Introduce yourself here!

gumercindo

Level 2 Member
Hi everyone:

I just signed up and look forward to good conversation. I also happen to be a user of /r/churning but find the forum based approach to offer a great alternative to reddit. My brief history...

Got into the game last January by reading about TPG. Signed up for the CIP (called in right away - d'oh!) since I thought I would be doing some consulting work. I started reading more and more and eventually outlined my strategy. 14 months later I finished chase with 5 personal cards, 3 biz cards and worked my way into Amex and now I'm working on citi. It's been a great ride and I've gotten my SO to get on board as well.

What drew me here was the prospect of visiting some more private forums to talk openly and share tricks of the trade (while knowing that even those will be kept mostly close to the vest by folks). Anyway, love this game and look forward to more conversation.
 

projectx

Level 2 Member
Hi everyone:
What drew me here was the prospect of visiting some more private forums to talk openly and share tricks of the trade (while knowing that even those will be kept mostly close to the vest by folks). Anyway, love this game and look forward to more conversation.
I wish more from /r/churning had your attitude! The open discussions that happen there (and FT for that matter) are mind boggling. Anyway, welcome to Saverocity.
 

gumercindo

Level 2 Member
I wish more from /r/churning had your attitude! The open discussions that happen there (and FT for that matter) are mind boggling. Anyway, welcome to Saverocity.
Hmm interesting. While I do know that there is some level of openness, I also know that certain areas are verboten especially in the MS topic areas.
 

spottedcat1234

Level 2 Member
HI all! Just signed up and look forward to learning from you all and sharing and contributing what insight I have gained. I got into the hobby because of a love of travel and life experiences. But the most unexpected surprise has been the amazing communal aspect of it all, meeting lots of great people and not only getting to share a passion of mine, but feeding off the passion of others. Its both fulfilling and reaffirming.

I've been active in the points communities for about 2 years now (which is not atypical, as the Chase Sapphire Reserve created a real spike in the popularity of the hobby). In that time, I've acquired about 18 cards, and with the points I earned, went on awesome trips to Japan, Peru, Portugal, and will be going to France soon. None of that would have been possible without the insight and support of many in this community. I post pretty actively on /r/churning, where I go by the same name.

Ultimately, I believe in paying it forward, so I look forward to contributing, while also picking up insights along the way, whether it be about trip planning, deals, CC strategies, MS, etc.
 

StealthyMSer

Level 2 Member
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.
 
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skanchur

New Member
Hi everyone!

So a bit of my history with the hobby first. Back in 2013 I started organizing events at my university so I could accumulate points. I would pay the catering using the (now defunct) Citi Fwd for 5x TYP. It was a literal and figurative gravy train! Now the best part, or so I thought, was to find out that I could redeem the points on Amazon for .7cpp. Hundreds of $ in discounts on AMZ made me think I was a big shot. That was until I found the online communities.

Even before the CSR was available, I already tried to open CCs for the sign up bonus. I tried opening Citi CCs first as I had one Citi card already, but ended up being rejected every time as they couldn't verify my identity. A lot of HPs wasted. I then tried Chase and again rejected. That's when I started googling and parachuted into FT. Called recon from the number in the wikis and managed to get approved for the CSP after providing the docs they requested. An Amex PRG card soon followed and then it was downhill (or uphill) from there.

I am a regular at r/churning and the FT MS thread, you can check my username in there. I live in a big city and don't own/need a car so I specialize in Pajama points and online liquidation of GC. I would say I am more of a MSer than a churner. Maxing my Inks with Staples and OD around me which are friendly to purchase GCs. WMs are not friendly and liquidation is a pain, so that's why I try to develop other methods outside the box. Hoping to have a medium to share information with like minded people.

Thank you all!
 

LDODB

New Member
Hi Everyone just joined the forum and look to continue to expand my horizons. I have been into credit cards/points/churning/award travel for about 5 years now and been able to go on some epic trips. I have been on r/churning, FT, DD for a while now and continue to grow my knowledge as I have hit the majority of credit card bonuses I can I am starting to delve deeper into buying clubs and MS.

Cheers
 

GettingReady

Level 2 Member
Hi everyone!

So a bit of my history with the hobby first. Back in 2013 I started organizing events at my university so I could accumulate points. I would pay the catering using the (now defunct) Citi Fwd for 5x TYP. It was a literal and figurative gravy train! Now the best part, or so I thought, was to find out that I could redeem the points on Amazon for .7cpp. Hundreds of $ in discounts on AMZ made me think I was a big shot. That was until I found the online communities.

Even before the CSR was available, I already tried to open CCs for the sign up bonus. I tried opening Citi CCs first as I had one Citi card already, but ended up being rejected every time as they couldn't verify my identity. A lot of HPs wasted. I then tried Chase and again rejected. That's when I started googling and parachuted into FT. Called recon from the number in the wikis and managed to get approved for the CSP after providing the docs they requested. An Amex PRG card soon followed and then it was downhill (or uphill) from there.

