Update to Gobank load limits and cost per point analysis

In my ongoing quest to document as many details as possible of Gobank, the relatively new alternative checking product, in order to make it easy for my readers to take advantage of this exciting new opportunity, I want to clarify one additional limit that I have so far failed to mention in previous posts.

As you know, there is a daily limit of $2,500 when loading money to the card using cash or a PIN-enabled debit card at any Walmart register or MoneyCenter kiosk. However, the ​Gobank website also explains (you can find this under "Deposit > Deposit Cash > Learn more"):

We allow between $20 (minimum) and $1,100 (maximum) per transaction.

Cost per dollar using MyVanilla Debit

This restriction made me wonder, what's the minimum cost a Gobank user can pay per dollar of manufactured spend using the techniques I described in my post, "The Perpetual Points Machine is Real​?"

​When buying a Vanilla Reload Network reload card with its maximum value, $500, you'll pay $3.95 per $503.95 in manufactured spend. But if you load the reload card to a MyVanilla Debit card, you'll also pay a flat $0.50 per transaction fee when you move the money to your Gobank account at Walmart. To minimize the cost per manufactured dollar, you'll therefore also want to make your unloading transactions as large as possible, in this case, $1,100. (Note that I do not do this, out of an overabundance of caution; I make multiple, somewhat smaller load transactions).

To make the math simple, say you buy $5,500 in Vanilla Reload Network reload cards. You'll pay $43.45 in load fees to manufacture $5,543.45 in spend. To unload that $5,500, you'll make 3 trips to Walmart, loading $1,100 twice during the first two trips and  once on your third trip. Those 5 transactions will cost an additional $2.50 total, bringing your total cost to $45.95 for $5,543.45 in manufactured spend, or 0.82 cents per dollar.

I find it lucrative to pay this cost when I use a 2% cash back credit card (or a card offering 2.22% cash back as statement credits), or when I use one of my other cards that offers ​big rewards when I reach a high level of annual spending. Whether it's worth it for you depends on how highly you value the points or miles you're manufacturing, and whether you are using this technique to meet minimum spending requirements you can't meet with your everyday purchases.

The Barclaycard Extra Points NFL card

In the comments section of my walkthrough on redeeming Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard "miles" for statement credits against travel purchases, reader .net replied:

Geez, all the blather about the Arrival card when the even better NFL card is ignored? I guess the affiliate bonuses are higher?

NFL card is essentially a $600 cb card as almost everyone gets the additional 20000 point offer if you spend $500 per month for 3 months. You can use points to pay down your balance, which is far better than being forced to use only on travel.

To be honest, I had forgotten about the NFL card since it's not a travel rewards credit card and it only earns 1% cash back on all purchases (except NFL purchases - not a high-spend category for me).

Extra Points NFL vs. Arrival World

s my readers know, the Arrival World MasterCard has no annual fee the first year, and has a signup bonus of 40,000 "miles" after spending $1,000 on the card within 90 days. Those 40,000 miles can be redeemed for up to $444 in statement credits against travel purchases. After the first year, the annual fee is $89, which is only worth paying if you plan on spending more than $40,050 on the card, since there are no-annual-fee credits cards which offer 2% cash back on all purchases, while the Arrival World MasterCard offers a "true" earning rate of 2.22% cash back, because of the 10% rebate for statement credits against travel purchases.

How does the Extra Points NFL card compare? The stated signup bonus is somewhat smaller, with a higher minimum spending requirement: 40,000 points, which can be redeemed for $400 in statement credits (instead of $444), after spending $2,500 (instead of $1,000) within 90 days. On the other hand, the NFL statement credits can be against any purchase, for example, a $400 Amazon Payments transaction, making it as good as cash, while you might prefer to put your travel purchases on a credit card that gives bonuses for spending on travel, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred (all travel), Ink Bold or Ink Plus (hotels), or American Express Premier Rewards Gold or Business Gold Rewards (airfare) cards.

