BREAKING: HR Block Emerald card Vanilla Reloadable

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I reported back in October that the redesigned Vanilla Reload Network reload cards had "MasterCard rePower" listed on the front. I linked to a list of MasterCard prepaid cards and speculated that it might be possible to load some of them using Vanilla Reload Network reload cards.

I went out and hunted down a few of the most promising cards on the list, including the Mango checking account alternative and the HR Block Emerald card, both of which had no monthly fees or fees that were easily waived (in Mango's case, through a single $500 deposit each month).

Unfortunately, as I reported at the end of October, neither the Emerald nor the Mango card ended up being loadable using Vanilla Reload Network reload cards.

I stuck both cards in my drawer and forgot about them until I saw this post from a few days ago on FlyerTalk. There, user SoCalStew reported success loading his Emerald card, writing:

For a brief shining moment, a couple of weeks ago, I was able to stuff a few VRs into my Emerald Card. This is how it looked on the Emerald site.

01/01/14 ADD FUNDS - POS / VANILLA TOPUP REDEEM 10ATLANTA GA USA $500.00

Then they pulled the plug on reloads. Comes up as a "Code 21" on the VR site.

Fortunately I had a few Vanilla Reload Network reload cards lying around, so I dug out my Emerald card and tried it for myself.

SUCCESS!

I can now report that for at least some users, HR Block Emerald cards are Vanilla Reloadable. This is terrific news because back in October when I first got my Emerald card, I confirmed that it's also possible to pay bills using ACH pulls – for free – from the Emerald card account. That makes it possible to liquidate Vanilla Reload Network reload cards at no additional cost once they've been successfully loaded to the Emerald.

Limits?

A few minutes ago I was able to load just two $500 reload cards to my Emerald account before receiving an error that I'd reached the limit on the number of loads allowed. I'll continue attempting to load money to the account over the next few days, weeks, and months and report back any other load limits I'm able to discover.

Reader experiences are of course more than welcome.

Thoughts on making Platinum Medallion and Rollover MQM

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Reports have been trickling in of Rollover MQM posting and sure enough when I logged into my Delta Skymiles account today, I saw that my 2014 Medallion tracker was updated with 1,142 Rollover MQM:

As planned, I made Platinum Medallion on December 29, on a First Class Alaska Airlines flight from Kauai, HI to Portland, OR. Thanks to Delta's generous earning rules and the fact that Alaska Airlines has just one First Class fare bucket, I earned 5,262 MQM on that flight, putting me just over the threshold for Platinum Medallion status.

I've explained before that I consider Platinum Medallion the best Medallion status because it's only at that level that you get free award redeposits and changes, which allows you to lock in an award at the "Standard" or "Peak" levels, then keep an eye on award availability to later change the award to the "Saver" level and receive the difference in miles back – at no additional cost.

So was it worth paying $372 roundtrip to upgrade from Alaska's Economy to First Class? If I'd flown in Economy, and earned just 7,799 2013 Medallion Qualification Miles, I would have ended the year 6,657 MQM short of Platinum Medallion Status (and rolled over 18,343 MQM).

On the other hand, as a Gold Medallion, I would have to pay $150 per change to redeposit or reissue Skymiles award tickets.

Just to stress how valuable I find this benefit, just a few hours ago I already took advantage of it and reissued a domestic ticket from 32,500 Skymiles to 25,000 Skymiles, with the difference of 7,500 Skymiles redeposited in my account.

Now, I would never pay $150 to recover 7,500 Skymiles. The point of being a Platinum Medallion is that I don't have to. One reissued ticket per year isn't going to pay for a $372 flight change. But the recovered miles do have some value, and I have no doubt that I'm going to save enough Skymiles this year using this technique to more than justify the additional cost of my First Class tickets over the holidays.

Errata on Rollover MQM & MQD

The Points Guy made a comment today that I want to "correct" as early in the year as possible since it's worth thinking about as the Medallion qualification year proceeds. He wrote:

Just as background on rollover miles in case you are a Delta flyer yourself – as I mentioned, you can rollover miles above and beyond your current elite status threshold qualification. Whether you roll over 500 miles or 200,000, there’s no limit.