I am a regular at r/churning and the FT MS thread, you can check my username in there. I live in a big city and don't own/need a car so I specialize in Pajama points and online liquidation of GC. I would say I am more of a MSer than a churner. Maxing my Inks with Staples and OD around me which are friendly to purchase GCs. WMs are not friendly and liquidation is a pain, so that's why I try to develop other methods outside the box. Hoping to have a medium to share information with like minded people.

Thank you all!
I’m totally into PJ’s. The more the merrier. Most people aren’t willing to share though.
 

skanchur

New Member
I’m totally into PJ’s. The more the merrier. Most people aren’t willing to share though.
That's understandable. I guess it depends on how many people it takes to kill a method. If I found a unicorn merchant that sells me MO with a CC I wouldn't be sharing or else people would fly in from all over the country to max out their CCs :) (PS: I don't have such unicorn).
 

GettingReady

Level 2 Member
That's understandable. I guess it depends on how many people it takes to kill a method. If I found a unicorn merchant that sells me MO with a CC I wouldn't be sharing or else people would fly in from all over the country to max out their CCs :) (PS: I don't have such unicorn).
But there are places you CAN buy MOs with a CC. And there are prepaids that can be loaded online with a CC and multiple other PJ methods. It takes research, time, and experimentation to find those methods.
 

ashishsg

a$]-[u
Hi everyone!

So a bit of my history with the hobby first. Back in 2013 I started organizing events at my university so I could accumulate points. I would pay the catering using the (now defunct) Citi Fwd for 5x TYP. It was a literal and figurative gravy train! Now the best part, or so I thought, was to find out that I could redeem the points on Amazon for .7cpp. Hundreds of $ in discounts on AMZ made me think I was a big shot. That was until I found the online communities.

Even before the CSR was available, I already tried to open CCs for the sign up bonus. I tried opening Citi CCs first as I had one Citi card already, but ended up being rejected every time as they couldn't verify my identity. A lot of HPs wasted. I then tried Chase and again rejected. That's when I started googling and parachuted into FT. Called recon from the number in the wikis and managed to get approved for the CSP after providing the docs they requested. An Amex PRG card soon followed and then it was downhill (or uphill) from there.

I am a regular at r/churning and the FT MS thread, you can check my username in there. I live in a big city and don't own/need a car so I specialize in Pajama points and online liquidation of GC. I would say I am more of a MSer than a churner. Maxing my Inks with Staples and OD around me which are friendly to purchase GCs. WMs are not friendly and liquidation is a pain, so that's why I try to develop other methods outside the box. Hoping to have a medium to share information with like minded people.

Thank you all!
Quite interesting, welcome!
 

Kudu19

New Member
Hi everyone!
I've been enjoying the hobby since July 2015, right after I proposed to my now wife. At that time I had somehow stashed about 300k MR through organic spend in the previous years and decided to finally look into how to spend them, why not on our honeymoon?
Not knowing absolutely how to, I landed on FM and DoC's blogs, learned a ton about how to maximize points, transfer them efficiently and voila', got completely hooked! I feel like I read the whole internet in a few weeks at that time.

Long story short I managed to plan and enjoy a $75,000 honeymoon at the cost of $2,500 out of pocket. Amazing. I couldn't believe how I managed to pull it off...

Needless to say, since then my wife has been begging me to continue with the hobby, we even went to a FTU once ahah.

I've been searching for a forum on where to share my findings and some tricks I discover and where to learn more about ways to earn more points and miles.
I've contributed mostly to FM's Lab or DoC's workshop, I read a lot at u/churning and FT and would really like to find efficient ways to do a little MS'ing. So I asked around and was directed to this forum. Clearly my intent is to join Level 2 at some point and upgrade my hobby skills a little further, sharing my knowledge of it at the same time. Reddit and FT don't seem to be the correct platforms for me.

Thanks and looking forward in being part of this community!
 

kuchbhi001

New Member
Reading through some of the previous posts, I thought I would share my reason for this hobby here too.

When I initially started learning the MS game, my primary motive was (and remains to this day) to prevent myself from being gamed by the system. Most people think churners and MSers are gaming the system but I argue it is the opposite. The "too big to fail" banks have been making the rich richer and the poor poorer. For each 1 of us, there are easily a 100 others who carry a balance on a 25% APR credit card or pay $208 cash for a $200 gift card which will earn the issuers more swipe fees (boggles my mind why you wouldn't just gift $208 in cash). I refused to be one of those. I read and read and read with the sole intention of earning at least more than the swipe fees for every single purchase. I am proud to say I can easily earn back at least 5% on pretty much ALL my spending these days. Have I enjoyed the side effects of this hobby in the process - hell yeah. And I hope to continue traveling on those J and F tickets.

Like many of the others here, I have matured to the point that forums like r/churning are too open for my comfort of discussing some of the advanced methods that I would rather not see burnt. Glad to be in the company of like minded people in this new year. Cheers!
 

ashishsg

a$]-[u
Reading through some of the previous posts, I thought I would share my reason for this hobby here too.

