Update on MasterCard rePower network

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At the beginning of the month I suggested that since the latest Vanilla Reload Network redesign included MasterCard rePower on the front of the card, it might be possible to load MasterCard prepaid debit cards using Vanilla Reload Network reload cards.

The Experiment

To test this theory, I picked what looked like two of the most promising cards: the H&R Block Emerald prepaid MasterCard and the Mango alternative checking account. The Emerald card doesn't have any monthly fees, and the Mango card has a $5 monthly fee that's waived when you load $500 or more during your statement period.

The Result

Unfortunately, neither card is currently loadable using Vanilla Reload Network reload cards.

However, in the course of my experimenting I did discover that Mango allows outgoing ACH transactions . That means that if you are able to load the account (for example, using Green Dot Moneypaks, available in some areas and at some merchants for purchase by credit card), then you can easily liquidate your balance by entering your Mango routing and account numbers in your credit card issuer's bill pay function.

In Other News

It isn't really the focus of this blog or my book, but I should also point out that Mango offers a 6% APR savings account alongside its checking account product. This is more than you'll earn leaving your money in virtually any other FDIC-insured instrument. You'll earn 6% APY on the first $5,000 in your savings account when you "enroll" in their direct deposit service. According to the site, you "enroll" by making 2 payroll deposits totaling $50 or more within 90 days. If you max out the $5,000 cap, and then deposit and bill pay out $500 each month in order to avoid the monthly fee, then you'll earn $300 per year in interest (actually slightly less since it's 6% APY, not APR, and you won't earn true compound interest above the $5,000 level). You won't get rich using this technique, but there's also no reason not to do it, since if you're manufacturing spend then you probably have a fair amount of month-to-month liquidity. You're allowed up to 5 transfers between your Mango checking and savings accounts each month.

One other note: while Mango suggests linking your bank account or PayPal account as a funding source, I was unable to use my Mango routing and account numbers to add the account to either Bank of America's "transfers outside the bank" function or PayPal's "withdraw" function. However, I was able to add Mango as a "linked checking account" to Bluebird. Your Miles May Vary.

More bonus Flexpoints

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I know a lot of my readers have the US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards Signature Visa, which gives 2 Flexpoints per dollar spent in whichever of gas stations, grocery stores, or airline ticket you spend most in each statement cycle, and 3 Flexpoints per dollar spent on purchases coded as "charity."

If you're one of them, check your e-mail for a message from US Bank offering bonus points for spending a certain amount of money on your card between November 1 and December 31. The version of the offer I received gives 2,500 bonus Flexpoints after spending $2,000 with the card, but these offers sometimes vary depending on your spend pattern and relationship with US Bank, since they're typically trying to motivate additional spend above your usual pattern.

If you spend all $2,000 in a double Flexpoint bonus category, you'll earn 3.25 Flexpoints per dollar, worth up to 6.5 cents in paid, mileage-earning airfare.

The offer does require registration through the Flexperks promotions center or the link in your e-mail. 

Did anyone get a different version of this offer? 

 

A quick update on affiliate links & how to support the site

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Back in June I wrote a post about being approved for affiliate links through one of the many credit card marketing companies out there. They had a terrible selection of credit cards and signup offers, but their links for the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard and Discover it cards were as good as the best available offers, so I went ahead and changed my links on this site to those affiliate links.

Long story short, I never made any money, and then they fired me.

I bring this up now because they recently got back in touch with me and told me to remove the links that I had put on various pages and blog posts. Weirdly, it turns out that a large number of the different credit card affiliate marketers on the internet are all owned by the same people, Bankrate.com.

So I removed all those links too.  If you happen to notice any changes to where my links direct you, it's because they should all now point to the applications hosted by the credit card companies themselves (unless there's a better offer available elsewhere).

The affiliate link thing was an interesting experiment, but it was pretty much doomed to fail since there was no way I was ever going to change my website or style in order to secure more signups or meet their requirements for affiliates.

How can you support the site?

This leaves the question of what you can do to support the site, if you're so inclined, and I'll be floating some ideas and asking for feedback as I approach my 1-year anniversary, when I need to decide whether to renew this project for another year.

If you haven't already then you can first and foremost buy or borrow my Kindle ebook, The Free-quent Flyer's Manifesto. If you really can't come up with $2.99 to buy the book, but have an Amazon Prime account, don't worry, I also get a small royalty when the book is borrowed, and it doesn't cost you anything!

