For the last few years, I’ve been spoiled when it comes to manufactured spending. Thanks to an MS-friendly Walmart, I was able to liquidate thousands of dollars per day with minimal effort. Because it was so easy, I got kind of lazy when it came to strategy and focused on volume.
I regularly ordered over $2,000 worth of Visa gift cards via GiftCardMall or Giftcards.com and sometimes I bought so many that I maxed out my best credit cards and started charging them to any card I had. That’s how I ended up a stash of 200,000+ Radisson points. Nowadays, I don’t have this much time so I’m focusing on a more high-impact earning strategy.
Maximizing category bonuses
Nowadays I don’t have a ton of time to spend on this stuff – even 5-10 hours per week is more than I can spare. So when I do go on a Walmart run, I want to make sure it’s worth my time. Because of that, I’m making better use of credit card category bonuses.
That means taking advantage of the 5x office supply store bonus on the Chase Ink Plus and putting more effort into booking the cheapest awards rather than opting for the easiest.
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I’m also making more of an effort bulk up on Citi ThankYou points. The program not only has some terrific airline transfer partners with cheap redemption rates but routinely offers transfer promotions.
At the moment, there is a 25% bonus on ThankYou point transfers to Avianca Lifemiles. In January, I plan on redeeming miles for a flight to Europe. Transferring those points over now helps me get more out of my points and manufactured spending activity in general.
Convenience
While maximizing category bonuses is important, I also value convenience. Buying $1,000 Simon Mall Visa gift cards is much easier than ordering Visa gift cards in $1,500 – $2,900 increments. Yes, it costs more but there is way less effort involved in tracking the purchase.
I don’t have to spend almost two weeks waiting for them to arrive in the mail, keeping an eye on credit card statement closing and due dates to make sure I don’t miss a payment. I don’t have to scroll through emails to match up the gift card art to the order number because the one provided in the package is completely different.
Instead, I walk into Sim Mall, buy up to $25,000 worth of Visa gift cards within 10 minutes and usually walk out with a bunch of useful coupons and treats from the nice Simon Mall associate.
More importantly, there is a Walmart just three minutes away, where I can liquidate $4,000 of those gift cards at a time. Just another five minutes away is yet another Walmart store that also lets me liquidate $4,000 in Visa gift cards.
It’s not quite the days of unloading $10,000 at a time, but it’s efficient and close to home. I’ll gladly pay a little more for Visa gift cards if I can liquidate them $4,000 at a time than save on $500 Visas that require more work to track and liquidate.
Time spent on manufactured spending
I can’t emphasize the timing issue enough. I used to be able to churn $20,000 worth of Visa gift cards per day and it took maybe an hour and a half at most. These days, I can’t justify spending more than 1-2 hours per week on this hobby.
It’s why you may have noticed that Rick has been doing the majority of the writing on this site. Priorities change and so does how we spend our free time. For me, MS is lower on the list. At least for the time being.
My future MS plans
In the next few months, I’ll probably continue to manufacture spend in smaller numbers, but with higher returns. I’ve got a minimum of $4,000 per month to spend on the Chase Ink Plus Card for that 5x bonus.
Beyond that, I like using cards like the Fidelity Rewards Visa for the 2% cash back bonus. The cash I accrue through that card goes straight into my travel bank.
Airlines and hotels are devaluing their currencies like crazy these days. I’m not looking forward to the day when a free night at a Marriott hotel costs over 100,000 points or a first class ticket costs a million miles. Cash back rewards help guard against that kind of inflation.
Besides, with all the reasonable business class and economy fares popping up, it often makes more sense to redeem cash back rewards than points and miles.
I’m an MS junkie and at some point, I’m sure I’ll resume chasing the high of churning $300,000+ worth of gift cards in a month. But right now, I’m keeping my volume low and maximizing category bonuses.
And if a good retail arbitrage opportunity presents itself, then I’ll absolutely milk that, to a reasonable degree.
What’s your manufactured spending strategy? How many hours a week are you willing to devote to this hobby?
Ariana, I would stay off of twitter with the information you put in the blogs, or a link to the blog. I think twitter is just a bad, bad, place. I appreciate very much what you and Rick put out about MS. At the recent Chicago seminars I learned zip about MS, because presentors sorta talk about how they get their points, but will not tell you how they actually do it. Some have honey holes and will not disclose. I think you and Rick are the most honest about what you do.
I too, do not want to put a lot of time into MS. If my flushing of cards is greater than my normal trips to WM, then I feel like MS is controlling me. To occasionally make the effort to do more on a one-off basis is OK. But, If I can combine the flushing/banking trip with garbage run, grocery run, hardware store, etc., then that is just fine and cost me very little extra time. At my WM, I have to go get someone to do money orders, and rarely is there a line.
I stopped doing MS after a shutdown, and now starting back, but at a much slower approach. I have a nice stream of TY points consistently coming in with the Double Cash and ATT More cards where I just have bills on autopay with Plastiq. Yep, someone will yell, you are paying all that money for those points. I will pay about $900 over the next year to replace TY points that just paid for a $7500 ticket to Dubai. I like the no effort approach.
