Gift Card Churning – Being Proactive Paying Off

Recently, there was a very good deal for a gift card churn, but the deal is now over. Points were for free. My last two transactions have not posted yet, and I am hoping that they will. If I look through the history of my emails, it should have posted by now.

Anyway, to get this post back on track, this specific vendor purposely sits on the order for almost a week before acting on the order as a fraud prevention tactic. The first couple of times, I did not realize it was part of their standard operating procedure. They basically let the order stew and have the order pending on your credit card, in hopes the account holder sees the transaction online and act upon it. After a sufficient amount of time, about 5 business days, they email you about calling them referencing a number. They may or may not call the number on record for the order.

By the third order, I noticed that the order number was the same as the reference number which I thought was a system generated “help desk” number from the security email. On day 1, I would make my gift card purchase. Following that, on day 2, being proactive, I called the security team and referenced day 1’s order and told them I received an email to confirm the order. A couple of hours after the call on day 2, I received an email that changed the status from “received” to “in process.”

One simple phone call, can allow you to expedite the process and allow you to get into the limited time offer. Really, it’s the same premise behind a credit card application that is “pending” and all you have to do is call one of the underwriters to review the application. It’s the all the same, be proactive.