically increased the value of points collected for the same spending. Worthwhile provided you meet the disclaimer above and pay the card off every month.
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Feb 15, 2015 23:41
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TraderStav posted:Great, didn't want to bring it up if it wasn't a welcome topic for any reason. No Redbird as of last month in CA. I thought they weren't allowing cc loads. I'm not a MS player, but when I looked into it, Amex seemed the most aggressive about squashing that stuff. Edit: Those SPG points are worth multiple times more than your SkyPesos, even with a bonus. I wouldn't transfer. Blinkman987 fucked around with this message at 09:02 on Feb 16, 2015 |
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Feb 16, 2015 08:41
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Blinkman987 posted:No Redbird as of last month in CA. I thought they weren't allowing cc loads. I'm not a MS player, but when I looked into it, Amex seemed the most aggressive about squashing that stuff. Do you mean that you cannot find the Redbirds or they are preventing CC loads? They are a limited release right now so many stores don't have them. I only plan to transfer the SPG to Delta on a need basis. Throw all the MS at SPG. I have a family of five so paying for two or three tickets will go a long long way. Feels weird that 30K points will get me a week in Cancun but it takes 65K miles for one ticket.
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Feb 16, 2015 13:18
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TraderStav posted:Do you mean that you cannot find the Redbirds or they are preventing CC loads? They are a limited release right now so many stores don't have them. I meant that CA is not a test market. I didn't know they were allowing CC loads. I thought Amex/Target were preventing them because of all the problems with Visa vanilla MS. I'm headed to WI in about a month and definitely plan on getting a Redbird there, finishing off my Sapphire sign-up bonus threshold and then moving to SPG. I was going to wait for the 30K sign up bonus on the SPG Amex, but this is way too good to pass up. Yum. Thanks for the heads-up on this.
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Feb 16, 2015 19:02
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Blinkman987 posted:I meant that CA is not a test market. I didn't know they were allowing CC loads. I thought Amex/Target were preventing them because of all the problems with Visa vanilla MS. I'm headed to WI in about a month and definitely plan on getting a Redbird there, finishing off my Sapphire sign-up bonus threshold and then moving to SPG. I was going to wait for the 30K sign up bonus on the SPG Amex, but this is way too good to pass up. Yum. Thanks for the heads-up on this. Definitely, this is why it's such a hot item right now. It's very likely to end though so make sure to take full advantage of it while it's still open. If you have difficulties loading the card back at home in CA tell the cashier to load it like Starbucks card. Apparently they know what that means. If you have family/friends in a test area they can get the card for you. The info they provide at the register is all over-written by what you provide when you activate your permanent card. The process is: - Go to Target and find prepaid RedCard - Take it to cashier and give them your license to input name and address - On swipe machine enter A social security # (can be random, just can't be used twice in one day) and date of birth (also can be random, but will need to remember this one) - Load at least $1 and as much as $500 - Go home and register your temporary card online, one email address per card and put in the correct information. One card per social security # (use real one at this point, or will be denied) - Wait a week or so for the permanent card to arrive, register it online and then link your bank account - SPEND! You can then use anyone's card to load/send back to your bank or write a check. A colleague of mine had an issue where the cashier refused to load his wifes card but that's just an idiot. Why would anyone be unhappy if a stranger added money to their account. He could have escalated it to a manager but we're trying to keep a low profile here. As far as loading goes, you can do $1000 per transaction and a max of $2500 per day, $5000 per month. There are idiots who are trying tricks with the cashiers to get the $2500 in one transaction but there's been instances of lost funds and just general fuckery that is best left aside as this just brings more attention to the effort. Customers complaining about people doing weird things with credit cards or cashiers getting irritated is bad attention. I drop by a target on my way home from work, go straight to the customer service counter and do a $1000 load. If there's no one behind me I'll do another on my wifes card saying something like "oh I forgot I needed to do this one too" but don't want to hold up lines,etc. Then I walk through the store for a few minutes. If I need something I'll purchase it with the Redbird so that way they are actually getting SOME benefit from me having the card and do another load at that point.
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Feb 16, 2015 19:15
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Aren't you worried that one day you're going to load your and your wife's card and go home to see that your credit card is now classifying it as a cash advance?
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Feb 16, 2015 21:09
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Swingline posted:Aren't you worried that one day you're going to load your and your wife's card and go home to see that your credit card is now classifying it as a cash advance? No, since it'd done at a register and run as credit it's not going to do that. You run that risk when you try to load the CC via an online platform or through an automated machine. If that does happen, I'll call AMEX and bitch. Is there a specific reason you said my wife's card? I don't see how that would trigger a CA over my own unless I am misinterpreting what you are saying. Either way, a transaction at a register wouldn't trigger a CA. I also imagine that if there was some sort of software change to allow it there'd be multiple warnings on checkout. That's a customer service nightmare otherwise.
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Feb 16, 2015 21:12
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I wish I could find Red Card Prepaid's, I checked a couple stores in Northern WA today and no dice. I'm going to check in OR this week.
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Feb 17, 2015 06:19
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If i'm trying to build credit, is it best if I wait for the monthly bill to show up or pay the balance immediately if I am able to?
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Feb 21, 2015 02:58
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Doesnt matter, pay before deadline.
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Feb 21, 2015 02:59
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Thanks man.
