I recently received a visa rebate debit card preloaded with a set amount. The debit cart is issued by metabank and says non-reloadable at the bottom right on the back. The card comes with a flyer advertising 5% cash back to the card with select merchants. 5% cashback posts within 10 days. I started to have flashbacks of dollar coins for a moment, but started to wonder if this be churned?
Perhaps I’m not the only person to stumble across this so I’m wondering:
Are there any known back door ways to reload these cards? if not…
I book a prepaid hotel room with another form of payment with some marginal cash back say 1%. Cancel the hotel and load the refund to the rebate card instead of the original form of payment. I just turned my 1% card into a 5% unlimited card at the select merchants which sell items that can be drained using known methods.
Have you looked at the list of merchants? The five back cards I know don’t offer 5% back at any places that “sell items that can be drained using known methods”. Unless you’re into reselling clothes from Gap or UA or something.
You’ll have to find a “hotel” willing to do that. My guess is that you won’t have a choice most of the time, because it’ll automatically go back to the original payment method.
First you should get a 2% or 3% everything card. Then, assuming you find a way to do what you propose, figure out if the time and effort is worth the extra 2-3%.
It’ll lock up your rebate card, and you’ll have to jump through a lot of hoops.to eventually get your money back. Especially if the refund exceeds the value that was initially loaded to the card.
Its a good out-of-the-box idea, but only in theory.