It is costing more and more for these awards. I just dropped 100K per night for the Al Maha outside of Dubai for the spring of next year. 5 years ago, nothing even approached that price for a stay. Marriott now thinks they can price their places like Hilton, yet Hilton points are much easier to get than Marriott points.
Hi John! Enjoyed reading your post. I never was a Starwood member or cardholder, nor Hilton, but I have had my Marriott for quite a while. I still seem to get a good value out of it, and the points per night seem reasonable to me, at least from a MSing perspective. My wife and I will be going to Al Maha as well on our Dubai trip, and it took us about $710 to manufacture the points to book a weeks stay, which seems ok to me (would have been ~$11,000). We have stayed at other nice places around the globe too, and the value is incredible, even more so than the Al Maha value we’re getting. I just only use my points when it’s really a bargain. We stayed out in Aspen, CO at the St Regis one year. A week was almost $14,000, but manufacturing the points just took ~$550. Now if you take into account the club suite we were upgraded into, then the stay was more about $50,000+ for a week. Do you get good scores like this with Hilton as well? Cheers!
I’m new to the MS hobby in 2019 and having lots of fun in the process. Time is not a real issue for me as I am fully retired and am doing this for Tavel rewards. Like most I have an old Chase Ink card, 2 Amex Gold, Alaska air, and couple Citi cards(not double cash). The Simon mall closest to me is about 20 miles and the traffic is terrible that direction, North Dallas. So, I’m left with office supply, grocery, and online sites. Purchase strategies are easy but liquidation is a little issue. Walmart cut me off after doing 2,000/day for 7 straight days leaving me with individual 900 money orders. I live uptown so lots of travel between location. I’ve found another grocery store chain locally but they do Western Union so max $500 money orders. No problem but the number of $500’s will be an issue over time. Any suggestions on 1k Moneygram’s since Walmart thinks I’m evil? Maybe try passport instead of Drivers license? I haven’t tried going to Walmart at night, looking for lower level employees to give me multiple money orders at one time. Every other Walmart locally likes to only give singles. Actually went to WMT for a BillPay and 900 money order and was asked for ID on the MO. I asked her if she could try the process again on the MO since I would be declined. She did and no ID was asked for, success! thanks for input. I love the plain talk on this site, so happy I found it.
For GCM, you can always type in the date and card that you paid for the order with as the “message” in the card that it comes in. It’s saved me a ton of time and headaches.
That’s a good way to go about it. I always just switch up the card design to identify which order each batch was from.
@Ed B, how are you then liquidating the MOs? Thx
Hi Pam,
Since I have heard so many issues with individuals being shut down by banks for depositing Money orders, I chose to route which has been working at this point. First, since banks are offering so many monetary incentives for opening up new accounts, I opened up four separate checking accounts. I make a small weekly direct deposit into each one to keep it active. Then i started out depositing $1,000 in money orders in each account the first month, month 2 deposited 2k in each account, 3rd month 3k in each, 4th month 4k in each. I am continuing this pace building up to where now I am depositing over 2K in each account weekly along with continued weekly direct deposits. The other money orders I pay on my credit card bill directly at the bank of card issue. Also, I utilize Billpay at Walmart for a few of my cards which cuts down on the number of Money orders needed.
I will say that since posting this morning, I do have an update. Walmart had somehow shut me down getting Money orders using my drivers license. i went in today to do a bill Pay and presented my passport and was ok to buy money orders over the 1K threshold. Really don’t want to get banned on this form of ID if they do decide to start requiring ID for less than 1k money orders.
Has anyone had experience in the past how long the ban at Walmart lasts? Is it permanent? Sure wish there were some guidelines out there we could go by to now get banned. Love to follow rules, just wish I knew what they were.
@Ed – that sounds like textbook definition of Structuring to me. Splitting up payments on purpose to multiple banks to keep totals small. Just hit it hard at one and save yourself the hassles. Then move on to the next if it gets blown up. Definitely would prefer bank shut downs to dealing with Structuring charges.
As long as deposit totals among banks are below 10k then it’s not structuring. I’m doing less than 10k per week total between the accounts.
Yea you’re fine Ed. Here’s my opinion FWIW.
I think people blow up this structuring thing because they read it on so many blogs. Everyone’s an expert now (including me 🙂
But few really understand how it works in practice. First it’s very unlikely you’ll be investigated. Second, they are very unlikely to pinch you for it unless there is some other illegal activity associated with (yes I know technically they can). You will be hard pressed to find a recent example of someone convicted of structuring for MSing unless some other nefarious activity took place.
For all those who disagree and won’t risk it, great, please waive to me as you pass my compfy seat on your way to coach. Or even worse, travel less and pay cash.