If you've already bought or borrowed the ebook, please consider leaving a review. I absolutely love hearing from readers by e-mail and in the comment threads, and it would be terrific if you can share what you think with even more people by leaving a review on Amazon.

Finally, there are a few signup links scattered around the website:

Some of the most popular cash back portals offer referral credit as well:

Thanks again to everyone who has supported the site. I adore my readers, and hope that together we can keep this project going for a long time to come!

 

Real talk about MyVanilla Debit cards

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In the travel hacking blogosphere, I try to strike what I think is the right balance between risk and reward for myself and for my readers. That's why I'm always asking my readers to take each technique slowly and start with small amounts that you can afford to be without for a little while or – heaven forbid! – even lose. 

Every technique that we use requires you to find your own comfort level. Loading Vanilla Reload Network reload cards to Bluebird, for example, is a technique that many travel hackers use and have become comfortable with because there have been virtually no reports of adverse action against people using Bluebird in that manner.

Other techniques have more complicated track records. For example, here on the blog I broke the story of Gobank, which is an incredibly lucrative opportunity to liquidate PIN-enabled gift cards and reloadable prepaid cards.  However, the behavior that travel hackers consider most lucrative (rapidly loading and unloading) has invariably led to shutdowns and the loss of the opportunity.

What I want to talk about today are MyVanilla Debit cards. These PIN-enabled debit cards are reloadable using Vanilla Reload Network reload cards. They have incredibly high limits (but don't even think about loading your balance above $10,000). You can unload them using PIN-based methods (like Walmart money orders and bill pay ). Moreover, you can withdraw money using "cash advances" at (virtually?) every bank in the United States.

Some time ago, a series of shutdown reports started to pour into Flyertalk  from users who said their accounts had been closed after various forms of the above activities. Like a lot of users, I pulled back on my usage, and avoided shutdown on my three MyVanilla Debit accounts.

Since then the shutdown reports slowed down, and other opportunities opened up, so I decided to start using my MyVanilla Debit cards more aggressively. 

And my accounts are still alive and well. 

For each of my 3 active MyVanilla Debit card accounts, I've adopted the following pattern: 4 $500 Vanilla Reloads per week; 1 $1,000 bank cash advance; 1 $1,000 Walmart bill pay.

This allows me to manufacture about $24,000 per month using Vanilla Reloads loaded to MyVanilla Debit cards at a cost of roughly 1 cent per dollar of manufactured spend. Since between my Fidelity 2% cash back card, Barclaycard 2.22% Arrival World MasterCard, and 5% Citi ThankYou Preferred card I'm averaging 3.07 cents per dollar of manufactured spend, this is a no brainer for me.

What I'm not saying is that every one of my readers should start emulating my (very aggressive) usage of these cards. To be even more emphatic, if you start doing $9,500 cash advances every week you will certainly be shut down.

What I am saying is that these cards have a reputation that, unlike Gobank, they don't fully deserve. MyVanilla Debit cards are still a very viable option for manufacturing relatively large amounts of spend each month. And if you've been shying away from them because of the shutdown reports, it might be time to start – carefully! – dipping your toes back in the water.

Do this now: double redeemable miles with United

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 [update 10/22/13: I failed to mention that the promotion is only valid in the following fare classes: A, J, C, D, Z, P, Y, B, M, E, U, H, Q, V, W and S. If you're planning to take advantage of this promotion, be sure your fare qualifies before booking.]

I don't typically write about airline promotions since they tend to be either targeted to certain customers or valid only on certain routes. However, there's currently a United Airlines promotion that doesn't appear to be targeted and that everyone should register for immediately.

Under this promotion, you'll earn double redeemable (not Elite Qualification) Mileage Plus miles on all flights operated by United or United Express within the continental United States between October 21 and November 21, 2013. Unfortunately, you'll only earn the bonus miles on flights you book during the promotional period, not existing reservations.

If you're flying United in the next month this is an incredible promotion, and if you're planning to mileage run for status before the end of the year, it's definitely worth scheduling your run during the promotional period. Register now, before you forget.

Maximizing Chase Freedom's 4th quarter bonus

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My apologies in advance that this post is a bit derivative (for way more info check out Frequent Miler's post on the same subject), but I received a request from a reader who has a couple Chase Freedom cards and wants to maximize his 4th quarter earnings. As a reminder, in the 4th quarter of 2013 you can earn up to 7,500 non-flexible Ultimate Rewards points by spending up to $1,500 at Amazon.com or "select department stores."

