During last week’s webinars, I got a lot of similar questions related to manufactured spending. Many of these questions were addressed in ms-related posts over the last four years. But thanks to the results of a recent survey, I’ve realized a large portion of my readership consists of newbies who have missed my earlier posts.
I figured it would be helpful to compile them all to give newbies an easy reference. The posts have been divided into five categories to make them easier to sort through. They should answer most of your questions, but if anything is missing, feel free to ask in the comment section.
Manufactured Spending: Credit Cards
Credit cards are central to a good strategy. You’ll want to maximize the number of rewards you earn for every dollar spent. This includes using credit cards that pay out more than 1 point per $1 or offer category bonuses. With these tips, you can earn significantly more rewards on your spending.
- Best Credit Cards for Manufactured Spending
- 10 Best Credit Cards for Non-Bonus Category Spending
- 6 Best Credit Cards for People Who Aren’t Into MS
- 5 Best Category Bonuses for Manufactured Spending
- Why I Don’t MS with the Starwood Credit Card
Gift Card Churning
Gift card churning involves buying gift cards with mile-earning credit cards and then liquidating them for cash. Sometimes merchant gift cards go on sale at a favorable rate and can be sold at a profit or break-even point. THis is a great opportunity to earn points and miles at a minimum cost.
- Where to Buy Visa Gift Cards with a Credit Card
- Which Giftcards.com Visa Gift Cards Are Issued by Metabank?
- Is Gift Card Reselling Worth the Hassle?
- Safeway Just For U Deal: $10 off Visa Gift Card Purchase of $150+
- Gift Card Churning with $0 Out of Pocket Cost
- 4 Ways to Unload Small Visa Gift Card Balances
- Is it Worth Buying Visa Gift Cards from Giftcards.com at 1.25% Cash Back?
- Lost Visa Gift Card Replacement Policies and Fees
- Meeting Large Spending Requirements without Manufactured Spending
- Report: $4,000+ Worth of Points, Miles, and Cash Back Earned
- Where to Buy Money Orders with a PIN-enabled Gift Card
Manufactured Spending Apps and Tools
Mobile apps can make MS easier. Whether it’s keeping track of spending, earning more miles or making money order deposits easier, theres’s an app for that!
- 4 Great Mobile Apps for Manufactured Spending
- One Bank Just Made MS Easier
- MileagePlus X App
- Mapping a Manufactured Spending Route with Google Maps
- Walmart Bill Pay for Manufactured Spending?
Manufactured Spending & Organization
Staying organized is key when it comes to churning gift cards in large quantities. If you’re new and wondering how to organize and track your activities effectively, the blog posts below will help you get started.
- Keeping MS Organized
- Is Manufactured Spending Worth It?
- Is Manufactured Spending Bad for Your Credit?
- 5 Mistakes to Avoid
- Is Manufactured Spending a Waste of Time?
- How I Keep Track of My Manufactured Spending Activities
- Tips for Doing Large Amounts of MS
- “But How Do You Know How Much You’re Spending?”
- Online Gift Card Order Stolen: What to DO
- How I Keep Track of Gift Cards From Purchase Through Liquidation
Tips and Tricks
Once you’ve mastered the basic of this hobby, there are a few tips and tricks that will help you scale up. There are tricks to buying money orders with specific gift cards. There are tips you should follow if you want to scale up significantly.
Perhaps you’re looking to MS from abroad or travel out of town to liquidate some gift cards. The tips in these blog posts will cover those topics. Follow these tips and you’ll be able to earn even more points and miles faster.
- The Trick To Buying Money Orders With MasterCard Gift Cards
- PSA: Please Don’t Buy Money Orders This Way
- 4 Things You Need to Be Successful at MS
- The Secret to My Manufactured Spending Success
- An Update on THAT Walmart Incident
- Travel Hacking From Abroad
- How to Thank Your Favorite Walmart Cashier
- Traveling for Manufactured Spending
- 5 Things That Drive Me Nuts About This Hobby
- How to Befriend Cashiers and Improve Your MS Game
- Manufactured Spending in the Bay Area
- Is it Ok to Tell Cashiers About Manufactured Spending?
- How Not to Ruin MS for Everyone
- Here’s How I’m Covering My Fees
- Should You Use Cash Back Rewards to Cover MS Fees?
- Free Manufactured Spending: How to Eliminate Visa Gift Card Fees
- Offset Money Order Fees With iBotta
Final Thoughts
There are many ways to earn points and miles beyond credit card sign-up bonuses. Mastering the basics of gift card churning and MS can help you do just that. It’s important to remember that there is always risk involved.
At any moment, the banks can shut you down or a previous churning opportunity can go bust. In those cases, you need to make sure you’re able to pay off your credit card bills in full. Have a back-up plan and never buy more gift cards than you can reasonable liquidate at one time.
Follow these tips and you’ll be earning lots of points and miles for years to come.
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Dear Ariana – wow…just want to say you’re awesome…this is a great resource.
Glad you think so!
Amazing! Just what I need. Thanks,
Happy to hear it!
Yay! All this in one place! Just wish I had started sooner so I could have done the coins. Thanks for compiling all this work!
Great idea to combine these!! Question: giftcard.com has a daily max of $2500. But the card fees plus 5 $500 cards adds up to more than $2500, so is the max I could do really 4 $500 cards? Thx!
You can do 4x $500’s and 1x $465 to keep it under $2500. $2500 is actually the max order limit (excluding shipping). The daily limit is $5000, so you can get two orders in if you really want.
Carol,
You can buy 4 x 500 and 1 x 462.25. Your total will come out to exactly 2500.
Thanks Ariana for compiling all these strategies in one place. Your blog has to be one of the most underrated when it comes MS.
Thanks Phil!
Hi Ariana. I enjoy your MS posts and need some advice. I got shutdown by my credit union yesterday after doing about 100k per month in money orders for a little over a year. Sad day for me. Can you recommend any banks or credit unions that will tolerate high volume money order deposits? I’m gonna stay away from Walmart billpay after reading about your Barclay shutdown. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
This is great reading! As someone who is beginning MSing, I know you’ve mentioned before that you tend to be careful with AMEX and Chase when MSing. I have biz and personal flavors of both and I have already gotten sign up bonuses for all of them. If I MS half of my income on AMEX MR (via biz cards), am I in danger of a FR? I will tread more carefully with Chase. Thanks!