Tag Archives: Gift Cards

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New Vanilla Reload Flex Load Cards at Walgreens (Cash Only)

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Yesterday, I stopped by Walgreens to pick up a PayPal My Cash Card and saw the new Vanilla Reload Flex Load Cards on the gift card rack.  I picked it up and looked on the back to learn more about the card.  As of December 2014 (see the 1214v01 code in the lower left corner), this card can be used to load:

  • American Express Serve
  • H&R Block Emerald Prepaid MasterCard
  • JH Preferred Prepaid Visa Card
  • Momentum Visa Prepaid Debit Card
  • MoneyNetwork Cards
  • MyVanilla Prepaid Visa Card
  • NetSpend Prepaid Debit Card
  • PayPal Prepaid MasterCard
  • READYdebit Gold Visa Prepaid Card
  • Western Union NetSpend Prepaid MasterCard

New Vanilla Reload Card Front Continue reading →

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Travel Challenge: Could you MS During the Week to Pay for a Weekend Trip?

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Updated at 9:30am PST on 1/31/2015: the winners of the contest have been chosen.  Scroll to the bottom of this post to see who won.

This is an idea that came to me a few weeks ago, but I never gave it much thought until writing my recent tell-all MS posts (Part 1: My Manufactured Spend and Redbird Loading Strategy and Part 2: My Manufactured Spend Strategy with PayPal, Chime, Meetups, Reselling, and More!).  If you assumed the miles, points, or cash back posted right away (rather than when the statement closed), could you MS during the week to pay for a weekend trip?

The Rules

To make things more realistic, let’s ignore credit card sign up bonuses and only focus on using the credit cards and prepaid cards you currently have today.  Timing is everything, so let’s assume today is the first of the month and all your monthly MS limits have been reset (Bluebird, Serve, Redbird, PayPal, etc.).  Your net out of pocket expenses should be $100 or less.

cash

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a close-up of a paypal logo

Part 2: My Manufactured Spend Strategy with PayPal, Chime, Meetups, Reselling, and More!

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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…

PayPal to Bluebird Logo

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a red and silver card with circles

Part 1: My Manufactured Spend and Redbird Loading Strategy

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Good morning everyone, I wanted to respond to Frequent Milers’s post (My manufactured spend strategy) and share my own MS strategy.  You will probably be surprised by my strategy, maybe inspired, and maybe even disappointed.  Let’s get started…

Every Sunday, Staples releases their latest Easy Rebate offers/coupons here.  This week, we have more paper on sale and a few smaller deals, like $5 off food and tape.

Staples Rebates 1-25-2015

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