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How to get $400 from Chase! And Bluebird loads get trickier at Walmart

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AMEX STARWOOD 30K: The bonus on the Starwood Amex is usually 25,000 points, but it’s currently 30,000 points since there’s a 5,000-point referral bonus in effect. You can have a friend refer you, or you can refer a friend. Failing that, you can use a referral link from you favorite blogger (your favorite other than me, that is, since I don’t have a referral link.)

MMMM… FREE DOUGHNUTS: Amex is offering $5 off $5 at Dunkin’ Donuts via either the “Deals For You” page in your online account or via Amex Sync (Tweet #AmexDunkinDonut). That and other Amex deals are listed here at Slickdeals.

$400 FROM CHASE: The Doctor of Credit tells you how to maximize your Chase account opening bonuses:

Chase bank regularly mails out coupons for their checking and savings account. They recently sent out a bunch of coupons that give you a sign up bonus of $200 for each account (maximum bonus of $400). If you didn’t receive one, don’t worry you can purchase them on eBay for anywhere between $5-$20. The new coupons will be valid for awhile and new ones often pop up so you have plenty of time.

So that’s $800 (minus expenses) if you’re married, and maybe more if you have other family members who like to open accounts. Speaking of which: I took part in a Sharebuilder promo a while back where you could open custodial accounts for children and get a bonus. Are there any other financial institutions which let you collect sign-up bonuses for kids’ accounts?

WALMART BLUEBIRD CHANGES: Walmart recently changed the point-of-sale software, and that’s making it more difficult to load Bluebirds at the register. Freequent Flyer is there to show the way:

Over the past few days I’ve visited many different Walmart store locations and processed all of the transactions popular among my readers. I’m pleased to say that there is no transaction that previously could be conducted with a prepaid Visa debit card that cannot, today, be conducted with a prepaid Visa debit card.

But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

Upon each swipe of a prepaid debit card, you have exactly one chance to alert the point-of-sale system to process your transaction as debit, instead of credit. That chance comes immediately after swiping the debit card, while the customer-facing keypad appears to still be “thinking.”

On the keypads at my Walmart registers, you’ll first see a red button in the bottom right corner of the screen. Then, within less than a second, a yellow “Change Payment” button will appear in the bottom center of the screen. That, and only that, is your cue to push the yellow button on the right side of the keypad, embossed with a left-facing arrow.

If you miss that chance your transaction will be processed as credit, and fail.

If this is how you roll, please read his article for more details. Note that those of you loading Bluebirds with Money Center ATMs will be unaffected by all this. I loaded a few cards this past weekend with no issues, and others have reported the same.

CALLING ALL PARENTS: The Deal Mommy is putting on a travel seminar aimed at real live actual families, which in my humble opinion is an underserved segment of the points-n-miles scene. The details:

With your support, I’m so happy to announce that “Family Travel For Real Life” is live! FT4RL will be held August 23 at the Hyatt House Dulles Airport in the Washington DC suburbs. Registration will begin at 9AM and sessions will run from 10-4:00 (possibly 5:00) with a lunch and afternoon snack break included in admission.

As this is a labor of love, I’ve worked with the Hyatt House to keep costs as low as possible. I’m thrilled we can offer the first 25 tickets for only $49, with tickets after 25 going for $59. At the moment we are capped at 50 attendees, but I will consider renting a 2nd ballroom if demand is through the roof.

Hyatt House also offered me a group room rate of $85 (pre-tax), but I’d keep an eye on prices as weekends tend to go lower. I’ll have a booking link soon. If you’ve never stayed at a Hyatt House, you’re in for a treat! All rooms are full suites and breakfast is complimentary and includes fresh omelettes. I’ll definitely be there Friday night and will be happy to co-ordinate a dinner or happy hour for any staying over.

Click here for more, and best of luck to Dia!

