Manufactured spending


  • Global Moderator



  • @ma-barker old axp blue cash? were they all not closed long time ago? can it be applied again? are the rewards limited?



  • @miserly … only 2 people so far? where are you in Bay Area?



  • @pricelessprice I’m not sure if it’s still available for registration but for those who have it for years, it’s still working.

    yes, the reward dollars have been capped as of last year to $50K max spend so you earn 5% on gas, groceries, drugstores up to $50K after you meet the threshold of $6.5K. Beyond that amount, you earn only 1% on those categories.



  • @pricelessprice IINM, there are reports of those who got shutdown in 2014 who got back in so if you can find a working link to it, might as well try your luck and you may get in again. HOWEVER, there were also reports they got approved for the card but when they received it and tried to activate, they found out the account was closed.



  • I was one who was closed down in Oct 14. I now have 4 OBC between wife/me/son. yes capped at 50k plus the 6500. lots of work but about 1900/year profit after card and MO fees on each card.



  • @ma-barker said in Manufactured spending:

    I now have a huge credit balance on my account. I don’t know if CFP will be able to reconcile this on their records and I tried to contact them but can’t get hold of a live person so all I can do it wait for them to make the necessary corrections. If someone experienced the same thing, did the “gift” stick?

    I once received a $7,500 gift. Because I could be disbarred for doing so, I managed to make contact to let them know that I suspected the credit was erroneously posted.



  • @david-scubadiver So far, the credit was not clawed back from my account and CFP has continued to take my payments. I did my best to contact them but got stucked when they asked for a reference number which I don’t have any since it just showed up on my account when I have not paid that much at anytime. Two more weeks of using this CC and it’ll go to the sock drawer so I will enroll it for alerts so I will know if there’s any activity.



  • MSers will be busy starting tomorrow doing the rounds of stores. These should be top 2 on your list that’ll give the most profit/rewards.
    *OD/OM - instant $15 discount on Meta VGCs. Don’t 4get to try the “everywhere” cards with $4.95 fees, they qualified for the promo in the past.
    *WAG - free $5WAGgc wyb any 2 vanilla GC. Keep in mind these CANNOT be drained at the PO so if that’s the only place you can drain it, stay away from this promo. Best card to use is AXP OBC for 1% RD if you haven’t reached $6.5K threshold but once you do, you’ll start earning 5% on your purchases at gas stations, supermarkets, drugstores up to $50K.



  • Breaking News ~ Meijer is now rejecting giftcards as payments for MO seen at reddit posted by alias_max. They now run as credit.

    For those who MS at Meijer, make sure to find new ways to MS and don’t get caught with stacks of plastic money with no way to drain them.



  • FYI, you can now pay a bill using the WM app and enter all your info, payment amount and required IDs. Click the Express Money and follow prompts. You have up to 24 hrs to pay at WM (you will be asked to choose a store but IME, I was able to pay at any WM) using the Money Express lane where there is usually no line. You can pay with meta VGCs up to 4 swipes, no paper receipt prints, it’ll be saved in your app account. Go try it and see!



  • @ma-barker said in Manufactured spending:

    FYI, you can now pay a bill using the WM app and enter all your info, payment amount and required IDs. Click the Express Money and follow prompts. You have up to 24 hrs to pay at WM (you will be asked to choose a store but IME, I was able to pay at any WM) using the Money Express lane where there is usually no line. You can pay with meta VGCs up to 4 swipes, no paper receipt prints, it’ll be saved in your app account. Go try it and see!

    Just want to make sure I’m following you here…

    1. Buy a $300 metabank Visa Gift Card with your XYZ Credit Card from ABC merchant
    2. Go into the Walmart app
    3. Set up a payment for $299 to XYZ Credit Card company (Walmart adds a $1 fee)
    4. Go to the Walmart Money center
    5. Show them the QR code on your app
    6. Pay $300 with the metabank Visa Gift card
    7. Your credit card balance is now just $1
    8. The whole thing cost only time + $1 and you get the points for the $300 spend

    Yes?



  • You have to input the name of the payee and if it’s on their list, there’s a dropdown menu that’ll show and click it. If payee is NOT on their list, I don’t know if there’s a generic way to do it but I’d be leery sending a payment if it’s not on the list of payees. There is a screen where you’ll choose CheckFreePay for $1 anytime fees, $1.50 next day and another option I can’t remember right now. I chose $1 and then a screen comes up to enter the amount I’m paying. In your case, input $300 and it will ask you to confirm in the next screen including the fee, let’s say you choose $1 total will be $301. The last screen that’ll come up before you pay says SCAN QR CODE. You can log off and open app when you’re at WM. Just tell cashier you’re doing CheckFreePay to pay a bill and there is a QR code you’ll see on customer’s screen they will ask you to scan with your app. If successful, it’ll say YOU’RE CONNECTED. It will then show the amount you’re paying $300 plus $1 fee which you will confirm and press YES. When it’s time to pay, you can pay $1 in cash and swipe your VGC for the balance of $300. You will not get a paper receipt, it is saved in the app. Wait 3 to 4 days and check if payment posted to your account. Depending on the payee, it may take a while for payment to post especially these holiday season so give it some time and if it has been two weeks and you don’t see it, check with WM and show the receipt on your app.