Amazon.com

Since Amazon.com in general doesn't participate in any shopping portals (although select categories do earn cashback through some portals), this is an opportunity to earn 5 valuable Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on your normal Amazon.com shopping.

This is much more valuable than Discover's 5% cash back category of "online shopping" this quarter, since Discover cash back is frustrating to redeem, while non-flexible Freedom Ultimate Rewards points can be transferred to a flexible Ultimate Rewards account for transfer to Chase's valuable partners or for redemption for paid travel at 1.25 cents each.

Sears Gift Cards

This technique's a bit trickier, but Frequent Miler has done the Lord's work figuring the ins and outs of it. Basically, if you're buying gift cards online, you need to know that physical Sears gift cards are sold not by Sears, but by Kmart, and Kmart isn't a "select department store" for the purposes of this quarter's Chase Freedom bonus. If you buy eGift cards online, on the other hand, they'll be charged to your credit card by Sears, and earn you 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar.

Of course, if you have a nearby Sears store location (I don't), you can simply go to that store and buy gift cards there.  If you decide to go that route, then you can either buy Sears gift cards or you can look for what Frequent Miler calls the "secret gift card rack," where you can potentially find other, more useful gift cards.

Either way, before you make any Sears purchases you'll want to sign up for Plink, add Sears to your Plink Wallet, and make the Freedom card that you'll be using your active card.

Why should you care about Sears gift cards? Here's the fun part: on Friday Frequent Miler ALSO reported that it's possible to pay for travel using Sears gift cards, by going through Sears Vacation.

Apparently you have to make your reservation over the phone in order to use Sears gift cards, which is admittedly pretty annoying, and their prices are $10 more than you'll pay elsewhere. On the other hand, the ability to earn 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar, worth at least 6.25 cents when used for paid travel with a flexible Ultimate Rewards account, means that for flights over $267 you're strictly better off using a Sears gift card purchased with your Chase Freedom than a Chase Sapphire Preferred which earns just 2 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar, worth at least 2.5 cents in paid travel (since you're netting 3.75 cents per dollar, at which rate $267 is the break-even point for the $10 booking fee).

Of course many people value flexible Ultimate Rewards points even higher than that, which lowers the break-even point further. 

Conclusions

Those are my thoughts so far on the Chase Freedom quarterly bonus categories. As for my own plans, I was "fortunate" enough to need to buy a new Apple computer this quarter, so that was an easy way for me to use up the $1,500 cap on my Discover card. For the rest of the quarter I'll be doing my Amazon shopping with my Chase Freedom card, and then I'll spend the rest of my $1,500 Chase Freedom cap on Sears eGift Cards, which I'll use the next time I need to book a paid flight. I'm all booked up for the rest of this year, but there's no doubt I'll be buying flights again soon, hopefully at 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar.

More thoughts on Square Cash

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This is a followup to yesterday's post on Square Cash, the new e-mail based online peer-to-peer payment service by the people who brought you those little white smartphone dongles. I've been experimenting with it some more, and I want to give a rundown of some of the most lucrative options that have occurred to me so far.

Rewards-earning debit cards

This one's a no-brainer: use your rewards-earning debit card to transfer up to $10,000 a month. My first transfer, from my Bank of America Alaska Airlines debit card, has already posted to my account, and appears as a normal debit card purchase (the merchant category is 7299, "Miscellaneous Personal Services (Not Elsewhere Classified)."

This makes me VERY confident that I'll earn rewards for that transaction. 

Turn your PayPal accounts into Bluebird accounts

While it doesn't apply to everyone, if you live in a region with CVS store locations that sell Vanilla Reload Network reload cards, you're probably already loading your Bluebird account with them and paying off your credit cards, or transferring the money out to your bank account.

Those same store locations will also typically sell PayPal My Cash cards, which likewise have a $3.95 activation fee for cards with up to $500 in value. If you have a PayPal Debit MasterCard linked to your personal PayPal account (it's completely free), then you can use that card to send money from your PayPal account using Square Cash.

Better yet, if you have a Business or Premier PayPal account, your Debit MasterCard also earns 1% cash back. As in the case of the Bank of America card, I'm fairly confident you'll earn rewards on these free Square Cash transactions. Consequently, you can manufacture $4,032 in spend each month at a negative cost: you'll make $40 in cash back, which more than covers the $31.60 you'll spend for PayPal Cash cards!