FLYERTALK, BOARDINGAREA.COM TO BE ACQUIRED BY INFAMOUS LBO FIRM: Internet Brands, the company that owns both Flyertalk and frugaltravelguy.com, has been purchased by the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts for $1.1 billion. KKR specializes in leveraged buyouts, also known as “the kind of buyout where you load up on debt to increase your rate of return and hope nothing goes wrong.”

KKR was a key player in the largest LBO in history: $45 billion for energy utility TXU in 2007. That deal has gone very badly. Hopefully this one turns out better.

Banned for life from Walmart!

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BLACKLISTED BY WALMART: A man has been blacklisted by Walmart for pursuing that company’s price-matching policy too aggressively:

Cantrell was on one of his twice-daily visits to the San Tan Valley Walmart — “I just love Walmart and that’s why I go,” he told KNXV — when a store employee rejected his ad match.

Cantrell complained to store management and was on his way out when the employee decided to phone the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office to report that he was being intimidated.

“I was upset, but never once did I say anything to the gentleman,” Cantrell insists.

Returning to the store four days later, Cantrell encountered three deputies who promptly handcuffed him before handing him a court summons and a notice informing him he was banned from Walmart for life.

Some thoughts on this:

  1. If you haven’t already, take a look at the “Blacklisted” thread on FatWallet. It’s phenomenally entertaining.
  2. Some people treat customer-facing employees with a strong sense of entitlement, and some employees get very tired of said customers. The dude was going to Walmart twice a day–was he the happy, cheerful kind of obsessive, or the argumentative, entitled type?
  3. On a related note, social skills can be very helpful in chasing deals. There’s a term from the hacking world, social engineering, which has some applicability.
  4. All of you reading this are the good kind of obsessive, right?

FREE PIZZA: (H/T: MaximizingMoney) You can get a free large 1-topping pizza at Papa John’s for every $25 gift card that you buy. Online or in-store, your choice.

HOW TO USE THE FUEL REWARDS NETWORK TO TRIM GIFT CARD PURCHASE EXPENSES: The Fuel Rewards Network doesn’t get much press, but it can be useful. The Points Ninja explains one use:

Anyone who regularly engages in Manufactured Spending should be fully aware of the actual cost of their spending.  For example, if you buy $1000 in Visa gift cards at Winn-Dixie, you’ll pay $11.90 in purchase fees.  If you then liquidate through purchasing money orders, the you’ll likely pay another $0.70 in purchase fees.  That brings your actual cost for spending $1,011.90 to $12.60.  So, with a single miles card you’re paying 1.26 CPM.  With a 2% cashback card, you’re making .74% profit.  With the 2.2% Barclay Arrival card, your profit (in the form of travel credits) goes up to .94%.

However, for the rest of December, there’s a way to juice that return.  Fuel Rewards has partnered with Mastercard and is paying a bonus of 3 CPG for every $100 spent at Winn-Dixie (or any other FRN partner store) when you link your Mastercard to your FRN account.  I didn’t expect that it would work, but in the spirit of scientific inquiry I made a test purchase with my Barclay Arrival card (which is a Mastercard) after linking it to my FRN account.  The purchase quickly showed up in my FRN “dashboard”, but did not show any fuel rewards earned.  However, to my surprise, my account now shows that I earned 30 CPG for the $1,011.90 purchase:

WHY DOES AN AMBULANCE COST SO MUCH?: Some interesting reading from Priceonomics:

A major factor behind high charges is that insurance reimbursements often do not reflect provider costs, leaving a small margin for ambulance companies. In 2010, the average Medicare payment was just 2% more than the average provider cost per transport. For many providers, the payment was less than the average cost per transport, meaning that the provider actually lost money transporting Medicare patients to the hospital. Insurance reimbursements, which are often based on Medicare fee schedules, may be even less. According to Robert E. O’Connor, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, in-network reimbursements often cover just 50 percent of the cost or a percentage of the Medicare reimbursement rate.

Since margins are thin for Medicare and in-network patients, ambulance providers often avoid negotiating contracts with insurance companies or charge out-of-network individuals significantly higher rates in order to compensate. “We try to participate, but sometimes plans come at us with rates that aren’t fair,” emergency physician Michael Gerardi told the Washington Post.

