Making Manufactured Spending Worthwhile (2017)

[TripleB]

I did some science tonight at one of my local grocery stores and figured out it’s possible to buy a $20-$500 variable Visa Gift Card at the self-checkout lane. I only bought one for $500 so unsure if it would cause an error if I bought >$1k.

I did buy a few “filler” items that I needed that I happened to see were on sale when I went to avoid the dreaded $505.95 charge.

Looks like this store also sells GreenDot and a few other reloads, so I might try those out and see if I can reload from the self-checkout lane, using a Visa GC as the reload medium.

Not sure if I stumbled upon something great or if this is common, but I had assumed you wouldn’t be able to buy a variable GC at self-checkout. I’d rather not post the supermarket name only to protect my geographic privacy since it’s a regional chain. But for anyone interested, look to see if your local supermarket has self-checkout lanes and try buying the GC at it! Worst case scenario is the assistant cashier comes over and helps. And they are usually overloaded since it’s generally 1 cashier monitoring 4 self-checkout lines so the likelihood of this person trying to impede your MS is diminished since he/she can’t waste too much time on any one customer.

[TravelerMSY]

You’ve managed to figure most of it out! Buy gift cards and turn them into money. Repeat.

[jaytrader]

@TripleB

I did some science tonight at one of my local grocery stores and figured out it’s possible to buy a $20-$500 variable Visa Gift Card at the self-checkout lane. I only bought one for $500 so unsure if it would cause an error if I bought >$1k.

You’ve just unlocked the next level. Congrats.

[TripleB]

I talked to a cashier at my local Kroger Supermarket affiliate, (and this was also confirmed by another member here via PM) that Kroger Fuel Rewards work for GC purchases on cards that are fixed load, but not variable load. Offhand I think the fixed load cards are limited to $200 and might have a $5.95 fee.

I’ve never used the Fuel Rewards before, but reading online it seems like you earn 2 points per $1 of GC spend and the max rewards are 1000 points per gas fill up. So if I fill my gastank up twice per month, I’d only need to spend $1000 on GC at Kroger for max fuel rewards.

I don’t like to let my gas tank get empty, so let’s assume at most I fill 10 gallons of gas. The Kroger points appear to give you a $1 discount per gallon, for one fill up (up to 35 gallons). Since I’m filling 10 gallons, that saves me $10.

I have to buy 5 $200 GCs to save $20 in gas a month, plus I earn grocery store AMEX BCP rewards. However, those are limited to $6k in spend per year. I already do about $2k of normal grocery shopping each year, so I only have room for $4k of annual spending so this isn’t scalable for me for the full year.

The downside here would be that I then have to liquidate smaller $200 GCs which requires either an extra 70 cents per MO at Walmart or trying to get them to split the transaction across smaller cards, which I’m nervous to do. I just imagine the cashier giving me a blank look like “what?” and then her turning to another cashier to ask who gives me the evil eye and asks “why would you want to do that?” and then it becoming a big kerfuffle. Since what I read at FlyerTalk is the cashier has to be the one to set up splitting the card payment, it won’t autodrain.

I suppose I could use these smaller $200 GCs for non-reward spending such as at the dentist. The downside is that I am doing this to save $10 in gas but I’m spending an extra $9 in activation fees (if each card is $5.95 and if I am buying 1.5 more $200 cards relative to one $500 card) so it probably doesn’t make sense for me as I write that out. Maybe if I had a wife with a car and we filled up at the same time, maxing out that 35 gallons, it would make more sense.

I just inadvertently discovered the break-even point, which is 9 gallons of gas per fillup. If you do 9 or less gallons, it’s not worth it relative to buying a single $500 variable load card, unless my activation fee numbers are wrong.

[TripleB]

I found out my apartment accepts MoneyGram payments for rent. I thought about trying that today, on the first of the month and I realized that maybe WalMart Money Center is busier today with lots of people (who lack bank accounts) doing that. Possibly busier than normal on the 1st through the 3rd since most apartments give you a few day grace period to pay rent, and people without bank accounts might be waiting until the last day.

It also got me to think that possibly Fridays are busy there since people get paychecks and cash them there - possibly only Friday at 4pm and later.

Has there been best practices about which times to avoid Walmart money center due to busyness from non-MS people?

[fragiledealer]

TripleB, to avoid the $499.30 or $xxx.30, I believe you can pay the 70 cents with cash.

And, thanks for the great post.

[fragiledealer]

TripleB, one more thing: though you can make a little extra cash with your Amex card, I believe the real value is in sign up bonuses. Chase has a 5/24 rule and other banks have other limitations, but the bonuses can be worth 15% or more. If you have a spouse, you can easily get 5 cards per year (total for both of you) and get much more in rewards.

The next trick is to figure out which are the best cards and how to get beyond the limits.

