Good morning everyone, welcome to part 2 of my Manufactured Spend strategy. If you haven’t already, please read part 1 before this post. This post doesn’t really have any new MS strategies, I just talk about various avenues of learning about MS strategies and clarifying some of the MS strategies that I *do not* participate in. Most people assume I do every sort of MS out there, but that is not correct.
PayPal My Cash Cards, PayPal Business Debit Card, and PayPal Extras MasterCard
I used to buy PPMCCs to pay off my PPEMC, but PayPal told me not to do that anymore. I used to use my PPEMC to pay my PPEMC via Evolve Money and get free PayPal Points, but Evolve Money closed that loophole. I used to use my PPBDC for online debit card loads with Serve, but I might close my Serve Card soon. The future of PayPal in my MS arsenal is unknown…
Chime Card
Back when the Chime Card came out, I got a card for myself and my dad. I would load $100 to both cards, every day of the month, using my PPBDC. At the end of the month, I had spent $6,000 on my PPBDC. Since I have had my PPBDC for a really long time, I am grandfathered in at the 1.5% cash back rate (now only 1% cash back), so that earned me $90 for a few months. I would then unload the funds at Walmart to my Serve Card. A few months after that, Chime added a 3% fee to use the PPBDC to load the Chime Card, so I stopped loading my Chime Card. Now, I just try to take advantage of the various offers that pop up on Chime from time to time. A few weeks ago, I contacted the co-founder of Chime and we talked for a while about what is coming to Chime. I promised I wouldn’t share anything that we talked about, but it could be interesting to a few people.
Private Forums
After talking to a few friends, everyone basically tells me the same thing, “all the good MS strategies have gone underground.” This is why you won’t hear about any great new MS strategies on blogs or public forums like MilePoint or FlyerTalk. This is where Saverocity Forums or Travel Codex Forums come in. You will learn about many smaller, more obscure MS strategies. I personally don’t read these forums since I don’t have time to keep up with everything, I barely have enough time to write my own blog posts. However, if you invest the time and energy into reading these forums, you will probably learn a few new things. Every now and then, I see traffic coming to my blog from the above forums and check to see what is going on, but that is about it. I wish I had more free time to read everything…
Local Meetups and Travel Conferences
If you are in the Orange County area next Saturday (January 31) or the Fremont area the following Saturday (February 7), please join me and many other miles and points junkies. I will announce more details soon, but here is the original post. The point of meetups is to share information and learn new tricks and tips. Let’s assume you have 2 friends in the miles and points game, you probably all know some of the same things (dark gray area), but the white area is what you know that your friends do not know. If everyone share’s their white area, the collective knowledge (gray areas) will grow.
Now take that concept to a meetup or a travel conference (FTU Advanced or TravelCon 2015). People from different parts of the city/country are able to provide ideas and tricks you never thought existed. I’ve been in the miles and points game for 4+ years, but every time I go to a meetup or travel conference, I always walk away with a few new ideas and tricks. Since the MS world changes week by week, there are always new tricks being discovered and old tricks getting shut down. It is always good to be on the leading edge of the MS world. No matter what circle you are in, you can always learn something new or share something new with someone else. (Are you impressed by my Microsoft Paint skills? I thought so.)
Buying and Selling (AKA Reselling)
I don’t do any buying and selling. I know there are quite a few of you that do pretty well, but the idea of learning a whole new world of online shopping portals, stacking coupons, finding deals, selling to Amazon is just too daunting for me. I prefer my usual MS, quick and simple. Easy to repeat week after week.
Money Orders
I’ve never bought a money order and have no interest in starting. Driving from one bank to another to deposit a few thousand dollars of money orders sounds like too much work for me.
AMEX Gift Cards
American Express hates me for some reason. They keep cancelling my AMEX gift card orders and there is nothing I can tell them to get my orders to go through. I stopped trying to place orders with them months ago, but it is a good cash back strategy.
Questions?
If you have any questions about my MS strategies, please let me know below. If you are planning on going to the OC Meetup or Bay Area Meetup in Fremont over the next 2 weekends, feel free to ask me anything there. Have a great day everyone!
Grant, you can continue to use your PPBDC with Redbird to load up to $1000 per month. Of course, the Redbird has to be in your name as well as the PayPal card to do it.
That is the plan, I got Redbirds in my name and my dad’s name, since I have a PPBDC in my name and my dad’s name. The process should be identical as loading with Serve/Bluebird.
I’d be careful with that! PP codes these loads as cash advances. If you’d read the above mentioned fora you’d know that ;-)
Hi Grant. I started using Redbird under my wife’s name and I’m loving it so far. Had a question though I know that if you try online AMEX credit card loads on Serve they will not count towards reward points but if you use an AMEX card to load RedBird does that still apply? Thanks and keep up the great work.
