I’m having a great time writing again, and I want to thank you for the warm welcome back. You’ve taught me some new tricks about the hobby. Even more important to me is you have reinforced my belief that “change is hard”, particularly on us old guys.
Ariana and I have been going back and forth about the recent lack of killer manufactured spending opportunities. Another friend of mine in the game has gotten really discouraged with the loss of the Dosh deal at Kroger, which was just a heyday for us in our location.
When that gravy train disappeared, I tested my lower limit and tried driving an hour round-trip to my closest Sam’s Club. (Be grateful if you have on nearby that is on Dosh).
Although I found out that I didn’t want to make that trip for the return on my time, I considered it a “Win” as it resulted in my having a lower limit. I know what I won’t do.
My hourly rate
I’m looking to make more than $30 per hour if I’m driving my own car in touristy traffic to give me that feeling of accomplishment on a lazy retirement day. My goal and mindset was “Let’s take Katy to lunch today and do it for free!” I was fixated on that Dosh rebate that made the deal worthwhile.
But greed took away my short-term memory. My local Kroger store has been my friend all year at 4x on my Amex Gold and was my friend before Dosh with my 3X Navy Federal credit card.
With the Dosh bonus, I had to do just one prepaid card each for Katy and I to hit that $30 per hour rate. I completely forgot about doing bigger numbers per trip and it took me several weeks to “snap out of it.”
Calculating manufactured spending cost
So with Dosh now gone at my “10-minutes-away Kroger”, all I had to do was up my card numbers per trip back to two each to hit my minimum:
$505.95 x 2 x 2 people = $60.71 gross.
– $27.80 in fees and money order purchases nets $32.90.
Again, in less than an hour.
Why do I (maybe we) make this so difficult at times? Deep down I know the game is constantly changing. But when I find a winner, I fixate on it and struggle when it goes away. Now that Dosh is out of my mind at Kroger, I’ll up my grocery purchases over time to $
505.95 x 3 x two people = $91.07 gross.
– $41.70 fees for a net of $50 for that same “less than an hour.”
Final thoughts
Keep me on my toes and I’ll try to do the same for you. We will all be better, more efficient, more profitable players by sharing what we know and see in our own market places. I hope to get reacquainted with some of you at the Chicago Seminars.
And P.S: Let’s try not to be too hard on ourselves. After all, we do call it a game.
Rick, it is a true joy being able to again read your thoughts and musings on the world of travel and points. Your former blog was one of the first I bookmarked when trying to learn how one could earn points and use them in a way to enhance individual travel experiences, whether when traveling on business or for pleasure. I missed your insights when you “retired.” Now, as a retiree living in SC, your comments are of even greater interest to me, and thus far, between Ariana’s writings and yours, I regularly glean valuable information of practical use. Many thanks to both of you!
Thank you Ley for your nice thoughts and comments. It has been a great experience for us to be involved in this hobby and hopefully to motivated one another to try the next new thing and see the next new site. I hope we can spend many more years sharing the joy of seeing the world at prices we can afford,
Thanks again
Serious question. Knowing that when more people know about the deal, the faster it dies. Why would any sensible person who finds a good deal out that deal?
Because if people did not share you would not know about anything. We need to share or nothing happens
What if I already find my own deals thru discovery? You and I both know they are out there. The ones that are still alive are the nones that dont get talked about. Im sure you have yours as I have mine
Kyle, I’m looking forward to the Patriots beating your Niners in the SB this year. It will be deja vu for you as you’re reminded of the 2016 Falcon’s debacle. 🙂
You’ll need your points for a long vacation after that!
Dad is worth 30-40m plus own current salary of 6-8m a year. No need for miles when you taking down that type of scratch.
Yes of course! How silly of me. Please excuse my ignorance sir.
Please give Garrapalo my best.
Loved your dad btw.
Wait, is this the real Kyle Shanahan?
I’m currently traveling to Kathmandu. Travel is the one time I take a break from MS (but not point accumulation as I was approved for the Amex Green 45 k bonus yesterday, yea! Incognito mode per DOC).
I feel I’m getting too obsessed when I’m home with the game. But that obsession is appreciated when flying 1st and business class to Nepal and staying in Hyatt brand hotel suites for free.
I love to tell non US foreigners about the game when I travel. Especially when they’re on paid business class tickets and paid hotel stays. They are always amazed and envious, as I would be if looking from the outside. We’re truly blessed in the USA to be able to do this at this magnitude.