As .net pointed out, there are also reports of Extra Points NFL cardholders receiving an offer from Barclaycard of 20,000 additional points for spending $500 on the card every month for 3 months. While .net claims "almost everyone" gets this offer, I personally travel hack quite conservatively, and certainly wouldn't count on receiving this additional offer, although I'd obviously be pleased if I did.

ow to decide

If, like me, you value the ability to get a 64.5% discount on paid travel, for example in order to earn airline elite status and hotel stay and night credits as well as hotel points, then the Arrival World MasterCard allows you to do so, by manufacturing 2.22 cents in travel redemptions at a cost of 0.79 cents during the first, fee-free year.

If you conserve your manufactured spend budget in order to hit high spend bonuses on cards like the American Express Delta Platinum and Reserve cards, or even medium spend bonuses on cards like the Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve card, which I wrote about earlier this week, then you may be better off applying for the Extra Points NFL card, redeeming the signup bonus, and forgetting about it.

Finally, if you can manufacture essentially unlimited spend at a low, fixed cost, then there's no reason not to apply for both cards in two application cycles, at least 91 days apart. Use the Extra Points NFL card to earn an easy $400, and use the Arrival World MasterCard to earn 2.22% cash back on your manufactured spend the first, fee-free year.

Alaska Airlines debit card still available

​I use the Alaska Airlines debit card issued by Bank of America and linked to my Bank of America checking account fairly aggressively in order to manufacture Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles, earning 1 Mileage Plan mile for every $2 I spend on the debit card, including PIN-based and signature transactions.

I consider Mileage Plan miles to be one of the most valuable airline currencies (although I credit my Delta flights to my Delta Skymiles account in order to retain valuable  Medallion elite status), since they can be used for one-way award tickets on Alaska Airlines and American Airlines flights (including "last seat" availability on Alaska-operated flights), ​and they allow you to combine one Delta-operated leg with another operated leg by Alaska or American, something you can't do with Delta's own Skymiles.

​There is a lot of mistaken speculation (for example, in this flyertalk thread) that Bank of America no longer issues the Alaska Airlines debit card to new customers, so I want to make sure my readers are aware that you can still apply for the card. ​I first heard about the currently working link from Gary at View from the Wing, who heard about it from Free Frequent Flyer Miles.

So, if you have a Bank of America checking account, you can apply for an Alaska Airlines debit card here.

You can generate lots of easy, free, and valuable miles by using your Alaska Airlines debit card to fund Venmo transactions, load Bluebird and Gobank at Walmart, or pay other bills that only accept debit cards (although some transactions, like tax payments, may not earn miles).

One final note on the Bank of America Alaska Airlines debit card: unlike co-branded credit cards, your Alaska Airlines miles do not post after your monthly checking account ​statement closes. Rather, the miles are issued at the beginning of the month following the miles-earning debit card activity. I'll typically see my miles post to my Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan account between the 5th and 10th of the month, for the preceding month's debit card transactions.

The "New" Google Wallet reader promotion

[edit 12:15 am EST: The promotion is now closed! Thanks to all my readers and be sure to subscribe to stay up to date on the world of miles and points!]​

[edit 1:57 pm EST: I've had to use a couple different Google Wallet accounts to send money to readers, but as of now I'm still able to send payments and activate readers' Google Wallet accounts!]​

As reported by Frequent Miler and others, Google is in the process of rolling out a new peer-to-peer payments system which is integrated into its E-mail client. The new Google Wallet allows you to "attach" money to E-mails, or send money through a separate web application.

During the rollout, ​you can signup for Google Wallet and you'll be notified when your account becomes eligible for peer-to-peer payments.

​The fees for payments made using credit or debit cards, which will be 2.9% plus a $0.30 flat fee (the same as PayPal's), are waived during the current promotional period.

Currently, the best way to enable peer-to-peer payments for your account is to have someone send money to your e-mail address using Google Wallet.​ At the DansDeals Forums they have created a "conga line" for people to sign up to send and receive a penny in order to activate their Google Wallet accounts.

​One of my readers was kind enough to send me a penny in order to activate my account, so today I want to pass on the karma with a Google Wallet reader promotion!

​There are two ways to enter:

Entry method #1: Forward your receipt

Before 11:59 pm EST, May 23, 2013, ​forward your Amazon receipt for The Free-quent Flyer's Manifesto to freequentflyer@freequentflyerbook.com. I will send $0.01 to the E-mail address you forward your receipt from; it doesn't have to be the address Amazon mailed your receipt to.

