As I am reviewing the last month’s credit card activity, and discussed about maxing out my cards for the Starwood Gold, I have not been making good financial decisions the last three months. Generally speaking, I usually have enough cash to pay for my credit card bills before the statement closes. In the times that I don’t, I am expecting the checks from gift card churning to pay for the statement before it closes. However, I have been buying a lot of miles and points using gift cards that are sold below 90% like Kohl’s to round out my $1500 spend in Chase’s department stores category. In terms of points per dollar, that is a wash if I were to redeem all of the Ultimate Rewards. Sell the Kohl’s card at 85% and receive 15% back in points, but the 15% I outlay in cash. This is the dangerous part and I haven’t been making the smartest decision, I have basically been cash advancing myself using Bluebird and Vanilla Reloads to push around the balances. I was trying to force all of manufactured spend before December 31 and it put me in a place where I did not feel comfortable with. Some of the promos I took advantage:
- Free $5 load with Nationwide Visa Buxx for my two cards
- 3,000 Flexperks points for spending $3,500 with the US Bank Flexperks
- Double Miles for Neiman Marcus with the AAdvantage Shopping Mall
- $6,000 worth of Wholefoods Market gift cards
- US Airways buy 50,000 miles receive 50,000 miles
- Lifemiles two for one deal
Some things that are not promotional, but I ran up my credit cards with:
- Too many American Express Prepaid cards
I watched my credit cards’ balances balloon, but they are slowly winding down. In the coming weeks, I should have my “house in order” and I will stop playing with fire.
