Hey everyone.
If you can tell by my username, I specifically joined here for "insider" knowledge about Msing.
I've done all the traditional stuff like buying MOs with VGCs, reloading and "cycling" serve, and I even have a few ways to MS using ebay that I will not share until I enter the level 2 forum. Hopefully my presence can be benificial for everyone.
For me, my MSing actually didn't start out with traveling. It started out at my local credit union.
I was making a deposit at my credit union one day and I had heard about getting a credit card. I knoew that building credit was important, but I was also very scared of getting a credit card for fear of going into debt. I decided to take the plunge anyway and get a secured credit card with a measly $250 limit.
For the next part of my story, my parents have almost perfect credit scores (my dad's score is 849) so this will be important in the next portion of this story.
A week later, I got the mail and noticed that there was a credit card offer. It was for a capital one spark business card for my dad. Spend $4500 and get $500 back. I gave it to him and he said "yeah, I get those all the time. I really don't want to hassle wirth them so I throw them away". To which I responded:
"wait a minute, credit card companies pay you to have a credit card!"
"why yes, they do". He then showed me his citi doublecash, the only card he ever uses + an amex card for his business expenses. "I get 2% back everyware, and you should consider getting this card too when your credit report is good enough."
I immediately went onto citi's website and tried to sign up for the doublecash, of which I was instantly denied. Turns out you need at least 6 months of credit history to even generate a fico score, so I didn't have one yet.
I then started googling around about "rewards credit cards" and got a discover it chrome secured card with a $500 limit.
A few weeks later, i have a large college tuition payment due. This is when I found the doctor of credit forum by an accidental google search.
I started learning about credit card churning, bank account churning, and later manufactured spending. Now I am lucky that my parents are actually paying for my college. Then and there I realized that since I am the ones paying the bills (parents reimburse me) I could put ALL my tuition on credit cards and basically get huge cash sign-up bonues just for using the right card at the right time!
I allowed my discover card to age to about a year old. At this point I picked up the chase freedom card.
At this point, I started researching ways to manufacture spending, like buying Money orders with gift cards. This is when things really took off:
As of june of this year, I have signed up for 4 credit cards since then. I now carry a total of 6 credit cards including:
Discover it card (PCed from my secured card)
Capital one Savor (for the $500 bonus)
Amex blue cash everyday
Chase freedom
Paypal 2% back card (there is a way you can actually get 3% back on everything using this card which I will explain when I can be entered into the Level 2 forum).
I had to close my credit union secured card. They refused to upgrade me to an unsecured card until I submitted pay stubs. I decided to just cut off the card early as the longer I waited, the harder the decision would be. At the time I didn't have a job and just wanted my $250 back.
Just today I signed up for the Hilton Honors credit card for the $100 sign-up bonus and 75,000 points. That should be easy for me to knock out now that I know how to MS thousands of dollars a week.
I signed up for this forum because I heard about it on million mile secrets and how there were "secret" forums where Msing deals are discussed to only a small number of people. I was hoping I could gain some knowledge from the forum as well as contribute some stuff there myself that I don't want to post on other public forums, for fear of the method being killed off.
Anyway, that's why i'm here. I hope to join the Level 2 forum soon.