Tag Archives: Gift Cards

My Favorite Credit Cards for Manufactured Spend

Which Credit Card

My Favorite Credit Cards for Manufactured Spend

First off, I am not saying that these are the *best* credit cards for manufactured spend, these are just *my* favorite credit cards to use.  With that said, your travel patterns and preferences might be different than mine, so you might have different credit cards you like to use.  I guess I should also state what manufactured spend means to me:

  • Using your credit card for the sole purpose of earning miles, points, or cash back
  • Converting whatever you purchased back into “cash”
  • The amount of “cash” lost during the transactions should exceed the “value” of the miles, points, or cash back you received from using the credit card

Without further ado, here are my favorite credit cards…  Continue reading →

2 $10 Amazon eGift Card Giveaway – Thanks for Shopping on Amazon in May

2 Amazon Gift Cards

2 $10 Amazon eGift Card Giveaway – Thanks for Shopping on Amazon in May

Better late than never right?  I would have had this contest a few days ago, but I was a bit busy reporting the latest Walmart gift card reload news.  Anyway, I wanted to thank those of you who continue to shop on Amazon through my link.  For those of you who have never used the Amazon link to the right, the link takes you directly to the Amazon home page.  The link adds a tracking cookie to your shopping session (similar to going through an online shopping portal).  After you check out, I receive a small commission from Amazon based on the total amount of your purchase.  At the end of every month, I like to give back a part of the Amazon commission in the form of contests like this.

Amazon Affiliate Logo

Without further ado, here is this month’s contest.  Guess how many Alaska Airlines miles I currently have.  2 hints:

  • I have between 0 and 100,000 Alaska Airlines miles
  • I have a personal and business Alaska Airlines credit card

The contest ends tonight (June 5) at 8PM PST and the 2 closest guesses will win a $10 Amazon eGift Card sent to the email attached to their comment.

Alaska Miles Contest

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.  Otherwise, good luck guessing!

State of the Union: Bluebird, Serve, and Go Bank Reloads at Walmart with Gift Cards as of May 30, 2014

UPDATE 6/20/14: Do not use OVGCs or VGCs at Walmart.  Use other gift cards from other banks.
GC WM BB

State of the Union: Bluebird, Serve, and Go Bank Reloads at Walmart with Gift Cards as of May 30, 2014

First off, I want to thank all of you who commenting on my post from this morning ((Rumor) Walmart Updates Point of Sale (POS) Software, Making Bluebird/Serve/Go Bank Reloads Difficult) and shared their results, both successes and failures.  Based on your feedback, I can generalize what works and what doesn’t.  I have tried to make this as clear as possible, so here goes…

If you have $200 gift cards from Staples, Staples.com, Office Depot, or Office Max, your gift card reloads should work just as they always have.  You can load these gift cards at the Money Center ATMs/Kiosks, at the Money Center Department, or by going to a regular checkout lane.

These gift cards are issued by Gift Card Mall, which uses Metabank, therefore, any Visa or MasterCard gift card issued by Metabank should work as of today (May 30).

Continue reading →

(Rumor) Walmart Updates Point of Sale (POS) Software, Making Bluebird/Serve/Go Bank Reloads Difficult

UPDATE 6/20/14: Do not use OVGCs or VGCs at Walmart.  Use other gift cards from other banks.

Old Update from 5/31/2014: see the updated results here.GC WM BB

(Rumor) Walmart Updates Point of Sale (POS) Software, Making Bluebird/Serve/Go Bank Reloads Difficult

According to recent comments on my blog and this FlyerTalk thread (link), it looks like Walmart updated the software on their Point of Sale (POS / cash registers) sometime yesterday, making it difficult to load gift cards with PINs to your Bluebird/Serve/Go Bank card.  The general consensus that I have heard is when people swipe their One Vanilla Gift Card, Vanilla Visa Gift Card, or other gift card, they see an error message on the screen or the cashier tells them that the card is being processed as a credit card, not a debit card.  Continue reading →

Earn Cash Back Buying Groceries with Checkout51

This is an updated post, with more information and detailed instructions.
Checkout51 Logo

Earn Cash Back Buying Groceries with Checkout51

Sign up for Checkout51.com.

Checkout51 is a digital alternative to clipping coupons and bringing them to your local grocery store.  This service is perfect for people who are:

  • Too lazy to cut out coupons.
  • Forget to bring their coupons.
  • Too embarrassed to use coupons.
  • All of the above.

Here is how Checkout51 works:

  1. Browse your offers and buy products at any store – yes, any store in the US or Canada.
  2. Upload your receipt using Checkout51 – online or with their smartphone app.
  3. We’ll confirm your purchase and credit your account – usually in 1-2 hours, or sooner.
  4. When your account reaches $20, you can cash out and we’ll mail you a check.

It really is that simple.  They publish new offers every Thursday morning and all the coupons are good for a week until Wednesday night at midnight PST/PDT.  You can take a look at the list of coupons whenever you want and see if there is anything you want to buy.

Here are this week’s offers (offers might have changed if you are reading this after May 28):

Weekly Offers1

To read the entire post, please click here.