Tag Archives: Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

How Fast can you Manufacture Spend? Under 10 Minutes with CVS and Walmart

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How Fast can you Manufacture Spend?  Under 10 Minutes with CVS and Walmart

Happy Friday everyone and happy almost-Easter everyone!  I had a crazy idea to see how fast I could spend $1,000 today and load it to my Bluebird Card.  Back in the day (last month) when you could still buy Vanilla Reload Cards with a credit card, it was possible to manufacture spend in a matter of minutes.  All you had to do was walk into CVS and walk out a few minutes later with a few Vanilla Reload Cards in your hand.  Scratch off the code on the back and use your iPhone from the parking lot to load the funds to your Bluebird Card.  Those were the days…

Fast forward to today, I went to my favorite CVS stores, bought 2 One Vanilla Gift Cards (and a 99 cent chocolate Easter Bunny) and then drove over to my local Walmart.

One Vanilla Easter Bunny

My receipts show my purchases occurred at 7:48-7:49am this morning.  Click, the clock is starting to run.  I got in my car and headed across the street to my Walmart store. Continue reading →

British Airways Avios Cash and Points Dilemma

BA Avios

British Airways Avios Cash and Points Dilemma

Good morning from a rainy Hamburg AIrBnB apartment room.  I just wanted to let everyone know that I haven’t forgotten about the blog, I’ve just been busy travelling/sleeping over the last few days.

Anyway, you may have noticed some new headers above this post.  I have been working diligently on my Shopkick posts and several American Express Serve posts.  I will get those all finished and send out a post when they are completed.

Now back to our normal un-scheduled travel-related post…

I was recently helping a friend book a flight with British Airways Avios, one of my favorite frequent flyer programs.  For those new to British Airways Avios, there are several advantages to using Avios over other frequent flyer programs like American Airlines.  British Airways does not charge close-in award booking fees, whereas American Airlines charges $75 for awards if booked within the last 21 days of travel.  Also, British Airways’s award chart is distanced based, whereas short flights cost less Avios and long flights cost more Avios.  There are no off-peak/peak awards, there are no region-to-region awards, there are no round trip pricing.  Every segment you fly costs a certain number of Avios based on the distance flown.

Avios-Award-Chart

Continue reading →

Quick Updates Regarding the New Chase IHG MasterCard and Visa Savings Edge Program

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Quick Updates Regarding the New Chase IHG MasterCard and Visa Savings Edge Program

This is a follow up post to an earlier post (Friday Rundown: Free Lounge Access for Chase Ink Bold/Plus, New IHG MasterCard…).  In that post, I said that I had received a letter from Chase regarding my Chase IHG Visa Credit Card.  My card would soon be converted to a Chase IHG MasterCard Credit Card.

New IHG Card Letter Front

The letter stated that I would received my new MasterCard credit card by May 17, but my card would be automatically changed at/on April 1.  Apparently my calendars are a few days late or Chase is a few days early, because it looks like they have already made the change to my current IHG credit card.  I assume I will receive a new credit card in the mail any day now.   Continue reading →

My Exciting Day: New Office Depot, 20,000 Point Plink Winner?, and Amazon Gift Cards in Stock

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My Exciting Day: New Office Depot, 20,000 Point Plink Winner?, and Amazon Gift Cards in Stock

I’m sure your day was just as exciting as mine, but here is how it went…

There is a new Office Depot store that just opened near me so I went to check it out…

New Office Depot Irvine

And I see the gift card rack, all full of gift cards.  Those $200 Visa gift cards are hard to find at the other Office Depot stores in town.  I looked at both sides of the gift card rack and didn’t see any special wording about using cash for certain gift cards.  So I take a OneVanilla gift card to the check out counter and try to load $500 to it.  Unfortunately the register is not working properly, saying “Card Declined” – after just scanning the barcode on the back of the gift card.  Manager comes over and tries, but no luck.  I go back to the gift card rack and try to buy a $200 fixed value gift card, but the same error message shows up.  Ughh, it must be the system.  I will try back again later this week, but I’m sure they will have blocked the $500 cards from being purchased with a credit card by then.  Continue reading →

Updated List of my 23 Open Credit Cards

Updated 3/25/2014 @ 10PM: New cards added and old cards updated.

Which Credit Card

Grant’s Credit Cards

Keeping track of your credit card numbers, expiration dates, customer service numbers, sign up bonuses, annual fees, and more is important.  If you want to keep track of all your credit cards, feel free to download and use my Credit Card Organizer Template.xlsx file.

Chase:

  1. Ink Bold MasterCard Business – opened in April 2012, paid $95 annual fee after reconsideration call offered statement credit
  2. United Airlines – opened in May 2012, paid $95 annual fee after reconsideration call offered miles
  3. Marriott Premier – opened in August 2012, paid $85 annual fee for free night certificate
  4. Hyatt Hotel – opened in November 2012, paid $75 annual fee for free night certificate
  5. Southwest Premier – opened in August 2013, received Companion Pass
  6. IHG Hotel – opened in November 2013, moved credit from Marriott Premier card
  7. Freedom – converted from Sapphire (Basic) in December 2013 (read post)
  8. Ink Bold Visa Business – opened in March 2014, planning on closing my Ink Bold MasterCard before the annual fee posts
  1. Amazon – closed November 2012, moved credit line around
  2. British Airways – closed November 2012, moved credit line around
  3. Sapphire Preferred – downgraded in August 2013 to Chase Sapphire (Basic)
  4. Sapphire Basic – converted in December 2013 to Chase Freedom credit card

See the entire list here.