When I initially started learning the MS game, my primary motive was (and remains to this day) to prevent myself from being gamed by the system. Most people think churners and MSers are gaming the system but I argue it is the opposite. The "too big to fail" banks have been making the rich richer and the poor poorer. For each 1 of us, there are easily a 100 others who carry a balance on a 25% APR credit card or pay $208 cash for a $200 gift card which will earn the issuers more swipe fees (boggles my mind why you wouldn't just gift $208 in cash). I refused to be one of those. I read and read and read with the sole intention of earning at least more than the swipe fees for every single purchase. I am proud to say I can easily earn back at least 5% on pretty much ALL my spending these days. Have I enjoyed the side effects of this hobby in the process - hell yeah. And I hope to continue traveling on those J and F tickets.

Like many of the others here, I have matured to the point that forums like r/churning are too open for my comfort of discussing some of the advanced methods that I would rather not see burnt. Glad to be in the company of like minded people in this new year. Cheers!
welcome
 

asc8u

Level 2 Member
Hi all. Thanks for allowing me to join up. I've only been interested in credit cards/award travel over the past year but it's become my most time consuming hobby now - much to the pleasure and then horror of my spouse, who likes to travel..lol. I spent last year learning all the credit card basics and only at the end of the year started shifting into MS. I'm also still learning a lot about redemptions since it took a while to build up points to spend. I look forward to being part of the community.
 

caliang

New Member
Hi all, I've always been interested in getting few signup bonuses and cashback to save on tuition, but I was far less informed back then when Internet was in the dial-up age. The hobby became more serious after I started a job and planned my honeymoon travel in about 5 years ago. I've learned quite a few tricks here and there from the generous online community. Now that it's 2019, while most of the MS methods are dry, I am left with tax payment and P2P payment app that are relatively low cost to MS. I would love to share and join the group if possible.
 

CC-Travel-Ace

New Member
Hi everyone, I’ve always been interested in finanace and credit cards. I guess it’s how I ran across this blog a while back. I’ve been in the game about 2 yrs now and have been lucky enough to learn a few things along the way. Now I find myself looking for more. Looking forward to sharing and learning.
 

caliang

New Member
Hi everyone, I’ve always been interested in finanace and credit cards. I guess it’s how I ran across this blog a while back. I’ve been in the game about 2 yrs now and have been lucky enough to learn a few things along the way. Now I find myself looking for more. Looking forward to sharing and learning.
Welcome to the group.
 

churning_medic

New Member
Hi All, I'm Frank here.

Currently working as an engineer in the NYC Metro area. I've been serious about the points&miles game and MS for over a year now. So I'm not an expert, but definitely not a newb either. While I work on figuring out a more flexible career path, I'm also trying to build-up my points banks in the meantime and that's mostly been through MS. I'm trying to learn and contribute to new MS methods in a private community; I'm not really learning much on Reddit or FT anymore
 

Mik3

New Member
Hey everyone, I have been MSing for a while now, looking to pick up things again, very interested in learning and contributing when I can to learning more methods about maximize credit card points and rewards.
 

Justin

New Member
Hey I'm Justin B. I used to be part of the Travel Codex forums and enjoyed that, and at the time someone had suggested the Saverocity forums. I created an account but never did anything with it, but now I'm back as someone recommended it again! I MS a good amount and try to get as many signup bonuses as I can, so hopefully can add some value.
 

Tsele

New Member
Hey guys!

What led me here was moving to the Bay Area, where it's gotten increasingly difficult to dip deeper into what makes this game great; would love to have somewhere more private to discuss topics openly.

Definitely can't say that I've been in this hobby as much as most of you have been... Started dipping my toes in years back during college, hitting easy MSRs via paying tuition fees. Back then I never really understood what I was doing, just knew that I was making more money back on points than the fees cost me.

Ended up doing some basic searching on how to best spend them post graduation to travel before starting work - started with reading some travel blogs, found out about a few nice redemptions and went with those. Ended up taking a trip; saw beautiful sights and made wonderful memories!! Since then I've been hooked in and shortly after the trip poured in what felt like hundreds of hours learning and experimenting about the multiple facets to this hobby. While I can't say I have much of an online presence yet, I feel like the satisfaction I've gotten out of this hobby so far, be it for amazing personal experiences, or helping close friends create some for themselves has me around for the long run. Loving almost (looking at you, airline devaluations :rolleyes:) every bit of it so far!!


Will stop my rambling now, but looking forward to sharing a good time with like-minded people!
 

Ms069279

New Member
Hello everyone, I'm MS069279.

Joined a few minutes ago and I'm truly excited to get into the point and miles game. Love the opportunities and perks that come with MS'ng.

I look forward to learning a lot and contributing a bit too.
 

projectx

Level 2 Member
Hello everyone, I'm MS069279.

Joined a few minutes ago and I'm truly excited to get into the point and miles game. Love the opportunities and perks that come with MS'ng.

I look forward to learning a lot and contributing a bit too.
LOL... rough time to jump in the game. Hopefully everything will settle down in the next couple of months.
 

deker0

New Member
Hi everyone, I just signed up and am excited to learn and share as much as possible.

I look forward to being a part of this community. I'm also somewhat active on /r/churning and FlyerTalk - under this same username. But I feel the private aspect offered here is much better. It allows for more openness without worry of the knowledge being picked up and shared publicly.
 
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