Congratulations on the 45k. Katy and I both did the same thing. It sure is a fun and lucrative hobby.
Travel safe
Thanks for your wise words. I have a Sam’s within walking distance that is on Dosh. The $15 cash back is one time only. Am I missing anything?
Brett. Supposedly there will be a new sams offer November 1 for many locations with lifetime cap removed. Check yours on that date
Rick, was that your comment on DOC about losing funds on (3) $200 MCGCs at Kroger?
If so, is it still unresolved?
I’m glad I’m off on travel as I could have been easily burned on these. I’m lucky to never have had any cc drained.
Can’t you just file a dispute with the cc company you used to buy these MCGCs with? Would that push Blackhawk?
I’m disputing thru Blackhawk. No way am I having anybody eyes on my 5x ink card.
Hi Rick and others that might know… I’m very new to all of this and money orders seem to be a primary way of liquidating cards. I’ve read in places that banks don’t love money orders flowing in rapidly to bank accounts and that credit card companies won’t appreciate you going to stores to bill pay towards your credit card frequently…
So my question is… what is frequent or high volume (# of times / spend)? I have no intention of doing $10K/month… i’ll probably aim for 1-3K tops… would appreciate any tips for a newbie
Go big or go home. As Ingy always likes to say “remember both pigs and hogs get slaughtered”
I don’t remember ever say both would get slaughtered but based on the MetaBank MC going on now, that seems to be a reality
litterally and figuratively both hogs and pigs get slaughtered.
Silly comment. Everyone knows pigs can’t MS. They have too much trouble signing the MOs with their cloven hoofs. Duh!
$3k per month will mot raise red flags
Thanks Rick. Now to find a WM that is nice in my area since the one next to me asks for the card regularly at moneycenter
I’ve done like $200k+ before. Some banks tolerate it more than others. I suggest getting a separate account for this purpose so if you get shut down, it doesn’t impact regular banking activity.
Could you share which bank it is? Also, could you please tell me how people show a debit card and use VGC for swiping? Don’t they see that you switched? Some people say they want to see if you name on it.
I never show the card unless asked, which in my case has only happened once. You tell them you are using a DEBIT card, NOT a gift card. VISA gift cards are pin enabled debit cards.
You can buy VGC’s online at Giftcards.com or giftcardmall.com and they come with your name on them. Maybe start out small using those until you get comfortable with it. Then, you can slowly increase your volume. I started out just doing a few thousand per month when Staples had their fee free sales. Now I do $$35,000 – $45,000 per month through a combination of Staples fee free VGC’s (no name on them), Simon Mall (usually $25,000 with no name) and giftcards.com ($10,000 with my name on them).
Hi Ed, thanks for the detail. Do you usually liquidate through moneyorder or BB? If through moneyorder, could you tell me more about generally the amount you put into each and how many banks you put those amounts into? I’m concerned even about putting a few thousand of money orders into my bank… but that’s just because i don’t know what has been working for others
@Nelson – It really depends on where you live and the stores you buy them at. Where I live, the area is quite literally saturated with WMT Supercenters and WMT Neighborhood Markets, as well as 2 other grocery chains that sell MO’s. I have no problem at all liquidating my $25,000 from Simon Mall on the drive home and over 2 or 3 hours the next day. I buy MO’s for $999.12 at WMT (because $1,000 is the limit and with the 88¢ fee, it comes to $1,000), and $999.21 at the grocery stores because their fee is 79¢. I have 3 bank accounts I deposit into, 2 of which I maintain merely for MO deposits.
Quite honestly, if you are just going to be doing 2 or 3 thousand per month, I can’t imagine your bank would have a problem with it. They’re going to be wary of 10’s or 100’s of thousands (yes, some people do!) that looks like money laundering. A couple of thousand won’t. Once you’ve done it a while and get comfortable with it, maybe open a free checking account at a small local or regional bank to use just for MO deposits and start slowing increasing your volume to what YOU are comfortable with.
You might want to check out Ariana’s Facebook Pointchaser page. You’ll get a lot more personal responses on there.
Nelson – $3,000 per month won’t be an issue with your bank. You might want to check out Ariana’s Pointchaser Facebook page for more in depth responses. Lots of good people on there that love to help.