I’ve never gotten into MS. Every time I look into it, I’m bombarded by several problems:
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Fear that it looks like money laundering and I might get criminally investigated. I’d get off, but not without hassle.
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Fear of adverse action. I make a nice chunk of money from non-MS/regular spend rewards and wouldn’t want to risk a lifetime ban.
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Problem figuring out exactly how to do it. The community of MSers has always been “DO THE RESEARCH”, and it becomes a circle jerk of looking up old threads on MS where half of the replies are “DO THE RESEARCH” and the other half are unexplained acronyms and codewords. Also, because MS pathways are closed regularly, the “RESEARCH” isn’t even valid most of the time. If I wanted to spend 5 hours a day for a month reading through the last years worth of /r/Churning or other forums, then I could possibly figure it out, but I don’t want to do that.
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Dealing with store cashiers who don’t do the thing they are supposed to do and claim store policy against it, even though if you flipped a coin and got another cashier, it would be okay because it’s not hard coded by the point-of-sale system.
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The prepaid credit cards you’re buying all look generally the same except for slight differences in packaging but huge consequences in MS ability. One kind has a different image and that you can use at an ATM but another does not and you can’t.
I am interested in dipping my toes in MS primarily to qualify for the Chase Freedom Q4 bonus spend - which only works at Walmart and Department Stores (that I won’t shop at). It should be relatively easy for me to MS $1500 at Wal Mart over the course of 3 months without arousing Chase’s suspicions.
My understanding is the general strategy of MS is buying prepaid credit cards or virtual reloads for prepaid debit cards. And then either taking money out at an ATM or buying a Money Order with them and cashing out that way. The cost of the money order and fees for the prepaid cards are counterbalanced by the rewards points you earn on the credit card spend.
I do not know the specifics and do not wish to spend weeks reading old forum posts. Can anyone share the actual specifics of MS that currently work? PM me if you don’t wish to share it publicly.