[TripleB]

@fragiledealer

TripleB, one more thing: though you can make a little extra cash with your Amex card, I believe the real value is in sign up bonuses. Chase has a 5/24 rule and other banks have other limitations, but the bonuses can be worth 15% or more. If you have a spouse, you can easily get 5 cards per year (total for both of you) and get much more in rewards.

The next trick is to figure out which are the best cards and how to get beyond the limits.

Thanks! It seems like the AMEX Rewards Abuse Team (RAT) cracks down more on signup bonuses than standard spend bonuses. Such that if I an MSing to meet minimum spend requirements than I am more likely to get shutdown, and possibly have all of my AMEX cards shut down, than if I am MSing on an already established card.

Also, many of the signup bonuses seem to be travel points based on the AMEX side which I already have an abundance of, so in essence, I’d be paying $5.95+ 70 cents per $500 of minimum spend requirement to trade for travel points. Still a good deal, I suppose, even if I just plan to bank them for years because most signup spends are $3k or so, so I’d only need to buy and liquidate 6 GCs at a cost of around $40.

I think what I’ll do for my MS is keep things small as I get comfortable with the basic established process, to max out my limited annual rewards on established cards like AMEX BCP.

Then, if I see a signup bonus I like, try to do one of those, partially with MS. I can put a little organic spend on it and MS the rest.

Maybe if I find a really big loophole, I exploit that for mass volume. My priority will be avoiding shutdowns on things I need/want. So if I can get one piece of the process shut down, I want to be riskier on the sides I can afford to lose.

[Stubtify]

@TripleB

It also got me to think that possibly Fridays are busy there since people get paychecks and cash them there - possibly only Friday at 4pm and later.

Has there been best practices about which times to avoid Walmart money center due to busyness from non-MS people?

You’ve hit on the two busiest days at WM and the reason behind it. I avoid all 1st of the months, but Fridays can be fine, depending on the time. Some Fridays for whatever reason there’s no line all day, others the line is ridiculous starting at 9am. When the 1st falls on a Friday leave town.

Your gas points idea doesn’t really pan out on a capped card like your BCP and low gas use situation in my opinion.

Also the reason you want to split anything onto multiple debit cards is because you only have $200/$500 in that account. Spend enough time at WM and you’ll see people splitting all kinds of crazy stuff, and they’re not MSing.

[Griz]

FYI most Albertsons affiliates have $10 off vgc in their respective coupon app right now. Here’s DoC’s post on the subject: [Expired] Safeway/Vons: $10 off $150 Visa/Mastercard Gift Card [Randall’s, Albertson’s, Tom Thumb] - Doctor Of Credit

His affiliates list is not exhaustive so I’d recommend checking your store’s app if it’s owned or affiliated with Albertsons.

[Stubtify]

@Griz

FYI most Kroger affiliates have $10 off vgc in their respective coupon app right now. Here’s DoC’s post on the subject: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/safewayvons-10-off-150-visamastercard-gift-card-randalls-albertsons-tom-thumb-2/

His affiliates list is not exhaustive so I’d recommend checking your store’s app if it’s owned or affiliated with Kroger’s.

@Griz those are Safeway afiliates, not Kroger.

[Griz]

@Stubtify You’re right I’ve edited it. I think I was reading this thread before I posted and I just confused Albertsons and Kroger’s.

[Stubtify]

All good. I appreciate the heads up on it, added it to my J4U accts.

[sinistler]

@TripleB

I talked to a cashier at my local Kroger Supermarket affiliate, (and this was also confirmed by another member here via PM) that Kroger Fuel Rewards work for GC purchases on cards that are fixed load, but not variable load. Offhand I think the fixed load cards are limited to $200 and might have a $5.95 fee.

That’s great info. I need to check with someone at my logal supermarket. It they also allow fuel rewards on fixed load cards I could get gas for about $0.80 per gallon. That would be a savings of $100-$150 per month for me. Added to the MS, that’s a decent deal.

[diffeldoof]

Semi-related… but if the fuel rewards is tied to a phone number, you can just try using Jenny’s number at the pump with your local area code and skip the hassle if it works. In the NVA/DC area last year, I almost always had a top tier or mid tier discount when filling up every couple weeks.

Edit: Re-reading, this might be apples to oranges… I have no idea how Kroger Fuel Rewards works.

[Honkinggoose]

That’s my goto number when they reject 555-1212. I will certainly try that in NVA.

[TripleB]

@diffeldoof

Semi-related… but if the fuel rewards is tied to a phone number, you can just try using Jenny’s number at the pump with your local area code and skip the hassle if it works. In the NVA/DC area last year, I almost always had a top tier or mid tier discount when filling up every couple weeks.

What does “Jenny’s Number” mean?

[diffeldoof]

867-5309

[Honkinggoose]

You must not be old enough. Should we put it in the Acronym Wiki?
It isn’t Jenny Craig.

[TripleB]

@Honkinggoose

You must not be old enough. Should we put it in the Acronym Wiki?
It isn’t Jenny Craig.

Just googled that number. Looks like it was from a song that came out when I was two years old.