How to profit off American Express Gift Cards and the US Mint.

 credit cards, deals, finance deals, interesting  5 Responses »
Oct 232010
 

In this post I’m outlining how you can use Amex Gift Cards and the US Mint to score some free spending on your credit cards to earn miles/points and a little bit of cash.

I’ve mentioned this in the past and this is well publicized but if you haven’t heard the US Mint has been allowing people to buy dollar coins at face value with their credit cards for some time now. This meant that you could order $1k coins with free shipping on your credit card. You’d get the points/miles for the $1k purchase on your card and then take the coins to your bank for deposit or spend them at places that don’t take credit cards.

Note that the US Mint now limits people to $1k in orders every 10 days.

Another thing a lot of people overlook is that you can further gain by purchasing American Express gift cards at a slight discount. How do you do this?

There are cash back sites out there that will rebate you a % of your purchase made online. In short, they’re kicking back a percentage of the commission they get from referring you to the merchant. Big Crumbs is one of the cash back sites that currently gives one of the highest cash back percentages for purchasing American Express Gift Cards at 1.6%. You also get an extra 0.2% cash back of each of your referrals purchases at the Amex site. Note that you should never use a Citi credit card to purchase an Amex gift card because Citi codes all transactions from any financial institution as a cash advance (you won’t earn miles/points/etc. on that card and ma get charged interest).

You then use the gift cards you purchase to purchase dollar coins from the Mint. Let’s use an example:

Y purchase a 1k gift card with 1.6% cash back. You use that gift card to purchase dollar coins. In essence if I use my Amex SPG card I’m recieving 1000 SPG points and $16 (minus fees associated with receiving the card). Since you can purchase $1k worth of dollar coins every 10 days you can easily order 2k per month.

In summary:

Use promo codes to negate some of the Amex gift card fees.  The code EMSVCA1 removes card purchase fees (expires 1/15/10).

     Posted by dan at 4:59 pm

    75k AAdvantage miles CC bonus offer expires at the end of October.

     credit cards, deals, finance deals, Million Miles Quest  No Responses »
    Oct 032010
     

    If you haven’t heard, Citi is giving away 75,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles for signing up for one of their co-branded AAdvantage Visa, American Express or Visa Business cards. Looking at the American Airlines award chart you’ll quickly realize this is a great deal. Even if you value miles at 1 cent each ( I value them at 2 cents ) it’s essentially a $750 sign-up bonus.

    The requirement to get the bonus is to simply spend $1,500 within 6 months of becoming a cardholder. The $85 annual fee is waived the first year. I’ve also heard it’s possible to get more than one bonus by signing up for the 2 or all 3 of the card types (Visa, Amex).

    I thought everybody knew about this and was jumping on the deal but I discovered a lot of people haven’t yet heard of it and the current 75k offer expires at the end of the month. While the promotional offer may or may not be renew I don’t suggest taking that chance. If you waited too long to hop onto past great deals such as the 100,000 British Airways offer then hop on this one before you regret it.

    I plan on applying for the Visa branded card sometime within the next week. 75,000 miles would certainly be useful and help me out in my quest for a million miles (to achieve lifetime AA gold status). As of date I’ve accumulated 260,691 miles or 26% of the way there. An additional 75,000 miles would push me 7.5% further along.

    Find more information on the offer at the BankAndFinanceDeals.com post.

     Posted by dan at 11:30 am

    Getting the $85 Citi AAdvantage annual fee waived.

     credit cards, finance deals, my personal finance  No Responses »
    Aug 192010
     

    I just got off the phone with Citi and got the annual fee on my Citi AAdvantage Mastercard waived again this year. However this year was a little more difficult in that the first customer service representative I spoke to was adamant about annual fees not being waived even though I mentioned I got it waived last year. However here’s how I managed to get it waived eventually.

    • I asked to be transferred to “retentions” which is the department that has the power to cut deals to get people to stay. I heard about them offering other people miles and whatnot also. Note that you might not get transferred to retention if you simply aren’t a customer worth keeping. I do spend over $50,000 a year on this card alone so they make a little bit of money on the transaction fees even after giving me AAdvantage miles.
    • It’s important to explain to the retention specialist what you want. If you leave them to guess what you want and they might offer a deal you aren’t happy with. I told him I thought the $85 annual fee was excessive and he said they can waive the annual fee after 5 transactions which I should be able to easily do.
    • He also stated this is a one time waiver but that I should continue to call back next year and “continue to use my card for all purchases”.
    • Don’t call and bluff to try to get annual fees waived. You might not even get transferred to a retention specialist and have your card closed right there on the spot. I was also prepared to close the account if I didn’t get the fee waiver.

