A Guide to Points, Miles and Free Travel
This past weekend I was in Elk Grove Village for the annual Chicago Seminars. I met a lot of readers, bloggers, and newbies who asked me about manufactured spending. The questions that came up the most were, “What is the secret to your manufactured spending success? How are you able to […]
Manufactured spending can be very lucrative if you do it right. Aside from the many ways to off-set manufactured spending fees, there are also ways to make a profit from gift card churning. At one point, I was earning 3.5% cash back in addition to points and miles. Before that […]
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how to eliminate manufactured spending fees. I cited tools like the iBotta app, gift card promotions, shopping portals, and cash back credit cards. When cash back portals reduce payouts and I have no other options, I can always count on my cash back […]
One of the first questions I get when I mention how I earn points and miles via manufactured spending is “what is this costing you?” After all, with a few exceptions, Visa gift cards carry fees. Not to mention, the money orders you have to buy to liquidate those Visa […]
Over the past year I’ve been documenting my manufactured spending adventures on social media. If I purchased an especially large batch of gift cards or liquidated a massive number of money orders, I shared it with my followers on Snapchat. Sometimes if I came across a possible red flag, I would share […]
If you’re on the lookout for ways to offset manufactured spending fees, there’s a new app that helps you do that: iBotta. iBotta is sort of like a coupon app that pays out rewards when you buy specific products at participating merchants. Participating merchants include CVS, Best Buy, Safeway, Amazon, Target […]
One of the most frequent questions that came up during my manufactured spending webinar was where to buy Visa gift cards with a credit card. Buying and liquidating PIN-enabled Visa gift cards is an essential part of manufactured spending. It’s pretty much the only thing I do to earn miles these […]
A lot of you have been asking me lately about The Plastic Merchant and where to buy merchant gift cards you can resell to them. If you get approved as a member, The Plastic Merchant is a great resource for manufactured spending. The company was founded by fellow points and […]
During last week’s webinars, I got a lot of similar questions related to manufactured spending. Many of these questions were addressed in ms-related posts over the last four years. But thanks to the results of a recent survey, I’ve realized a large portion of my readership consists of newbies who […]
This past weekend I held three webinars where I addressed people’s manufactured spending questions. It was fun and something I hope to repeat on a monthly basis (once I find a better meeting platform). Anyway, a topic that came up quite a bit during all three sessions was Walmart Bill […]