Manufactured Spending

[winb83]

Anybody ever heard of this? Apparently people are using cash back and reward credit cards to buy prepaid gift cards which all come with pin numbers then using those prepaid gift cards to buy money orders and from there they cash the money orders and basically pay the credit card company back they money they used in the first place thus getting free rewards from them.

http://thepointstraveler.com/beginn...es-and-points/intro-to-manufactured-spending/

this is hilarious to me. some of these cards didn't have caps on the annual rewards and people were banking off them.

 

[Dada]

I heard about this but didn't really understand it because it wasn't explained as it was here.

 

[winb83]

I heard about this but didn't really understand it because it wasn't explained as it was here.

AMEX had the Blue Cash Preferred card that was uncapped at 6% cash back at grocery stores till this year. man these fools was doing $10,000+ in money shuffling using this prepaid card called a Bluebird and the cards you can buy to load the Bluebird called Vanilla Reloads. you buy VR cards at grocery stores at $500 a pop and you take the VR and load the Bluebird card which is like a bankless checking account where you can write checks and pay bills off it. then they go to a store like Walmart and use the Bluebird to pay back their credit card company in chunks.

i'm reading all this on a forum dedicated to this kinda stuff.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manufactured-spending-719/

if you do $10,000 in that kinda scheme you got like $600 cash back but really that's not cash back its free money cause you're paying the credit card company back their own money you use for bullshyt purchases.

 

[Dada]

AMEX had the Blue Cash Preferred card that was uncapped at 6% cash back at grocery stores till this year. man these fools was doing $10,000+ in money shuffling using this prepaid card called a Bluebird and the cards you can buy to load the Bluebird called Vanilla Reloads. you buy VR cards at grocery stores at $500 a pop and you take the VR and load the Bluebird card which is like a bankless checking account where you can write checks and pay bills off it. then they go to a store like Walmart and use the Bluebird to pay back their credit card company in chunks.

i'm reading all this on a forum dedicated to this kinda stuff.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manufactured-spending-719/

if you do $10,000 in that kinda scheme you got like $600 cash back but really that's not cash back its free money cause you're paying the credit card company back their own money you use for bullshyt purchases.

Good info. Is this one of those things that is technically legal or does it break some kind of money laundering law, you think?

 

[winb83]

Good info. Is this one of those things that is technically legal or does it break some kind of money laundering law, you think?

It's legal but it infringes upon things that are designed to expose money laundering. From a legal standpoint they can't stop you or punish you but it violates the terms of your agreement. They'll close your account.

 

[unit321]

Okay, these rewards/cash back credit cards give you a small percentage back on what you spend. So if you spend, $100 and get 3% back as an example, you are getting $3 back. You are never going to get money back to pay back for what you buy.

 

[winb83]

Okay, these rewards/cash back credit cards give you a small percentage back on what you spend. So if you spend, $100 and get 3% back as an example, you are getting $3 back. You are never going to get money back to pay back for what you buy.

With this method you're spending money on things that give you most of if not all the cash you spent to get them. You then use that cash to pay your credit card bills. It's like paying them their own money and keeping the reward points and redeeming them for plane tickets or spending then at their reward malls or some of them will deposit in a bank account or mail a check. You'd have to have pretty high credit to pull it off.

I got a Chase Freedom and American Express Blue Cash

 

[unit321]

With this method you're spending money on things that give you most of if not all the cash you spent to get them. You then use that cash to pay your credit card bills. It's like paying them their own money and keeping the reward points and redeeming them for plane tickets or spending then at their reward malls or some of them will deposit in a bank account or mail a check. You'd have to have pretty high credit to pull it off.
I got a Chase Freedom and American Express Blue Cash

I have a cash back credit card. There's a max limit per year I can get back. The most I can make is 5% but that's only on some purchases. I take advantage of my credit card company. I pay my entire bill monthly and owe $0 interest and always get cash back.

 

[winb83]

I have a cash back credit card. There's a max limit per year I can get back. The most I can make is 5% but that's only on some purchases. I take advantage of my credit card company. I pay my entire bill monthly and owe $0 interest and always get cash back.

there's tactics they use in manufactured spending that are useful outside it. like when you load a Bluebird Card you can use it to pay bills with companies that don't accept credit card payments. you can send checks via a Bluebird account. i'm gonna go to Walmart and get one and use it to pay my rent at my apartment. that's $5100 a year.

since i have a Blue Cash Preferred from Amex i earn 6% cash back at grocery stores. grocery stores sell Visa Gift Cards. i buy one of those and activate a pin number on it then go to Walmart and load my rent payments on a Bluebird card and get that 6% cash back on my rent. problem is i'll max out my 6% annually well before then because it's capped at $6000 in a calendar year.

here's an article on the subject
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/almost-free-credit-card-rewards-164400177.html

 

[winb83]

Went and got a Bluebird card at Walmart. Bought the Vanilla Reload card at my local Spartan grocery store and they let me charge my rent payment amount on my AMEX Blue Cash Preferred credit card.

Also got approved for a Discover It Card. so now i got 3 different 5-6% cash back cards. i just gotta rotate them cause once they hit the caps i'm not gonna really use them much. my credit probably got dinged up a bit applying for those three cards in the same week but fukk it. you need multiple cards to maximize your cash back because they either have quarterly or annual caps on them.

 

[2manyFCKNrappers]

the moneypak hustle is real too.

 

[winb83]

When that Bluebird comes in the mail I'm paying all my bills off cash back credit cards. Will shave $23 or so off my rent per month. Not alot but its something.

the moneypak hustle is real too.

What's that?