HOW I GOT OUT OF DEBT: Ryan from ReCraigslist tells his story. Rather than walk away from his debts, he decided to buckle down, start a business, and do things the right way. Congratulations, Ryan! For those of you who aren’t familiar with his blog, he makes a living buying and selling stuff on Craigslist, mostly washers and dryers. Nothing like hard work and a nice market niche!

 

The Federal Reserve just made things easier for credit card fanboys and credit card thieves

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Some of you may have already read about this on Flyertalk or Million Mile Secrets, but it’s now possible to get a PIN for prepaid gift cards. Let’s get the obvious implications out of the way first: it’s now easier to churn your credit cards for points. You can now use prepaid gift cards to load your Bluebird Amex at Wal-Mart, to buy money orders, and and to get cash back from point of sale transactions, among other things.

We don’t have much to add to the max-out-all-your-5%-cards-ASAP-before-this-deal-dies discussion, other than maybe to refer you to our Best Buy post a few days ago for another possible angle. There is one aspect of this whole development which is very curious, however. As a poster on Flyertalk pointed out, all of this is happening because the Federal Reserve released new guidance for the gift card issuers which prompted them to very hurriedly start issuing PINs for their cards. Check out this excerpt from The Hill’s coverage of the situation:

“Quite honestly, the prepaid industry was shocked when the staff of the Federal Reserve Board issued [the informal guidance] less than three weeks before the effective date,” said Brad Fauss, the executive vice president and general counsel of Brightwell Payments, a payroll card company.

The guidance is not officially binding in theory, but in fact it’s usually what the financial services industry has to follow, thus the sudden rush to make this happen. Here’s a relevant excerpt from the Fed guidance:

Q2. Must an issuer of a general-use prepaid card that is enabled for processing transactions over a PIN network and an unaffiliated signature network provide or permit activation of the PIN at the time the prepaid card is purchased for the card to comply with § 235.7(a)?
A2. An issuer complies with § 235.7(a)’s prohibition on network exclusivity only if card transactions can be processed over both unaffiliated networks on the card. Transactions can be processed over a PIN network only if the cardholder has a PIN to use for card transactions. Where an issuer intends to meet the requirements of § 235.7(a) by enabling a PIN network on the card, the issuer may comply by activating the card at the time of purchase and providing a PIN at that time or by activating the card by telephone subsequent to purchase and providing a PIN at the time of activation.

What on earth is all this about? To find out, let’s go to rule 235.7(a):

§ 235.7 Limitations on payment card restrictions.

(a) Prohibition on network exclusivity. (1) In general. An issuer or payment card network shall not directly or through any agent, processor, or licensed member of a payment card network, by contract, requirement, condition, penalty, or otherwise, restrict the number of payment card networks on which an electronic debit transaction may be processed to less than two unaffiliated networks.

So the Federal Reserve is saying that issuers must allow their cards to access more than one network, and that the only way for them to do so is to provide PIN numbers with prepaid gift cards. Why do they have a concern about network exclusivity? We’re not sure, but our guess is that it involves antitrust concerns.

Maybe we’ve been reading Barry Ritholtz’s blog for too long, but we’re just too cynical about our nation’s financial authorities to be surprised that the Fed is requiring prepaid gift card issuers to do something which makes it easier for credit card aficionados to more easily exploit the credit card rewards system and make it easier for people with stolen credit cards to convert them to cash.

Of course, this particular blog is not likely to have any effect on Fed regulations, so we’re certainly not about to advocate for any sort of change, especially when we and our very clever readers are in a position to benefit from the Fed’s incompetence. All we’re going to say is, whip out your Chase Inks and your Citibank Preferreds and make hay while the sun shines!

And congratulations to Ben Bernanke! We’re only one week into April, but you’ve already got the PFD Man of the Month award wrapped up!

Man of the Month! (Courtesy of the Huffington Post)

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