If you have plenty of time and patience this opportunity could be for you to buy Chase Ultimate Reward points at $.005/point.
The Details:
First, you need to register your Chase Ink Bold to Plink and choose Staples.
Then you must find these gift cards:
The pack contains four $30 gift cards with an activation fee of $8.95 for the cards.
The Math:
- Total points: 645
- Fees: $8.95
- You must ask the cashier to do a “split tender” and charge $60+ each transaction to run the Chase Ink Card two times to unlock 600 Plink points
- Redeem the Plink points for Walmart gift cards and sell it for a return of $5.52
- $8.95 – $5.52 = $3.43 / 645 points = $.005/point
Thoughts:
You’ve just bought some very cheap Ultimate Reward points, but now a lot of hassle in dealing with four low value debit cards and having to resell the Walmart gift card. Personally, I would not go this route because using the same card and loading the US Bank Visa Buxx is the same price with less hassle. This was just tossed up as an idea of what you could when you split a tender to unlock the Plink points for every $60 transaction.
You can do even better using an online shopping portal. For example, go through UPromise to Staples.com and buy a $100 Visa GC for $106.95, earn 535 points. Fees = $6.95 – $5.35 (5% CB through UPromise) – $2.76 (Value of 300 Plink points using your example) = $1.16 profit, or even slightly higher if you have a linked UPromise savings account giving an additional 10% on all earnings. Of course, you would need to place a lot of faith in UPromise and Plink to accurately record your transactions.
Thanks, I’ll have to check out the UPromise some more
Gab,
Do you think you could combine Upromise with UR mall? Not possible?
@Buckaroo No, you can only go through one portal so you have to choose more UR points or cashback.
@chasingthepoints Frequent Miler has a lot of good info on UPromise. It was even described in passing in the original “5X Everywhere!” post: http://boardingarea.com/frequentmiler/2012/04/23/65x-everywhere/
“This was just tossed up as an idea of what you could when you split a tender to unlock the Plink points for every $60 transaction.”
Without your blog or “your” ideas, this abuse caused plink rewards to be out of stock for the most.
I’m sorry you feel that way. I just started using Plink and have not noticed
They are back in stock now. Life goes on.
How good are Mastercard gift cards? Like how often does their PIN functionality actually work?
Most are not very convenient to use, this thread on Flyertalk will help answer your questions
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manufactured-spending/1455542-pin-available-now-visa-mc-prepaid-debit-cards.html
What a miserable scumbag one can be when they have to resort to such pathetic means! Move out of your parents’ basement, get a real job and earn real money to travel!
It’s not easy to manufacture spend in any big city because the options become limited. This method is not something I would do because of the hassle.
Helen, do you work for staples?