Free Money Finance is running a contest pitting blogs against each other in a merciless fight to the death. This blog happens to be featured in today’s contest, so if you’ve found this blog at all helpful, interesting, or at the very least an acceptable way to pass the hours while you’re supposed to be working, could you please vote for us? The name of our entry is “Livestock”, and all you need to do is type that word in your comment. One vote per reader, please. Thanks!

THANKS, FREQUENT MILER: There was an influx of newcomers yesterday thanks to some linkage from Frequent Miler, so welcome to all! We have plenty of credit card news here, though we also touch on other gaming-the-system topics as well. Basically, we just like free stuff, same as everybody else.

KOHL’S STACKING WITH FLAVOR: Speaking of FM, he had a nifty little post a few days ago about how to stack discounts and get stuff cheap at Kohl’s. Read and be impressed:

Let’s assume that you successfully buy Kohl’s gift cards for 12% off, and that you successfully earn 10 points per dollar through the Ultimate Rewards Mall, and that you get 30% off your entire order.  The gift card discount comes after the 30% off discount so they combine to equal 38.4% off.  The 10X points from the Ultimate Rewards Mall are also based on the amount paid after the 30% discount, so if we treat Ultimate Rewards points as being worth just a penny each, this is like a 7% rebate.  So, in all, you can get 45.4% off everything at Kohl’s!  Personally, I value Ultimate Rewards points much higher than 1 cent each, though, so this deal is even better!

I recommend the full post for all the juicy details as well as for more general inspiration for how to deal-stack for your own benefit. And speaking of Ultimate Rewards, there’s a flyertalk poll on how people have redeemed UR points. The top choices so far: United Airlines, Hyatt Hotels, and British Airways. If you’re not an expert, it’s often helpful to know what the savvy types are doing and follow their lead.

TRANSMUTING SILVER TO GOLD: Let’s talk alchemy. The Amex Hilton Surpass card  gives you gold status with Hilton the first year and then reverts to Silver after that. But flyertalk reader PedroNY has found a way to stay gold:

You can downgrade from Surpass down to regular card and you can usually get a promotion to upgrade back to Surpass and if you spend $3,000 (in 3 or 4 months?) you will get additional 50,000. I have been doing this annually, usually in first quarter of the year, see if that works for you.

Later, he elaborates:

I (and Mrs. PedroNY) have a very long term relationship with AMEX, so I try to be considerate and do it only once a year. As for time frame, it just makes sense to downgrade in one calendar year and upgrade next year. As you know you get GOLD for “free” for 1 year, so if you do this every year, you essentially always getting GOLD status through the end of the following year. Of course you can spend $40k and get Diamond as well, but I only do that every 2 years as it usually lasts through March 31st.

Example:
Surpass in 2010, meet $40k spend, get Diamond through 3/31/12,
downgrade to Regular in 2010
Upgrade to Surpass Q1 of 2011 (collect 50,000 points)
Downgrade to Regular in 2011
Upgrade to Surpass Q1 of 2012 (collect 50,000 points), if you can spend $40,000 and get Diamond through 3/31/14
Downgrade to Regular in 2012
Upgrade to Surpass Q1 of 2013 (collect 50,000 points)

and so on, and so on. To anticipate some questions:
What is the period that I hold on to Surpass before I downgrade? It depends, on what is my anticipated Hilton Hotel stays, as I do like 12 points/$1.
What is the period between downgrade and upgrade? It depends on the year, but I have done is as short of a period from downgrading in December, one cycle closes, offer shows up, and upgrading in the January of next year.

I hope this helps… Enjoy it, not sure how long it will last, but it has been working for me (and Mrs. PedroNY) for about 4 years now. Best part — NO CREDIT INQUIRIES as they do not do a hard pull for upgrades/downgrades.

We’ve nothing to add here, this is pure genius.

HOW NOT TO TALK TO IMMIGRATION: We enjoy perusing the trip reports at Flyertalk from time to time to get a glimpse of the lifestyles of the points-rich and internet-famous. Recent a good friend of ours who goes by moniker CHSDOC took off for Dubai and Oman and posted his own trip report on FT. After a long trip back via Montreal due to limited award availability, he found that he had to clear Canadian customs even though he was only a transit passenger en route from the Middle East to the U.S. The following exchange took place:

By this point I had been up 26 hours and was getting jumpy. My wife cautioned me, but I was determined to act like an a**. The French-Canadian customs officer, Jean-Claude or Pierre or whatever, asked, “What is your purpose in visiting Canada?”
Me: “I don’t know.”
Him: “Why are you here.”
“I don’t want to be here.”
“You say you are visiting for 2 hours, what are you doing?”
“Going to the airport”
And so on. I thought it was funny. He didn’t. So I had my bags searched.

CHSDOC is glad to be back in the U.S., where innocent travelers are not treated like crimin–wait, never mind.

The 2013 Nissan Leaf–the one that’s all electric, no gas whatsoever–has a new, cheaper base model. This model starts at $28,800, six grand less than the previous cheapest model, and there are some sweet tax credits which dramatically lower the price.

First of all, there is a federal tax credit, available to all, of $7,500. That takes the price down to $21,300. In some states, it gets better–much better. Take a look at your state’s energy incentives to see how well you could make out. The best deal is for West Virginia residents, who also get a $7,500 tax credit. $13,800 for a new car that doesn’t cost much to run? You bet that’s a good deal.

What we’re wondering is, who’s going to figure out how to exploit this? We look forward to reading accounts of the guy who bought 30 Nissan Leafs, then immediately flipped them for a big profit, or whatever it is that’s going to happen now that prices are distorted.

Other states with good tax credits:

• Colorado – $6,000
• Georgia – $5,000
• Illinois – $4,000
• Louisiana – $3,000
• California and Tennessee – $2,500

 (H/T: Slickdeals)