Hi Pam
Currently, I am using two methods. One is directly paying off my credit card bills at the bank of issue itself. Very convenient and no hassle besides having to go to the bank/ATM. Also, after reading about so many checking accounts closed down because of money order deposits, I decided to take the slow deposit route. I opened a few bank accounts and started my deposits at once monthly then twice, three, then up to once weekly. At that point I started increasing the volume weekly. At this point, I am able to do a few thousand weekly in each and have currently not had any issues. Trying to be friendly with the service reps so if questions arise, we have some sort of cordial relationship.
I also use Bill Pay on a few cards to decrease the need for money orders.
I do have an update today, I was banned from Walmart giving ID for money orders over 1k for reasons that elude me. I was doing maybe 20K per month at the time. Today, I tried my passport instead of Drivers license and was fine to buy over 1K. Does anyone know if the ban is permanent or a specific length of time. I wish I knew the rules as I would like to adhere to whatever they are looking for. Going to keep my volume under 1k for the most part and do western union $500’s for ahile as I have a great source for that.
Ed, when you pay your cr cd bill at the bank of issue, do you use multiple MO? I wondered if Chase, for instance might balk at my using multiple MO to pay my cr cd bill at $999.12 per.
when you liquidate 4K at a time, I am sure you have to provide your SS along with your DL. when in a 5-minutes-away WM you liquidate another 4K, you provide these again. And – I assume – in a day or two you repeat this to e able to liquidate the remaining 15K. Do you worry at all about providing your SS + DL so often? I mean, with all the WM shutdown stories…if it happens – what would be your strategy then?
or your local Was are so friendly that they do not require your SS + DL?
MoneyGram requires SS + DL over $3K and is hard-coded into the registers – Walmart has no say in the matter – they are merely licensees. MoneyGram limits to $8K per rolling 24 hrs. Unfortunately, many WM have ‘store policies’ that limit to one-two swipes and require ‘legit’ debits with your name embossed on them.
Yes, at $4k they ask for a DL and SSN. The maximum daily purchase amount is $8k, so it works out. At this point, I feel like a shut-down is inevitable so I’m not that worried about it. Some people who’ve been shut-down were doing lower numbers than I am, so I feel like it’s kind of a game of chance.
“I used to be able to churn $20,000 worth of Visa gift cards per day” – since your max MS month is a little over $300k (with your family helping you achieve that level), you’re definitely not doing $20k per day in VGC’s. The math isn’t there. Might want to be accurate and rephrase that. Also some typos in the post to fix. And “I’m an MS junkie and at some point, I’m sure I’ll resume chasing the high of churning $300,000+ worth of gift cards in a month.” With the new rules at WM in place, I don’t think you’re going to be doing anywhere near that amount. If you said you hoped to do more I’d have respect for it…but it seems like you’re just blurting out things to attract attention. Having “Manufactured Spend” in virtually every daily post in some fashion is another example of that. Truth and accuracy are important. This blog lacks both. Do and be better.
Not sure what you’re referring to in terms of the math: $20k is the max I was able to churn per day. I didn’t hit that number every day, otherwise I would have ended up at $600k per month. With the new rule in place, I can do $240k per month – more, if I get help. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
I don’t understand your complaint in regard to accuracy and honesty. The title says “low spend, high impact.” The post expands on that. Sorry if that doesn’t align with your expectations, but if I had written about wanting to do “more” that would have been dishonest, inaccurate and about “attracting attention.”
How can I find Walmarts that will let me liquidate Visa cards? I have not had much success.
Selma, it is very much a regional hit or miss. Some parts of the country have a plethora of WM’s that allow Gebit card transactions, while others prohibit them. In my area, we have five WM’s, and only one still allows the purchases. Unfortunately, I was shut down in August, so can only do $1k per day (no DL required).
C.J. I was on holiday position being banned at WMT (drivers license). Bring in your passport they seem to use the document number thus it will be different from your drivers license. I used that method and was able to purchase what I needed over $1000. I’m going to use it sparingly but at least if they ever drop the ID requirement below 1k I will be able to do business there
Is it common knowledge that Simon Gift Cards will be fee free on Black Friday? I was informed today of this when I bought a couple $1000 VGC at my local mall. To be sure though you might check with your local Simon Mall.
I don’t normally MS but I will have the time this weekend and the gift cards will be fee free. I think I am gonna do $25k at Simon this Friday. I practiced liquidating $2000 today at Wal-Mart. I had no problem (they did input my drivers license). I was charged $0.68 per $1000. So I was charged $0.68 twice. Is this typical? I thought I could do a $4000 MO for $0.68 and 4 swipes. Am I wrong?
TIA
Brett, it is $.88 per MO, with a max of $1000 per MO.
I was told it was only the Amex cards that are fee free this Friday. Not too exciting for me.
Ariana,
All local Walmarts around me have banned liquidating prepaid cards and accept cash only. What can I do instead? They demand to see my card before I swipe and they deny me when they realize it’s a prepaid card and not a debit card.
Try places like Kmart, Kroegers, etc. Or give it a few months – employee turnover is high at WM.