    Also at the end of the call he offered me a more personalized card with my photo on it since I do a lot of in person purchases. I told him to send the forms anyway but I’m not quite sure if I really want this. The security feature really protects them from fraudulent purchases but it might be cool to have a card with my photo on it.

     Posted by dan at 12:38 pm

    Amex SPG Card raises annual fee to $65

     credit cards  No Responses »
    Aug 042010
     

    I’m a big fan of the Starwood Preferred Guest hotel program. Therefore I obtained the American Express SPG card last year to earn easy SPG points from spending. I just got a letter in the mail a couple days ago noting some changes to the card and most notably a annual an increase in the annual fee from $45 to $65.

    However they try to throw in a few changes to ease the pain.

    • Each year you’ll get 5 night credit towards elite status. This means cardholders will have less 5 nights needed to reach either Gold or Platinum. This perk is essentially useless to me because I get gold through the Amex Platinum.
    • From Oct 14th 2010 to Dec 31st 2010 you’ll receive a third night free when you book two nights at a Sheraton hotel.
    • They are getting rid of the 50%-off award that use to come in the mail annually since they claimed few card members used the benefit. That’s most likely true because the award was useless most of the time because it got you 50% off the hotel’s rack rate which was usually higher than the best available rate.

    First American Express conducts a financial review and cuts my card limit from $7k to $1,700 and now this? I know this is a change that affects everyone but I seriously have to re-consider keeping the card. I love the card and think it’s worth keeping but with the stingy credit line which I end up having to pay off 2-3 times per month it may not be worth it to keep the card anymore. I have until April 2011 (my card renewal date) to decide though, hopefully I’ll get a credit line increase by then.

     Posted by dan at 10:26 am

    The complete overview to dining for miles on Rewards Network.

     credit cards, Million Miles Quest, useful tools  3 Responses »
    May 112010
     

    This is a complete overview and guide including tips, tricks, and strategies to maximize earning on Rewards Network. I’ve been a member of Reward Networks (formerly iDine) for quite some time but I’ve never really looked into the program or consider it as a source of miles. This is why finally decided to do extensive research and post everything I discovered. I enjoy eating out and love accumulating frequent flier miles and hotel points so why not get both done at the same time?

    What is Rewards Network? Rewards Network allows you to dine at various restaurants and bars to earn miles across a variety of frequent flier and point programs of your choice. I’m only interested in the airline miles/hotel points so I’ll only list those dining programs here:

    Currently I’m enrolled in the American Airlines, United and Hilton HHonors programs. Technically these dining programs are separate but you’re allowed to sign up for each of them as long as you use a different credit card with each (more on that later).

    How does it work? The premise is simple. The first two steps are initial setup.

    • You sign up for a dining program for which you wish to earn miles/points towards.
    • You register your credit card which you plan on using when dining.
    • Locate participating restaurants & bars.
    • Dine at participating location.
    • Use your credit card to pay.
    • Your dine is automatically recorded and should appear in your Rewards Network account in 5-10 days.

    I first joined this program thinking I would passively stumble across participating restaurants and earn miles. It didn’t happen that way because I generally don’t eat out much and when I do eat out it’s generally at the same 2-3 locations. Looking at the participating restaurants on Rewards Network got me to try new restaurants and earn a good amount of miles at the same time.

    How do you earn miles and what’s the reward structure? The membership structure is divided into three tiers and how many miles you earn depends on which tier you are in. I’ll use the American Airlines Dining Program here on out as an example.

    • Member. This is a person who has joined but does not have an online profile setup. You earn 1 mile per each dollar spent.
    • Online Member. You have an online profile and choose to receive e-mails from AA Dining. You earn 3 miles for every dollar spent.
    • VIP Member. You meet the online member requirements and you have 12 or more qualified transactions in the calendar year. You earn 5 miles per dollar spent and generally more bonus offers.

    The miles earned per dollar spent not only includes the bill but the amount paid for tax & tip. Obviously the most beneficial and lucrative earning potential is at the VIP Member level. 12 transactions may seem like a lot but I’ll talk about how to get there easily.

    Fast track to becoming a VIP Member. Using conventional wisdom the quickest way to get the qualifying 12 dines would be to eat out at participating locations 12 times. However there are a couple tips and tricks you can use to get there faster.