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Feb 21, 2015 03:05
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You can pay your balance before the statement arrives, but I think it over-complicates things. The easiest way to establish a credit history without paying any interest is to wait for the statement to arrive and then pay the statement balance before the due date, every month. If you pay before the statement, or immediately after each purchase the credit card company might report a balance of $0, which doesn't hurt your credit score but also doesn't help. An exception to this is if you have high credit utilization and are applying for some type of loan or line of credit in the next month, you may want to prepay early to bring down your credit utilization. Once you have good credit though this usually becomes a non-issue.
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Feb 21, 2015 03:46
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Abu Dave posted:If i'm trying to build credit, is it best if I wait for the monthly bill to show up or pay the balance immediately if I am able to? Set up an autopay to pay the full statement balance on the due date each month. Doesn't need to be more complicated than that.
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Feb 21, 2015 04:05
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I just started using my new Sallie Mae Mastercard, and am hoping to apply for the citi double cash card soon. My question is, is there a certain way I should stop using my current card, which is just what I had when i first opened our checking account, and is just 1% back? Can I just straight up stop using and cancel it, or do I need to do something else?
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Feb 22, 2015 20:37
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Don't close your oldest credit account.
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Feb 22, 2015 20:54
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So what do I do with it, just keep it open and use it minimally?
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Feb 22, 2015 20:58
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Yes
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Feb 22, 2015 21:14
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If the 1% card has an annual fee I would call and see if it is possible to downgrade it to a card without one. If it has an annual fee and you can't downgrade it I would just cancel it. Cancelling your oldest credit card should be avoided, but it's not really a big deal. Cards in good standing will remain on your credit report for ~10 years after closing so the length of your credit history doesn't just disappear. You will lose the available credit on the card which will lower your utilization though.
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Feb 22, 2015 21:30
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Doghouse posted:So what do I do with it, just keep it open and use it minimally?
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Feb 22, 2015 23:27
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THF13 posted:If the 1% card has an annual fee I would call and see if it is possible to downgrade it to a card without one. If it has an annual fee and you can't downgrade it I would just cancel it. It is kind-of credit score gaming but closing an account will immediately affect your average age of accounts.
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Feb 23, 2015 04:14
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So I got a secured card, minimum deposit was $49 but I don't think I could even pay my cell phone bill with that, so I put down $301 for cell/electric/uber bill. Took a week to hear from them and they gave me a credit line of $452  is that normal? I figured it would be exactly $301, o $301-$29 annual fee = $272, not for it to go in the other direction by 50%.
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Feb 23, 2015 06:44
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It would mean that it's only partially secured and I wouldn't worry about it.
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Feb 23, 2015 10:03
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Does that make any difference on a trade line or is a trade line a trade line?
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Feb 23, 2015 10:36
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THF13 posted:You will lose the available credit on the card which will lower your utilization though. To anyone: Should you really try and get as much possible credit available to you as possible? It seems kind of counter-intuitive that your credit rating would go up the more possible credit you have to use, but it seems that is correct? If one of your credit cards offers you a no inquiry limit increase, I guess you should always take them up on the offer?
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Feb 23, 2015 15:21
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abagofcheetos posted:To anyone: Should you really try and get as much possible credit available to you as possible? It seems kind of counter-intuitive that your credit rating would go up the more possible credit you have to use, but it seems that is correct? If one of your credit cards offers you a no inquiry limit increase, I guess you should always take them up on the offer? Yes, unless you can't hold yourself back from spending more now that you've got a higher limit. To a lender deciding whether to extend credit, high limits elsewhere mean that other people have decided to trust you, and low utilization means that you're not over-extending yourself. The whole idea of a credit score is to measure the risk of someone not being able to pay back their loan, and those are both good signs.
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Feb 23, 2015 15:35
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I was thinking of it more like "what is the worst that could go wrong?", and for someone with a higher available credit that risk is higher. But what you say also makes sense... I guess it is time to take Chase up on their offer the next time I get that letter in the mail!
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Feb 23, 2015 15:55
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nickutz posted:It is kind-of credit score gaming but closing an account will immediately affect your average age of accounts. Closing a credit card in good standing does not affect your average age of accounts. It remains on your credit report and continues to age and contribute to your average age of accounts for 10+ years. Essentially all of the credit score gaming stuff people do is entirely unnecessary.
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Feb 23, 2015 15:58
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So "unless the card is charging you a fee, continue to do nothing about old cards" is basically still true!
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Feb 23, 2015 16:08
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Say you want to close a card that's has a fee for a card with the same bank. I've heard mention of moving credit between them before closing out. How do you ask about that? Just call and say I want to close X card, please move my credit to Y card (with the same bank)?
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Feb 23, 2015 18:20
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I did that recently with American Express. I called them and said "I want to downgrade X card into a Y card, can I keep the same credit limit/number?" and they said yes. They just changed the type of account and sent me new cards (the expiration date changed) and that was that. Other banks may do things differently but I've heard of AMEX, Chase, BoA, and others do this for customers. Just call and ask.
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Feb 23, 2015 19:18
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I have two Amex open: Blue for Students (opened 2003) CL: $11,500 and Starwood Preferred (opened 2015) CL: $13,500 Should I keep the blue for students open? Or attempt to consolidate the CL into the new card?
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Feb 23, 2015 21:00
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