That means if you are a Silver or Gold Medallion the maximum you can rollover is 24,999 miles, since anything more would bump you to the next level; Platinum Medallions may rollover up to 49,999 MQMs; Diamond Medallions have no limit to how many MQMs they can rollover. Something important to point out is if you do not qualify for Silver Medallion status, you wouldn’t be able to rollover any MQMs, so you must achieve elite status at some level in order to rollover miles. [emphasis mine –FQF]

The bolded statement is true of the previous and current Medallion program years. However, now that Medallion Qualification Dollars are in effect, all Medallions can roll over unlimited MQM. The Delta website makes this clear in the FAQ on Medallion Qualification Dollars:

If you achieve one Medallion qualification criteria and not the other, your status will be determined based on the lower of the two qualification thresholds that you achieved. For example, if you earned 76,000 MQMs (enough to qualify for Platinum Medallion status), but had $6,000 MQDs (enough to qualify for Gold Medallion status, but not Platinum Medallion status), then you will earn Gold Medallion status. Rollover MQMs will be calculated as anything in excess of the MQM threshold for the status earned based on the new criteria. In the above example, you would roll over 26,000 MQMs and would then need at least $2,500 MQDs (or the MQD Waiver) to earn Silver Medallion status the following year. [emphasis mine –FQF]

Obviously this is a distinction without a difference if you plan to receive an MQD Waiver through spending $25,000 or more on a co-branded American Express card. However, if you don't have an American Express card, it's easy to imagine rolling over tens of thousands of MQM:

  • Take a flyer who previously qualified for Platinum Medallion status by flying 75,000 MQM strictly on mileage runs at 3.5 cents per mile flown;
  • Assuming all 3.5 cents per mile count towards Medallion Qualification Dollars (they won't, because of taxes and fees), that Platinum Medallion would earn just $2,625 MQD in 2014 and only qualify for Silver Medallion status in 2015;
  • They'd roll over 50,000 MQM but still need to earn $2,500 MQD in 2015 in order to earn Medallion status in 2016 – or risk losing all 50,000 rolled-over MQM.

I love Marriott free night promotions

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If there's one thing I've learned in the travel-hacking community, it's that people who love Marriott Rewards really love Marriott Rewards.

Personally, I don't find Marriott Rewards points very useful. Even though I have the Marriott Rewards Premier Visa, I signed up for that card because of the free night certificate, 50,000 bonus Marriott Rewards points, and $75 statement credit (plus the annual free night certificate). As a rule I only charge one small purchase to the card every 6 months or so, to keep the account from being closed due to inactivity.

There's no point in manufacturing spend on the Marriott Rewards Visa cards because they only earn 1 point per dollar spent on most purchases (the Premier Visa earns 2 points per dollar spent on restaurants, airline tickets, and rental cars, which are irrelevant here).

However, I do find Marriott's regular MegaBonus promotions (here's the latest one) amazingly effective at getting me to direct my paid stays to Marriott properties. If you understand hotel loyalty programs as rebates on hotel stays, then the MegaBonus promotions are a 50% – or more – rebate on up to 4 paid stays during each promotional period.

My Winter MegaBonus

The MegaBonus promotion ending tomorrow offered a free night certificate good at Category 1-5 properties after your second and fourth paid stays during the promotional period. I earned 1 certificate, on the following stays over New Years:

  • 1 night at Courtyard Portland City Center: $115.64
  • 1 night at Fairfield Inn Portland Airport: $81.30

If I'd charged those stays to my Marriott Rewards Premier Visa, I would have earned 984 bonus Marriott Rewards points, on top of the 2,064 points I earned as a Silver elite. Instead, I charged both stays to my Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard, so I can redeem 19,694 Arrival miles against the two charges, at a total cost of a bit less than $79 (because of the 10% rebate on travel redemptions).

Having completed those 2 paid stays, I earned a Free Night Certificate good at a category 1-5 hotel. As you can see from my point density charts, there is no other hotel program that allows you to earn a free night at even the lowest tier properties after spending just $200 (with the exception of Concierge members with Club Carlson). Marriott allows you to stay at Category 4 or 5 properties for that much (or less) multiple times per year.