It will. All Redbird loads are classified as purchases at Target. It’s no different than buying merchandise and using your AMEX.
Thank you Jeff, that is what I expected to happen.
Hi Jeff, glad to hear that but aren’t you afraid of get hit by Amex financial review if you load Amex card to Redbird at Target? I have friend who load his Amex gold and SPG regularly into RB and got hit by Amex financial review.
The financial review is not that bad. If your financials (IRS tax returns, payment stubs, etc.) match up with what you claim on your AMEX credit card application, there is very little to worry about in terms of Financial Reviews.
I am 99% sure that if you use your AMEX card in-store at Target to load your Redbird Card, you will earn credit card rewards. I haven’t used my AMEX Card at Target in a while, so I am not 100% sure. I’m sure someone will be able to confirm this for you.
Grant, thanks for writing this wonderful blog.
Are the various meetups out there accommodating to novices who are still reading up on MS/churning but haven’t actually done any yet?
Yes, you will be fine. You might not understand all the lingo, but everyone is friendly and can help you if you have any questions.
Grant’s meetups and FTUs are pretty beginner friendly. The real “heavy hitters” do their own meetups outside the forums, but I find that feeding two birds (and maybe a third Serve/Redbird card) is plenty.
I have a good mix of beginners, experts, and every level in between. Don’t think you will be the only beginner in attendance, there are always a few newcomers at the meetups.
Grant: yes, some MS strategies do take too much time. BUT if you have a bank (eg USAA Bank) that allows money orders to be deposited by mail, or via check scan with your camera phone, and/or offers free prepaid postage envelopes, depositing MOs from liquidating debit cards can be worthwhile. I never stand in line, nor visit a bank in person, period, when there are other options available.
Sounds like USAA is a great bank. I would be worried about mailing in money orders in case they got lost in the mail. That would be a big pain to fix. Check capture sounds like the way to go.
Just FYI, USAA is for military and their families only. Not many banks will allow/can decipher MO captures since they do not look like a typical check instrument. I’ve never been able to capture one successfully, just bad luck I guess. My android phone is new and all other checks can be deposited via capture. Some banks will just flat out not allow MO captures. Online banks put limits on MO deposits and Flyertalk has many stories of accounts being shut down quickly for only depositing MOs.
Great thread here:http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manufactured-spending/1545203-banks-allow-money-order-deposits-via-smartphone-atm-44.html
For me, I deposit them either ATM or in branch. Never a problem. I wouldn’t snail mail any MOs either, but I know others do and feel it is worth the risk.
Thank you for the FT link. Lots can go wrong with money orders if you are not careful and organized (same for most MS strategies I guess).
Yes, USAA has military and family qualifications all do not meet. But many more qualify now than ever, as their membership has opened up new categories.
That is a handy FT link; thanks!
Not all banks all smartphone capture of MOs, and some banks (CapOne 360) do not accept MOs, in ANY medium – by mail, in person, or check capture.
Reviewing some posts, many of those that were shutdown were depositing too much in MOs(>10K mo is too much IMO), and did not mix this with genuine everyday banking activity.
I have an acct with an unnamed bank that one guy was shutdown for, that I never had an issue with. BUT nobody lost any money, nobody got in trouble, and nobody got killed!
Every bank is different so it is hard to know how your bank will react to money orders and how many will trigger a red flag.
Love the MS Paint skills. :) I agree with everything you said here re: buying/selling and money orders! Too many fees to keep track of and extra work. The current strategies we have are so much less effort. Along the lines of buying/selling merchandise, there are also those who buy/sell gift cards in bulk. To me, that is also a lot of work, more math to keep track of, and possibly risky. I just hope Redbird doesn’t change or go anywhere anytime soon.
I wish I had more time to keep up with the forums too!
If only there were a blog that could read through all the private forums and share the best tips and tricks with us. Oh wait…
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Just saw this, wish I had seen it yesterday in time to make it to the OC Meetup.
Good morning Janna, I’m sorry you missed the OC meetup, we had a good turnout and lots of fun last night. Maybe next time you can join us. Have a great weekend.
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Is it OK to use PPBDC for online debit card loads with Serve? Please advise. Thank you.
Yes, it should be fine, assuming you do not load your PayPal account wit PPMCCs.
I’m new to this PPBDC. But I fund (load) my PayPal account (PPBDC) with PPMCCs. Is this a redflag on PayPal side? Please advise on how to fund my PPBDC. Thanks again.
I would stop using PPMCCs to find your account, and instead do a bank transfer from your bank account to PayPal. That is safer than using PPMCCs.