This past May, a few bloggers and myself participated in challenge towards spending $20,000 on the AMEX Platinum card with the best efficiency and effectiveness. There was some heat about my numbers when I completed the challenge for spending money to manufacture spend the $20,000.
I posted that for $25, I could spend $10,000 and I helped many readers on how they were able to accomplish that. During the challenge, I outed a method because there was a shift in policy in how Target handled resellers and the deal was dead to gift card churn.
Today, I am sad that I will be outing the second method, the $25 for $10000.
The Sauce:
Before I even out the method, I recently had this exchange with a friend and I laughed so hard I had to wipe away tears from my face.
I don’t have a secret sauce
I told you all my secret sauces
So they are just sauce now
So this secret sauce, now known as the sauce, is going to die come January 1, 2016. In order to maximize the deal, you had to have an American Express business card with the Open savings set as cash back. There was a coupon floating around for 10% off Hyatt gift cards and when you stack it with the American Express business card you were buying the cards close to 85% in value. This is why it was capped at $10,000. If it weren’t, I would have spent the entire $20,000 in Hyatt cards alone.
Effective January 1, 2016, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts®, including Park Hyatt®, Andaz®, Grand Hyatt®, and Hyatt Regency® hotels, will no longer be part of the OPEN Savings program. Any amounts that are charged to your Card account by this merchant on or after this date will not be eligible for the OPEN Savings benefit.
You can find the details at Hyatt as confirmation as well
When the 5% goes away, expect the discount rates for Hyatt to lower and the exchanges will raise the rates at which they will buy because the market will tighten up a bit.
So, am I reading this right? It sounds like, if one were to have the right float (aka $8.5k) and able to hold on to their gift cards until the new year, there could be even more upside?
There could be, based off my observations that has happened. If we take Marriott gift cards, that’s what happened. It used to be in the low to mid 80’s and they’re now consistently at 88% because Marriott is the only place that sells gift cards now
I’m a little confused.
Gift Card Wiki says the best sell rate is 75%. But you’re buying Hyatt gift cards at 85%.
Are the bulk seller rates just that much better?
@Fiby: you’re looking the current sell rate. The rates were closer to 85% before tumbling… Note: your buy rate is 14.5% – because the savings discount is based the amount charged to your card.
Where can you still get 10% off?
There’s a coupon floating around, you should check out the Saverocity Forum
NOOOOOOOOOOOO I LOVED THAT 5%!!!!!! 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁
(p.s. great post, just very sad news)
Thanks! Yea the loss of 5% makes me sad too
I enjoy reading your blog but this secret deal is very mundane and risky. I can manufacture 10k within an hour by going mall to WM and only spend a little more with no risk.
please explain how you do all this in under an hour speedy
Because he lives in a very MS friendly area and he keeps many beautifully colored birds in his cage. I can second his numbers plus some.
I wish I could do those numbers quickly! Where I am now, it’s moderately friendly, but everything is pretty far