Plan Your Stays

To maximize the rebate from the MegaBonus promotions, you do need to plan your paid stays to make sure you have exactly 2 or 4 paid stays during each promotional period. Multiple nights in a row at the same hotel – even on separate reservations – are not supposed to count as separate stays. That's why for my 2-night stay at the Courtyard Portland City Center I booked the first night as a paid stay, then used a free night certificate from a previous MegaBonus promotion for the second night of the stay. By then changing hotels to the Fairfield Inn Portland Airport I was able to get a second stay credit (and be closer to the airport for my morning flight the next day).

If you're traveling with another person, you should be able to alternate nights at the same property and earn a stay credit for each night by crediting them to each person's account in turn. However, I have had problems in the past getting stays to properly credit to my Marriott Rewards account, so you may have to follow up with Marriott Rewards after your stays to make sure they credit properly.

Stackable New Member Promotion

Even better, Marriott is currently running a promotion for new members, whereby you can earn a free night certificate good at Category 1-5 properties after completing 2 paid stays within 120 days of the end of the month in which you join.

The best way to time this promotion with the next MegaBonus promotion is to sign up through this link on February 1: that way you'll have until the end of February, plus 120 days (roughly through the end of June), to complete your 2 paid stays, after which you'll have 1 free night certificate good at Category 1-5 properties (from the new member promotion) and 1 certificate good at Category 1-4 properties (from the Spring MegaBonus promotion).

Weekend thoughts from around the web

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Here are some quick hits from around the blogosphere:

Hope everyone's having a great weekend!

In all fairness: a successful Marriott LNF claim

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Having written a perhaps-too-strongly-worded condemnation of best rate guarantees in the past, based on the fact that hotel chains are too slow to respond and are relentless in their quest to disqualify seemingly-eligible claims, I feel that I owe it to my readers to report on a successful "Look No Further" best rate guarantee claim I recently made with Marriott.

The Challenge

My mother e-mailed me a few days ago, saying that she had booked a cancelable, week-long reservation at a Courtyard Marriott in Portland, OR through Travelocity, since it was about $51 cheaper than the flexible rate she found on Marriott's website. She wrote me to ask whether she would earn points for the stay.

I told her she wouldn't earn Marriott Rewards points since the reservation was made through a third-party website, but that the amount she was saving was worth much more than the points she would earn on an eligible rate. Meanwhile, I sprung into action.

To make a Look No Further claim, I first made a refundable reservation on Marriott's website at the $169 (before taxes) Best Available Rate. After confirming the $118 Travelocity rate was still available, I then submitted a Look No Further request through Marriott's website.

The Problem

Looking through the cancelation policies for the two rates, I immediately noticed a problem. As I wrote to my mother:

The trouble is that that [Travelocity] rate has a cancellation of 4 pm February 7, while the “best available rate” at Marriott has a cancellation of 6 pm February 8. That’s the kind of difference that they typically use to deny a best rate guarantee claim.

So I told my mother to hold onto her Travelocity reservation while I waited to hear back from Marriott.

Success!

Imagine my surprise when about 5 hours later I opened my e-mail to see this message from Marriott:

We have reviewed your claim and have made the following modification to your reservation:

Rate: $88.72

That rate reflects the 25% discount Marriott gives on successful Look No Further claims.

Conclusion

I still think the best you can say for Best Rate Guarantees is that there's no harm in making a claim.

Be sure you make freely cancelable, non-prepaid reservations, and do your best to find rates that are as similar as possible with respect to room type and cancelation policies. Then, submit your claim and cross your fingers.

But don't rely on these guarantees being accepted, since there are still far too many ways the hotel chains can deny a claim, and you won't have any recourse if they do – except booking through the cheaper, third-party booking channel!

Reminder: manufacture $14,000 in spend per month

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I got a lot of great responses to my post on my miles and points activity in 2013, as well as my earlier post asking for reader questions. One thing that really surprised me was that some readers appeared to be a bit confused about just what techniques I use to manufacture the bulk of my spend.

So let me put this out there loud and clear:

Almost everyone in America can manufacture $14,000 in spend per month at a cost of 0.75-0.85 cents per dollar.

That's without even tiptoeing up to the line of what's "ethical." Some of us dance closer to that line than others, but the $14,000 is a pure gift from the banking industry of America to their clients.

Now, there are a few exceptions: the Pacific Northwest, for instance, has long been (almost) a dead zone for manufactured spend. I recently read that there will soon be CVS locations in and around Seattle though, so that drought might be coming to an end.

