Now I've seen everything: PayPal accounts restored
/Somebody smarter than me is going to have to explain this one.
I reported earlier this week that one of my favorite hacks had been abruptly shut down when PayPal closed both my business account (which had a linked 1% cash back debit MasterCard) and my personal account (which I was using to funnel PayPal Cash cards to my business account). By calling into PayPal I was able to withdraw my remaining funds to a linked checking account, and I moved on.
That is, until Thursday afternoon, when I received the most remarkable e-mail:
And then just one minute later:
I immediately checked, and the first e-mail was sent to my personal account's linked address as well. Having been given this reprieve, what do I plan on doing with it? What do you think?
But this time, I'm taking some simple steps to minimize my risk going forward:
- I immediately applied for an additional 1% cash back debit MasterCard for my second, personal account. No more sending money back and forth between my PayPal accounts.
- I'm going to empty my account exclusively with my debit MasterCard, primarily by buying Vanilla Reload Network reload cards at CVS. This will reduce my cost per dollar of manufactured spend to 0.57 cents (0.07 cents after taking Plink rewards into account).
- And obviously, I'm going to empty my account as quickly as possible after loading it.
Besides the possibility of buying PayPal Cash cards at 7-11 store locations, what I'm most excited about is renewed access to Kiva. Now that I have a US Bank Cash+ card, I'll be happy to earn $100 in cash on the first day of every quarter, plus as many Flexpoints as I have short-term liquidity.
Remember to check in on Monday and all next week, when I'll be describing a new technique that will radically accelerate the points-earning potential of even the most casual travel hacker, and giving detailed analyses of the possibilities unlocked by that new technique. You don't want to miss it.