    It is best to try this with small amounts first until your payment goes through successfully within a reasonable amount of time.



  • I made 2 billpays on the 16th and I checked my accounts today to find both of them posted dated 11/21! This is a game changer for me since I input all personal info and avoid cashier error on their end. Hopefully, they’ll allow payment with debit online as well…I know that’s wishful thinking…LOL

    BTW, since I’ve always had good experience with WM, I paid $1999 and $1998.99. I was willing to gamble based on my relationship with the cash department when debit payments went wrong and they gave me cash refund.



  • PSA to MSers who order from GCM. TODAY is the last day to get $3 CB bonus from TopCashBack for over $10 purchase in one transaction. Make sure to activate offer first before you go to GCM website so it’ll get tracked. It’ll post as add’l CB to your account when your GCM purchase tracks.



  • HU on discounted fees on TCB wyb Visa GC valid until 11/27. Use promo code BFSALE2017 to take off $3 fee from each GC you buy. IME, my past orders tracked and I got the CBs even when I used the discount codes.



  • Reminder to those who have honey accounts and are doing the Chase Pay promo at walmartdotcom. I clicked the honey pop up that says you’ll earn 500 = $5 for this purchase while I was at checkout buying $200 vanilla. Since no other portals gave CB for buying physical/eGC at walmartdotcom, I have nothing to lose since I got savings the last time using CP. The last time I got the pop up bonus was buying VGC from giftcardsdotcom, I earned 5000 = $50.



  • This may be a stupid question but do any MS folks pay tax on this income? If they don’t and get some type of government benefits like obamacare do they worry about that being effected?



  • @lowpricewanted rewards earned in the form of CB, miles, hotel points are considered as rebates and therefore, they are non taxable according to our accountant who does our taxes. Whereas with bank sign up bonuses, the banks make it clear that the customer will pay tax on the bonus(es) they earn.

    I don’t think MS rewards have any effect on those who receive gov’t benefits. But then for those who are on welfare, I’m not sure how they can get approved for a lot of CCs and given a substantial credit limit that’ll be enough for them to MS w/o having to cycle their CLs to avoid getting flagged by credit card companies.



  • I was thinking there was a higher risk of the government looking over your activities when you’re moving six figures around every year. Most of what I do is real small stuff with a rewards card. The one that is a gray area though is using discounted Lowes gift cards to buy supplies for a client.



  • Woot! today is my lucky day ya’ll…I did 3 spins on BW spin game and won 10,000 pts three times in a row. Today is the last day to spin, I’m sending ya’ll my good luck and may one of you win the million points!



  • @lowpricewanted said in Manufactured spending:

    I was thinking there was a higher risk of the government looking over your activities when you’re moving six figures around every year. Most of what I do is real small stuff with a rewards card. The one that is a gray area though is using discounted Lowes gift cards to buy supplies for a client.

    If you are using discounted gift cards in the course of doing business, that will decrease your expenses. So in that case, since your business income is higher, there are tax implications.

    The government generally doesn’t monitor people’s financial activities (the IRS doesn’t, but if you’re being investigated by the FBI, that’s totally different). Banks are required to file certain paperwork for cash transactions of a certain size, but if you aren’t doing cash transactions, you likely aren’t going to get any extra scrutiny.



  • @ma-barker said in Manufactured spending:

    Woot! today is my lucky day ya’ll…I did 3 spins on BW spin game and won 10,000 pts three times in a row. Today is the last day to spin, I’m sending ya’ll my good luck and may one of you win the million points!

    You have some great posts, but it would be really helpful to a bunch of people if you tried to cut down on the acronym usage. . Most people have no idea what the BW Spin Game is since this is a thread about Manufactured Spending. You are super heavy in your acronym usage elsewhere too I.E. GCM for Gift Card Mall.

    For those that don’t know BW is Best Western and this is the link to the promo https://www.bwinstantrewards.com/



  • Today is the last day for $3 off code purchase fees on VGCs at GCMall ~ CYBERVISA17. Discount is taken off instantly. My order on 11/22 using a $3 off code has already tracked so I’m confident this will also get tracked.

    I know most readers/followers of this thread are MSers ; in case you’re not one of them and are rookies on this, feel free to ask me if you’re not familiar with any of the acronyms and I can even give you some tips via PM like I’ve done for those who ask NICELY.



  • @ma-barker said in Manufactured spending:

    I know most readers/followers of this thread are MSers ; in case you’re not one of them and are rookies on this, feel free to ask me if you’re not familiar with any of the acronyms and I can even give you some tips via PM like I’ve done for those who ask NICELY.

    How do you “know most readers/followers of this thread are MSers”? For every MSers, there could be a confused rookie who doesn’t understand half of your posts. I’m not an MSer, I follow this thread, and I’ve definitely had to do a little research to figure out a few of the things you posted about. It’s nice that you are willing to offer tips via PM to those who ask nicely, but its not that hard to avoid using uncommon acronyms too.



  • @pricelessprice I just got an OBC a couple months ago. You have to find the secret link and it is good for $50k in spending at 5%, after you first qualify by having $6500 in spending at 0.5% for the non bonused categories or 1% for the bonused ones. Unfortunately I got it right as the PO MO shut down.


 

Looks like your connection to PhatWallet was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.