But in general, every person with a Social Security number can manufacture $14,000 in spend as long as they have access to:

  • "Participating" CVS store locations;
  • Walmart store locations.

Of course, if you have a partner with a Social Security number, you can double this total, plus add in techniques that require a second party (Amazon Payments, Venmo, etc.).

But virtually everyone can start with $14,000. Here's how.

Bluebird Loads

Each calendar month, every person with a Social Security number can load $5,000 in Vanilla Reload Network reload cards to their Bluebird account. It's then free to empty the account using Bluebird's bill pay function (or simply transfer the funds to your checking account).

  • Spend Manufactured: $5039.50
  • Cost: $39.50
  • Cost per Dollar in Manufactured Spend: 0.78 cents

PayPal Loads

During every rolling 30-day period, every Personal, Business, and Premier PayPal account can be loaded with $4,000 in funds using PayPal My Cash cards. Every person with a Social Security number can have one (1) Premier or Business PayPal account, plus one (1) Personal account. Additionally, all three account types can have a linked PayPal Debit Card. There is a $3,000 daily limit on purchases made with debit cards linked to PayPal Business accounts, and a $500 daily limit on purchases made with debit cards linked to PayPal Personal accounts. The cheapest liquidation option I know of (besides Square Cash, which will only work briefly) is $0.70 money orders from Walmart, which can have a maximum value of $1,000. I've used that value below.

  • Spend Manufactured: $8063.20
  • PayPal My Cash Cost: $63.20
  • Liquidation Cost: $5.60
  • Cost per Dollar in Manufactured Spend: 0.85 cents

Nationwide Visa Buxx

Finally, every person with a Social Security number can order a Nationwide Visa Buxx card, which is loadable with up to $1,000 per rolling 30-day period, and can also be emptied using Walmart money orders.

  • Spend Manufactured: $1,004.00
  • Load Cost: $4
  • Liquidation Cost: $0.70
  • Cost per Dollar in Manufactured Spend: 0.47 cents

Conclusion

These aren't the only – or even the best – techniques for manufacturing spend out there. However, they do form a solid backbone of manufactured spend that is open to all US citizens and (I believe) virtually all resident aliens, as long as they have a tax ID number. While I was very satisfied with my manufactured spend activity in 2013, my average monthly spend was just $15,813. Of course, I spent a month abroad, so I was manufacturing more than that while Stateside, and my manufactured spend was heavily weighted towards the end of the year, but my point is that my yearly total could have been almost matched by a person spending just a few hours a week taking advantage of the above options: 3 trips to CVS for reload cards, 8 trips to Walmart for money orders, and a few minutes spent online loading the Nationwide Visa Buxx card.

That $169,280 per year in spend is enough to trigger high-spend bonuses on the premium Delta American Express cards, the American Express Premier Rewards Gold, Citi Hilton HHonors Visa, or just earn 253,920 United miles using the Chase United Club card.

I'm not saying any one of those is the right choice (I'll be using my "old" Blue Cash card, personally), let alone of of them (the annual fees would start to add up), but I am saying this core volume of manufactured spend makes a lot of things possible. Even just using a 2% cash back credit card you might be able to pay a month's rent or two using your earnings from manufactured spend (a net profit of $2105.60).

Stay tuned for some common sense tips on how to keep your spending patterns from alarming your credit card companies (and your banks!).

Have a gambling habit? IHG Rewards Club is here to help.

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This is kind of...weird. But if, like me, you've picked up various IHG Rewards Club (i.e. Priority Club) points over the years and don't know what to do with them, they've created a fairly clever method to liquidate them for you. I played my 3 instant win draws today (75 points) and won a $15 iTunes gift card. I guess I'll get that new Beyonce album after all.

Do this now: Club Carlson first quarter promotion

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Between January 6 and April 13, 2014, you can earn 38,000 Club Carlson Gold Points after completing 3 paid (not Points + Cash) nights at any Club Carlson properties worldwide. You can only earn the bonus once.

While this is a lucrative promotion (as Frequent Miler shows here), I strongly doubt I'll participate, since I can manufacture 53,000 Club Carlson points for $83 (by buying 21 Vanilla Reload Network reload cards), rather than the $180 Frequent Miler moots in his post. But if you have some upcoming paid Club Carlson stays anyway, this is a very generous bonus.

Register now, before you forget.