As I was gift card churning, the scenario that I will outline in a bit, got me thinking about Office Space and how the group of employees coded the program to skim the fractional penny into one of their savings account.
As you may know, Cardpool raised my rates by .25% and that creates a fractional penny in some instances and can round in my favor. Let’s play with a few numbers:
| Fictional % Back | ||
| GC $ Value | 75 | 75.25 |
| 25 | 18.75 | 18.8125 |
| 30 | 22.5 | 22.575 |
| 35 | 26.25 | 26.3375 |
| 40 | 30 | 30.1 |
| 45 | 33.75 | 33.8625 |
| 50 | 37.5 | 37.625 |
| 55 | 41.25 | 41.3875 |
| 60 | 45 | 45.15 |
| 65 | 48.75 | 48.9125 |
| 70 | 52.5 | 52.675 |
| 75 | 56.25 | 56.4375 |
| 80 | 60 | 60.2 |
| 85 | 63.75 | 63.9625 |
| 90 | 67.5 | 67.725 |
| 95 | 71.25 | 71.4875 |
| 100 | 75 | 75.25 |
When .25 is not easily divisible into the tenth or hundredth place, you will see the fractional cent. Not all denominations would have it, but if you can line it up, you would earn an extra penny.
That being said, is it gaming the system? Or is it a scummy move? Personally, I will stick to even denominated cards like 25, 50, or 100. If I earn the fractional penny, I’ll take it. Despite some of the lengths I go to manufacture spend like Nordstrom and the multi steps to achieve a $.01/point I will not go out of my way for the fractional penny. That is too much work!
Apparently, there’s also a term called Salami Slicing and is illegal.
I’d be surprised if Cardpool didn’t pay on the sum of the cards in each transaction.
That being said, if they paid on each individual card, I’d have no issue making sure to take an extra 0.0075 per card … over 1000 cards, that would add up to $7.50, woot!
Nope! They pay by line item, them and GCZ pay by card