Every reader who before midnight forwards their Amazon receipt for The Free-quent Flyer's Manifesto (even if you downloaded it during the promotional period when it was free) will receive a $0.01 Google Wallet payment, activating their account.

Entry method #2: Leave a comment with your E-mail address

The first 20 readers to ​leave a comment on this post with their E-mail address will also receive a $0.01 payment through Google Wallet, activating their Google Wallet account.

It's that simple! Forward me your Amazon receipt for The Free-quent Flyer's Manifesto, or leave a comment with the e-mail address you want to activate. I only ask that if you're going to forward your receipt, don't also leave a comment, so I can help as many people as possible.​

(One caveat: I don't know if Google will freeze my account after I send a certain number of pennies to readers. If that happens I'll post here immediately, but my intention is to help out as many people as I can!)​

How to follow the blog

A quick housekeeping note. If you read my blog at freequentflyerbook.com, you'll notice a slight change to the right-hand column. It now provides several options to follow the blog and stay up-to-date on all the latest news in the world of travel hacking.

Subscribe by E-mail

First, you can enter your ​e-mail address and receive every blog post in your inbox as soon as it's published. This is typically no more than one post per day, although frequency varies.

Subscribe to the RSS feed

Second, you can enter my RSS feed into your preferred RSS reader and you'll see my blog posts appear there, as well.

Follow me on Twitter

Finally, you can follow me on Twitter, where you can quickly see the title of each post and a link you can follow to read it here on the website.

Breaking: Citi ThankYou 5x is still available

In my January application cycle I applied for the Citi ThankYou Preferred card through an offer that gave 5 ThankYou points per dollar spent at drug stores, grocery stores, and gas stations for the first 12 months of card membership. I was instantly approved and began using the card to manufacture student loan rebate checks, which I use to pay off loans at a rate of 1 cent per ThankYou point.

That online offer soon died, but today I woke up to find Frequent Miler reporting via the Miles Professor ​that a very similar offer is still alive and well. The catch? It's only available at brick-and-mortar Citibank locations.

The offer is for the Citi ThankYou card, instead of the ThankYou Preferred card. Using Citi's online credit card comparison tool, it appears to me that the only difference between the two cards is that the Preferred card doesn't have a preset spending limit, while the regular ThankYou card does. So keep that in mind.

​It's hard to say how long this offer will be available. I never recommend rushing into a credit card application cycle, but if you have one coming up anyway and haven't applied for another Citi card in the last 3 months or so, I can tell you this is the most lucrative offer you will see this year and you should strongly consider applying. Check out Citi's branch locator to see if there's a branch near you, or in an area you might be traveling to soon.

Changes to Gobank debit card loads

Changes to Gobank debit card loads

Back on May ​10, Gobank send an e-mail out to users with updates to the Deposit Account Agreement that governs Gobank checking accounts. In this Flyertalk thread, members were concerned that the e-mail included this section:

Deposit Options
Using a debit card to deposit money into your account will only be an option when making your initial deposit. Ongoing deposit options now include Mobile Deposit, Direct Deposit, bank transfer and cash.

​Soon after, it was noticed that the Gobank website no longer allows online debit card loads. Instead, the "Move money from another bank" tab only shows you your Gobank routing and account numbers, which you can use to deposit money electronically from another checking account.

However, the Gobank smartphone application has not yet been updated​ and still allows online debit card loads to your Gobank account, for example with a rewards-earning debit card like the PayPal Debit MasterCard. At least one of my readers has reported success in doing so since the website was updated.

Note that this opportunity will probably go away on or around May 30, if not sooner, so if you already have a Gobank account and you haven't loaded $1,000 yet using online debit card loads, now would be a great time to do so!​

Remember, you'll always find the latest news about developments with Gobank here on the Free-quent Flyer blog.​

Do this now: Order Bluebird checks

One of the three most straight-forward ways to manufacture spending using a rewards-earning credit card is through the American Express Bluebird checking alternative. ​After loading your Bluebird account with up to $5,000 per calendar month using a rewards-earning PIN-based debit card or Vanilla Reload Network reload cards, you can then use your balance to pay bills that wouldn't normally allow you to earn rewards: taxes, credit cards, mortgages, student loans, utility bills, and so on.

