One of the first questions I get when I mention how I earn points and miles via manufactured spending is “what is this costing you?” After all, with a few exceptions, Visa gift cards carry fees. Not to mention, the money orders you have to buy to liquidate those Visa gift cards.
If you’re buying Visa gift cards online, there are also shipping fees involved. While the fees amount to less than the cost of paid travel, the point of this hobby is to try and eliminate them altogether. That being said, here are five ways to eliminate manufactured spending fees:
Use the iBotta app
I learned about iBotta fairly recently and, as I explained last week, it’s a terrific way to eliminate Walmart money order fees. Through the Any Item Rebate feature, you can submit your Walmart money order receipt to get $0.25 – $0.50 cash back.
Considering Walmart money order fees range from $0.2 – $0.75, this is actually pretty significant. Especially if you’re churning gift cards in large numbers – that’s when the savings really add up.
New users who sign-up for iBotta with a referral link also earn a $10 bonus after they claim their first rebate. It’s important to note that Any Item Rebate submissions do not qualify for the $10 bonus. However, it’s really easy to earn the bonus considering the 300 partners and hundreds of items that qualify for rebates.
Utilize cash back portals
If you’re buying Visa gift cards online, you can eliminate a significant portion of the fees with cash back portals like Yazing and TopCashBack. At the moment, the cash back rate for giftcards.com orders is 1%.
Factoring in fees and cash back, you’ll pay $17.20 for $2,500 worth of spend. That amounts to $6.88 per $1,000. That works out $1.02 cheaper than buying Visa gift cards at Simon Mall. This is a great way to save on manufactured spending fees.
Take advantage of $0 fee gift card promotions
Speaking of Simon Mall, every year they run a $0 fee Visa gift card promotion, usually around December. This promotion usually lasts a week, giving you plenty of time to earn miles for next to nothing.
A few years ago they did have this promotion in October and it only lasted a couple of days. To make sure you don’t miss out on Simon Mall’s $0 Visa gift card promotion, sign up for the VIP Club and opt-in to receive emails. That way, you’ll be notified in advance.
Last year, I took a break from a heavy MS schedule, then showed up on the last day of the promotion, completely clueless about what had been going on. Yeah, needless to say I was pretty angry at myself.
Simon Mall isn’t the only source that offers $0 fee gift card promotions. Last year, Gift Card Mall essentially paid customers to buy Visa gift cards. Now, I haven’t been able to get an order approved with Gift Card Mall in at least three years.
A lot of other people have the same problem. However, if you can get your orders approved during one of these promotions, you’ll not only cover most of your manufactured spending fees, you’ll earn a nice profit.
Gift card rebates
Every once in a while, OfficeMax (or Office Depot, whatever they call themselves these days) will offer rebates on Visa gift card purchases. Not only do these rebates eliminate manufactured spending fees altogether, but they leave you with a profit.
The best part? If you use your Ink Plus or Ink Preferred card for these purchases, you’ll earn 5x Ultimate Rewards points!
Incorporate cash back credit cards into your manufactured spending routine
Sometimes you can’t eliminate manufactured spending fees. Either you need to buy gift cards in large quantities or you miss out on $0 fee promotions. In those situations, it’s helpful to incorporate cash back cards into your manufactured spending routine. With a 2% cash back card, you’ll earn a small profit even when you’re buying gift cards at full price.
For example, if you spend $9500 on Visa gift cards at your local mall, you’ll end up paying $75.05 in fees and earning $189.52 in cash back. That leaves you with a $114.47 profit! You can certainly pocket this and use it for travel. Or you can put it towards fees for another $9500 gift card purchase paid for with a mile-earning credit card.
Either way, using a cashback credit card in your manufactured spending strategy can be a great way to off-set manufactured spending costs.
If gift card churning is your manufactured spending method of choice, it doesn’t have to be expensive. Use cash back portals, relevant apps, and work in a cash back card if you have to. More importantly, keep an eye out for lucrative promotions that not only eliminate fees, but make it possible for you to earn a profit churning gift cards. If there are any tools out there that help reduce the cost of manufactured spending, please share them in the comment section.