    • Quick meals add up. I’ve noticed that some areas have fast food locations that participate. I don’t have any participating fast food locations by me or condone eating too much fast food but this means you can stop by and enjoy a burger and fries for a couple bucks and rack up a dine.
    • Split up transactions. If you decide to go out to a participating location try ways to get multiple charges on one visit. For example if you sit at the bar first, pay for your drinks with your card. This counts as a qualifying transaction. Then have your meal and use your card to pay again and this is another qualifying transaction. You’ve just earned two qualifying transactions in one outing. Also, if you’ve registered for multiple dining programs with different cards you can ask to split the check between the cards.
    • Have a drink or two. There’s a bar near me that I’ve visited several times and never realized that they participate. Grabbing a beer or two here and paying would be a very quick and cheap way to rack up a dine.
    • Buy gift cards ahead of time. Let’s say you’re planning on having a big dinner at a restaurant where the bill would amount to say $300 and you only have 10 dines in the program. This would mean you would earn 3 miles per dollar or roughly 900 miles for this dine. The smart thing to do is go ahead of time and buy 2 gift cards for say $25 and $25 (best to do on separate occasions to avoid transaction looking like duplicates or do different amounts). You’ll still earn 150 miles (3 miles/$) for the $50 in gift card purchases but you’ll also have 2 qualifying dines to get you to VIP status where you’ll earn 5 miles for each dollar spent. For the $300 dinner tab you’ll redeem both your $50 worth of GCs and pay the remaining $250 balance which would net you 1,250 miles. So for a dine which you would’ve earned 900 miles originally you’ve now netted 1,400 miles (1,250 + 150).

    Also note that buying gift cards ahead of time is good for earning miles for restaurants/bars that don’t participate on certain days (usually Friday and Saturday). Now that you’re a VIP member you’ll earn 5 miles per dollar spent here on out. You’ll also receive more bonus offers and opportunities.

    Bonus, bonus and more bonuses! Every now and then the various dining programs will have different bonuses. AA Dining recently had a 500 miles for a $10+ dine and United currently has a 500 mile bonus for every $75 spent. These bonuses are on top of your regular earnings.

    You only get access to the different bonuses if you’re a member of that particular dining program. This is why I recommend joining all the various dining programs that you already accumulate points and miles on. The various bonuses help to pad your account plus the activity keeps your miles/points from expiring.

    Tips to avoid bad restaurants. I mean unless you’re dining solely for the miles you want to have a good dining experience right? I would not rely on the restaurant ratings on the dining program websites because they seem to be overrated. This is why if I find a participating location I check out reviews from other sources such as Yelp to get a better idea of the place. Using this method for screening restaurants I’ve found that there are a lot of bad restaurants participating in the program which makes sense as they’re trying to attract customers. However I’ve also discovered really great restaurants that participate in the program.

    Make sure you’ll earn miles on the visit! Some restaurants and bars only participate on certain days of the week so make sure you can earn miles on the day of your visit. As I mentioned before you can still earn miles if you buy gift cards ahead of time. Also some restaurants do not allow miles to be earned on certain credit cards used even if they accept them. Usually this is the case with either Amex or Discover. The restaurant will accept the card for the purchase but you won’t get miles for them. Check the restaurant’s info page on Rewards Network to make sure they accept that card to earn miles.

    Remember that these earnings are on top of your credit card rewards. If you have a cash back or miles card you’ll still earn the rewards from dining through your card issuer. If I use my Citi AAdvantage card which nets me 1 mile per $1 spent with my dine that nets me 6 miles per every dollar spent. If you dine out a lot 6 miles per dollar spent adds up very quickly.

    Maximize the situation when you’re eating out with people who don’t care about miles and pay cash. Collect the cash and offer to pay the table’s tab. With a group of people you can earn thousands of miles each time.

     Posted by dan at 11:15 am

    Local IHOP requires ID for credit cards.

     credit cards, irritations  No Responses »
    May 042010
     

    This weekend I went out to eat at a local IHOP. Upon lining up to pay I realized the manager behind the counter was asking everyone who was paying with a credit card for identification. When I reached the register I realized there was a sign that stated their policy of requiring ID credit cards transactions and this policy has been in effect for close to a decade. I didn’t refuse to show ID or anything as I pick my fights and there was quite a long line.

    The sign states “AS OF DEC. 1, 2001 NO VISA, MASTERCARD, AMERICAN EXPRESS, DISCOVER, DEBIT OR ANY OTHER CREDIT CARD TRANSACTIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED WITHOUT THE PROPER IDENTIFICATION”. In the past I wrote a post entitled “Top Five Credit Card Myths” and the ID requirement was myth #1. Check out that post if you want to see the sections of the merchant agreement that state ID is not required.

    The policy at this IHOP clearly goes against the merchant agreement with Visa, Mastercard, etc. To add that they even state in the next part of the sign “SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE, WE ARE JUST FOLLOWING CREDIT CARD COMPANY PROCEDURES”. No, you’re not! Also if anyone called their bank or credit card company they would inform you that a merchant can ask for ID (or anything else) but cannot make it a condition of acceptance.