One problem people run into using Bluebird is that ​the built-in bill pay system doesn't recognize all potential bill issuers. Local property taxes are a common example, where you need to make your check payable to your city or county department of revenue, which may not be loaded into the Bluebird bill pay service.

To solve this problem, Bluebird began offering checks which are linked to your Bluebird account and allow you to pay anyone you wish, after first "pre-authorizing" the check through the Bluebird website or smartphone application.

As an introductory offer, Bluebird is offering users up to 100 checks at no cost, including free shipping and handling!

​This deal was supposed to end today, but according to Bluebird's website now

Checkbook order fees are waived until 08/13/2013.

​But since you're limited to one order of free checks, there's no reason to wait.

Order your completely free checks now, before you forget.

Do this now: Club Carlson's summer promotion

Registration is now open for Club Carlson's summer promotion. ​Between May 13 and July 21, 2013, you'll earn 10,000 bonus Club Carlson Gold Points for each paid stay of 2 or more nights at Club Carlson properties. Unfortunately Cash + Points stays are not eligible for the bonus.

You need to register for the promotion before you check out during your first eligible stay, which you can do here.​

Update to the website: current hotel promotions all in one place

As you can see, in the top right navigation bar I've now added a simple page listing all the current hotel promotions that I'm aware of and registration links for each one. This is a handy way to keep track of all quarterly and seasonal hotel promotions, which typically have different start and end dates, and to make sure you're registered for all of them, which is free and easy. Check it out, and be sure to let me know if I'm missing a promotion or if there are other hotel chains you'd like me to keep track of.

Obviously I'll continue to post to the blog when registration opens for seasonal promotions, reminding you to register now, before you forget!​

Redeeming Barclaycard Arrival World miles

've written quite a bit recently about the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard because of its unusually lucrative signup bonus for a fixed-value rewards credit card, worth $444 when used for statement credits against travel purchases made with the card.

Back in February I explained how the card earns a "true" rate of 2.22% cash back because of the 10% rebate you get every time you redeem points against travel purchases, but cautioned that the $89 annual fee is only worth paying if you spend more than $40,050 on the card after the first, fee-free year. Then in March I gave some tips on maximizing fixed-value travel rewards points by redeeming for statement credits against hotel reservations made directly with the hotel, in order to earn hotel loyalty points and stay and night credits towards elite status. Finally last month I included the Arrival World MasterCard in my April credit card application cycle, when I was immediately approved for the card.

After paying $7.90 to meet the $1,000 minimum spending requirement to earn the 40,000 mile signup bonus and waiting for my first statement to close, was sitting on 42,016 Arrival World miles, and was itching to start redeeming them. Since the details vary between various fixed-value rewards currencies, I want to share with my readers the ins and outs of the redemption process.

When you log into your Barclaycard account, you'll see your rewards balance at the top of the page, on the right:

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When you click on "Manage rewards," you'll see this page, showing the various points redemption options:

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We're interested in the section "Pay yourself back for travel." If you click "Redeem now," you'll see a list of all your eligible purchases. In my experience ​purchases appear on this list one day after they clear from pending status:

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When you select "Redeem"​ next to a purchase, you'll see a list of eligible redemption amounts. I was surprised by this since Barclaycard doesn't advertise that partial redemptions are possible. However, it appears that at least for larger purchases, it is possible to redeem your miles for part of the purchase price, if you choose:

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​After selecting your desired purchases and amounts, just click "Checkout:"

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And then "Place your order:"​

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On the confirmation page you'll even see the 10% redemption rebate applied to travel redemptions. In my experience those points were immediately redeposited into my account, and available for the next redemption.

One thing to keep in mind when charging travel purchases to the Arrival World MasterCard is that the minimum redemption amount is 2,500 points for a statement credit of $25. I forgot this and charged a $7 in-flight drink to my card, which was ineligible for redemption!​

I'll need to do more experimenting to determine what purchases allow partial redemptions, which will be a great way to redeem as many miles as possible, leaving as few as possible left over in your account when you cancel the card before the first annual fee is due.​