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Will top cash back or yazing give 1% back when buying visa cards using staples website? does anyone give rebates when i buy visa cards from staples website?
thanks
None that I know of
Not that I know. If there were one, WOW.
That used to work but not anymore as far as I know.
Did Simon Malls have any cards left in inventory, when you arrived in the last day of the promotion?
Yes. Not that many people in the area were aware of it, apparently.
Macerich 3/4 times no fee per year. $2.5K per day X 7. Next promo in Oct.. We use FU for easy UR ea. promo.
How do you know next promotion is in October. Is it on their web site? Do you know the exact week of October
Thanks David!
Curious as well how to find this info…
I asked the CSR last month when they had a no fee promo. You can also go to the Macerich site, find your closest location and sign-up for their newsletter.
thats good to know but the nearest location is still far from me. sigh!
Hi David. Thanks for the tips. Looking forward to this, yet nothing yet (month after your post) Prompted me to check a bit of history. I see that last year they ran two vgc promos, that ran from Oct 31 to Nov. 4 (2016), yet back in 2015, similar no fee vgc promo ran from Oct 19 (?) until the 22nd.
Have you or anyone else seen/heard anything more specific as yet for this year? I did just sign up for Macerich Valley View (Harrisonburg) e-newsletter. (about an hour from me — yet can combine a shopping trip)
@ESCOT…that’s a long trip for small amount of miles or points. Chose ur card wisely. Do you have S&S or Giant in ur area. That’s where the deal is right now thru end of year w/ Shell.
Fair concern, re. long trip for “small” benefit. Yet have multiple reasons to head that way this week (family, sight seeing, even using our Olive Garden pasta passes) So this would be, so to speak, nice gravy. (I often will tap into those incredible free gas/vgc deals with Giant — aka, Martin’s in our area. Haven’t paid cash for gas in several months…. 🙂 )
Have learned (slowly) to keep eyes peeled for multiple vgc buying tools when they work…. always watching for other options. (whether that be Macerich, Martin’s/Giant, AAA/MA, Simon, GC.com and my real secret weapon …. gcmall.com. (sic — though I’m loathe to push the latter too hard, lest I run afoul of their “gotcha” algorithms.)
They could all end tomorrow. Or change. Has me wondering then if the Macerich pattern for late October/beginning of November is no more…. Seen anything?
Spoke w/ CSR @ Macerich Mall in Freehold, NJ today and was told there will be a fee free gift card deal any day. She wouldn’t give me exact date but said it will happen very soon. Have fingers crossed for 7 days of fee free @ $2.5K per day. Can use a new stash of UR since I just burned 200K UR for 8 nights @ Hyatt Zilara, Cancun in March, 2018.
Great info, Ariana – thank you!
I am hoping to also see a post on how you dispose of Visa GCs (or rather – dispose of money orders bought by VGCs) without attracting unwanted attention by your bank and avoiding shutdown/audit as well as structuring charges by the government.
I know from your previous posts that you deposited large amounts into Wells Fargo without any problem. Are you still doing it? How are you managing avoiding unwanted attention and do you have any advice in that area.
I find it best to deposit MO in my banks ATM. No eye to eye contact with teller. B of A has always been smooth for me. If uncomfortable risking your primary banking relationship, open a few new accounts, that you won’t miss, if shut down. Many banks charge monthly service fees, but check around you’ll find some small banks and credit unions looking for new customers, with no fee accounts.
Even better is to sign up with banks that offer sign up bonuses. I’ve made about $2K so far this year on bonuses and use this variety of banks to spread out my MOs.
Nice! I’ve been meaning to get in on that. #incentives
I just checked out the ibotta app. Wow. Wish I had known sooner. It looks like you can use the any item rebate just once per week? Can you use it for older receipts? If so, I have several I would love to add.
In my experience, it’s once per day. But it’s pretty much YMMV. I believe receipts can’t be older than a week. But yes, it’s totally handy for groceries and everyday spending!
You are lucky. There is NO place in the Dallas, Texas area that will sell money orders using PIN-enabled VISA/MC gift cards.
Jerry!!!!