    Normally if it’s a mom and pop shop instituting a minimum charge or ID requirement I wouldn’t care but IHOP is suppose to be a national franchise. This policy is clearly a local one put in place by either the uninformed franchisee or manager. The part where the sign says they are following credit card company procedures is the part that bothers me the most because it probably leads some people to believe the ID requirement is true. I use to work in a business that took credit cards and people would be fuming when I didn’t ask for identification even if their signature was similar to the one on the back of their card.

     Posted by dan at 4:09 pm

    Accessing the damage after having all my Chase credit cards closed.

     credit cards, money matters  No Responses »
    May 012010
     

    In an earlier post I talked about how JP Morgan Chase closed all my credit cards without warning. I’ve given up after several attempts at talking to various people in lending operations to get my accounts re-instated. I’ll just access the damage and move on.

    Credit card products. I really enjoyed the Chase Cash Rewards which netted me 5% cash back on gas, supermarkets and drug store purchases. It was also one of my oldest cards.

    Credit lines and credit scores. Across five personal cards with Chase I had about $20k total in credit lines. These lines no longer factor into my available credit and raised my utilization percentage. The resulting drop in my FICO score was from 780 to 710.

    No more first class tickets to Europe. I was attempting to spend 30k on the Chase British Airways card to get the 2 for 1 voucher to redeem two first class tickets to Europe at the end of year. What’s ironic is the actions on this card caused all my cards to be closed. Since Chase only gave me a 5k limit I overpaid the card on purpose to get more spending power and this set off a flag causing my accounts to be reviewed and closed.

    While I won’t be able to get first class tickets to Europe anymore on British Airways the good news is that I still have 100k miles with them. This is good enough for two one way business class tickets there. I also have enough miles on American Airlines to redeem two one way tickets back. Although I won’t be flying in style on British Airways, at least I’ll be able to do the Europe trip.

    Lifetime ban from Chase? I’ve talked to other people who’ve had all their credit cards closed in the past and it seems they’ve never been able to get another credit card from Chase. The only reason I would like to have a Chase card again is that they are partnered United/Continental Airlines and I’d like to earn miles on those airlines through CC purchases.

     Posted by dan at 8:55 pm

    Easy 52,500 Hilton HHonors points for my Europe trip.

     credit cards, deals, finance deals  No Responses »
    Apr 092010
     

    In a previous post I discussed how I planned to go to Europe later in the year and wanted to cut costs in every area possible. I figure for every free night I attain that’s one less night I have to pay for.

    I recently signed up for the American Express Hilton HHonors card to get up to 62,500 Hilton HHonors points in sign-up bonuses (link to BankAndFinanceDeals.com). Although you can earn up to 62,500 points, I figure I’ll only be earning 52,500 as earning 10,000 of the points requires 4 stays at Hilton properties which I don’t foresee myself doing.

    • I get 20,000 points after your first purchase. This will be the easiest.
    • I get another 30,000 points after you spend $1,500 within three months. This is doable since $1,500 over 3 months is only $500 or so a month.
    • Add an additional card member I net another 2,500 points.

    This brings my total to 52,500 points plus the 4,500 points accrued from $1,500 in spending for a total of 57,000 points. 57,000 points sounds like a lot but it will only net me a free night in London’s famous Trafalgar Square at 50,000 points a night. It’s one less night I have to pay for and I get a room worth a couple hundred dollars.

    I signed up for this card on Tuesday, got instantly approved and it was sent overnight via UPS and arrived yesterday (Thursday). There are no annual fees for this card so I don’t mind holding onto it.

     Posted by dan at 9:16 am

    30,000 AAdvantage miles with Citi Credit Card

     credit cards, finance deals  No Responses »
    Feb 252010
     

    Citi is offering 30,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles if you sign up for their AAdvantage Visa Signature Card.

    • Annual fee is waived for the first year
    • Must spend $750 within 4 months to qualify

    I currently have the Citi AAdvantage Mastercard and American Express card. If past experience proves right I should be able to sign up for this visa card and get the miles. Also if you’re interested you should be able to get both cards to get the miles.

    link to offer – This offer expires February 28th, 2010 so don’t procrastinate if you’re interested. Although similar offers may show up in the future they may be not as generous and offer the standard 25,000 mile sign-up bonus.

     Posted by dan at 2:53 pm

    30k United Miles with CC sign up and annual fee waived.

     credit cards, finance deals  No Responses »
    Feb 242010
     

    Chase is offering 30,000 United miles after $250 in spending. The annual fee of $60 is waived for the first year also. Note that you may not get the bonus if you’ve done a Chase United CC bonus in the past.

    A roundtrip ticket in economy can be redeemed for 25,000 miles according to the United Award Chart.

    link to offer

     Posted by dan at 5:40 pm
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