This option appears to be rapidly vanishing, but if you have access to PayPal My Cash cards at 7-11 store locations coded as "gas stations," you can also earn tons of points taking advantage of that common bonus category.

Experiments with other prepaid cards

Unfortunately, Square Cash doesn't accept cards that it identifies as "prepaid" cards. However, their method of identifying prepaid cards is not entirely accurate. Most gift cards have been reported as not working, while a small minority appear to work.

My Nationwide Visa Buxx card was correctly identified as prepaid cards and wasn't accepted.  My US Bank Buxx card isn't in my name, so I didn't want to risk adding it to my account.

In the course of my research on the MasterCard rePower network, I applied for the H&R Block emerald card, which is loadable using Green Dot Moneypaks and hopefully soon with Vanilla Reloads. I was able to add my emerald card to Square Cash successfully.

Conclusion

I truly believe this is a game changing development, at least for as long as it lasts, and I encourage you to start experimenting, since no one knows how long that's going to be!

Developing: Square Cash

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I spend a lot of time talking about the Bank of America Alaska Airlines debit card. It's not the only rewards debit card available, but it is - in my opinion - the best (low annual fee, earns miles on PIN transactions, earns super-valuable Alaska miles). I get a lot of questions about whether the card is still available to new applications, and I can't give a straight answer, since I already have the card. However, this link still takes you to a working website, so I have no reason to believe it's not available.

The occasion for this observation is that there's a new, free method of manufacturing up to $10,000 per month using debit cards: Square Cash .

The very first thing you should do if you're interested in this technique is read this entire FlyerTalk thread and this terrific Wall Street Journal article.

Now you know everything I know. Some observations:

  • People are reporting only occasional success with gift cards. If you're a gift card churner, for now you'll have to see for yourself whether the cards you have available will work with Square Cash.
  • There's one report of failure using a MyVanilla Debit card. That's a shame, since this would be a terrific way to unload $2,500 per week.
  • Any rewards-earning debit card should work and earn rewards (Suntrust Delta Skymiles World Check Card, Bankoh Hawaiian Airlines Visa Check Card, ufb direct Airlines Rewards Checking).
  • As long as you have 2 e-mail addresses and 2 different debit cards (one to send and one to receive) , you should be able to send money to yourself. Make a small test payment to make sure it goes through.

It's still early days, so don't be surprised if the details of this deal change as we go forward. But if you've been looking for a new hack that you can get in on the ground floor of and, most importantly, share your experiences with the community, here's your chance!

 

Reasons to love the Midwest: US Bank ATMs

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This last weekend I took a trip to beautiful Milwaukee, WI. It was a great trip, giving me the chance to fence, see a good friend and, of course, visit a US Bank ATM! That gives me the occasion to provide an update to this post from back in September. In that post I reported, based on the US Bank Visa Buxx cardholder agreement, that the limits on free US Bank ATM withdrawals are "$200 per withdrawal, 3 per 24 hour period."

I can now report that that information is incorrect . I ended up testing this because I arrived in Milwaukee Friday night, October 11, and my next US Bank Visa Buxx load day was Saturday, October 12. Since I didn't want to spend my weekend on the US Bank iPhone app looking for ATMs, I decided to try an additional $500 in ATM withdrawals Saturday morning. Here's my (successful) withdrawal history:

  • 10/11/13, 19:26, $200
  • 10/11/13, 19:27, $200
  • 10/11/13, 19:28, $100
  • 10/12/13, 16:01, $100
  • 10/12/13, 16:01, $200
  • 10/12/13, 16:02, $200

Now, does this make the biggest difference in the world? Of course not. For readers who don't have access to US Bank ATMs (as I myself don't have here in New England), it doesn't make any difference at all. But I want to make sure my readers have the most up-to-date information that I have, in case they find themselves passing through the Midwest with a Visa Buxx balance and want to make totally free ATM withdrawals.

In other news, I have replaced my computer so new posts and replies to comments and e-mails should return to normal. Even better, as I was writing this post I received notification from Discover that my ShopDiscover purchase was tracked successfully:

I've never felt so good about spending $1,200...

Do this now: Hilton winter promotion

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While the details of Hilton's winter promotion have been known for some time (I updated my Hotel Promotions page a few weeks ago) , registration for the promotion has finally opened.

You'll earn double base HHonors points on stays of 2 nights, triple base points on 3 night stays, and quadruple base points on stays of 4 or more nights between October 10, 2013 and January 31, 2014.

Register now, before you forget, and see the list of non-participating properties here.