It’s finally here! The day Simon Mall rolls out $1,000 Visa gift cards just for the manufactured spending crowd. Some of you have asked me which credit cards I plan on using during this promotion, especially now that we’ve established this promotion isn’t the cheapest way to buy gift cards.
American Express doesn’t issue points at Simon Mall anymore, so that’s out of the window. Fine by me, since I want to keep my accrual cost on Amex cards as low as possible.
That leaves a pretty big selection of credit cards to choose from. But again, the point-accrual cost is higher than GiftCardMall’s, so I’m going to use this promotion primarily to diversify spending and generate cash back.
I’ll charge a couple of thousand dollars to Chase credit cards. My Citi Prestige Card will rack up some points before it becomes completely useless. But I won’t cycle my credit line and that’s partly due to caution on my part and a lack of time to buy the actual gift cards.
My gift card churning goal
Being realistic about my churning abilities, I’m setting a goal of $100,000 worth of gift card purchases during this promotion. The only obstacle is the fact that my Simon Mall now closes at 6 PM, so I won’t be able to buy gift cards during the week since I work until five and commute an hour out of town.
If I only make it there on weekends and buy $25,000 worth of gift cards, I’m confident I can hit $100,000.
That being said, I’m going to focus largely on cash back credit cards. I don’t normally cycle credit lines, but I’ll probably do it this time around with the Fidelity Rewards and Discover It Miles cards.
Fidelity Rewards Card
The Fidelity Rewards Card earns 2% cash back on everything. Chances are you have an equivalent card in your wallet. At 2% cash back, you’ll earn $200 for every $10,000 Visa gift card purchase. Subtracting the $48.30 in gift card and money order fees leaves you a $151.70 profit.
Discover It Miles Card
I kept the Discover It Miles card after the double cash back bonus ended because of the annual $30 in-flight wifi credit. That perk was discontinued recently, but I still keep the card because I have a pretty high credit limit. It comes in handy during promotions like this.
You’re probably wondering how lucrative buying $1,000 Visa gift cards with the Discover It Miles Card is. It’s definitely nothing to scoff at.
On a $10,000 purchase, you’re paying $39.50 in fees and banking $150 worth of cash back rewards. Your total profit comes to $101.70 after liquidation fees.
Other credit cards
Keeping the cost in mind, if you’re going to use non-cash back cards to buy $1,000 Visa gift cards during this promotion at $3.95, I recommend using cards that pay out more than 1 point per $1 spent or help you complete annual spending bonuses.
Some good options include the Chase Freedom Unlimited, the Southwest Rewards credit card, Radisson Premier Rewards Visa, etc. It all depends on what your travel goals are.
Why the Radisson Premier Rewards Visa? To give you an example, earning enough points for a top-tier Category 7 Radisson award, would cost you just $115. That’s a pretty great deal on hotels like the Mayfair London, where rates can easily top $600 per night.
Factoring time spent
As Rick recently explained, it’s important to calculate your rate of return related to manufactured spending activities by establishing an hourly rate.
These $1,000 Visa gift cards will cut my liquidation time in half, since the 4-card swipe restriction at Walmart will allow me to buy $4,000 in money orders at a time instead of $2,000. So now I can do two transactions per visit and be out of there.
Since things will wrap up so quickly, I can also manage a couple of $1,000 GoBank card loads. If I embark on one of these trips on my own, I can churn these cards in about two hours. However, since I only have three weeks to milk this promotion, I plan on getting help on the liquidation front, cutting my time down significantly.
Projected profit
If I manage $100,000 worth of Visa gift card purchases, I can earn $1,517-$1,017 cash back during this promotion. And if I bring along four helpers, I can liquidate these cards in two visits. That last part is wishful thinking, but I’ll report back as usual.
Which credit cards are you going to use during the Simon Mall $1,000 Visa gift card promotion?
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Great content as always Ariana, I’m always excited when I see a new post comes out. A quick question. Do you think it’s an issue to fill most of your credit line monthly with GCM purchases? I’m worried the RAT team’s may be looking for just that.
AMEX cards don’t get points for spend at Simon malls, they also don’t get the spend to count towards sign up bonuses or big spend bonuses. So don’t both worrying about rat since you shouldn’t use AMEX for Simmons mall purchases anyways
I’d treat lightly with Amex – don’t make it a habit. And pretty much any bank. Work in some normal spending, don’t cycle your credit line (especially with Chase and Amex).
Also, tread lightly with Barclays and Wells Fargo.
Oh yeah! I got my WF card shut down so fast during that 5% bonus a few years ago. They did let me keep my checking account though.
That’s when they shut me down, as well. Fortunately, I was early to the party for a change, and lasted until my promotional period had just ended. For some reason, I dumped all of my earnings from that card into a single mutual fund just to remind me how lucrative this hobby can be. The balance has grown nicely over the years.
That’s awesome! I wish I got that far.
Hi –
Not quite sure I understand. Are you buying money orders at Walmart ( paid for by the Visa gift cards ) then use those money orders to pay the credit cards you bought the gift cards with ?
You a re a quick learner!
Just so I have this correct: By the gift card at SimonMall; go to WalMart – use the Visa Gift card to buy money orders; deposit money orders to bank account, pay credit card off. D0 I have that order correct. I have bought Visa GC at STaples with their promotions without fee and used Amex Serve but never the money order way for over $500.
Yup!
BofA Premium Rewards and Travel Rewards with the 75% bonus for relationship status. Chase Freedom Unlimited and Hyatt for tier nights. Maybe some BofA Alaska Air as well.
Nice! 1.75 points will be nice! How much will you put on that Hyatt card?
I get 2.625 with BofA. I will put my around 5K at a time on the Hyatt card.
That’s awesome! Gotta love Bofa for something…
Oh no I did not know AMEX does not issue points for Simon’s gift cards. Ahhh is that for all cards brands under the AMEX umbrella? Do purchases at least count towards annual spending?
I’m still in the Caribbean for a week and a half, so will miss a good portion of this promotion. Regardless, when I get back home, it will be my Citi double cashback card, as well as some ink points.
Oh no! Well, I’ll gladly trade my time at Walmart for a trip to the Caribbean.
HaHa! Yeah, my friends at Walmart will get a little rest for a couple of weeks.
All amex cards and since purchases don’t count towards minimum spend, I think annual bonuses are out too.
2 things: The Discover it Miles Wifi benefit ended 3/31/19 and the max GoBank load is $500. Wish you well 🙂
I know, but I wrote this post at 11:30 pm and I realize that sentence isn’t worded right. My point was “I kept it past the first year for the $30 wifi credit. Now I keep it because of the large credit line.
WM for MO is drying up. What methods do others have to liquidate VGC?
Excluding Kiva of course.
+1
Please remember to always have a backup liquidation source of your method dries up for whatever reason.
Absolutely!
Please appreciate if you can describe process at Walmart. I have tried in the past to use Simon visa and register didn’t accept the visa card.
Thats my concern as well. I think if we do this – we will buy one card for the 3.95 – go to WalMart and see if this can work before doing the multiple cards for multiples of $1000 like Ariana does.
That’s a wise move, as every Wal-Mart is a bit diffetent. Many don’t permit GC MO purchases anymore.
I couldn’t find an option for buying the $1000 giftcards … Can you please share the link for the proper pin enabled gift card
This is only on store.
“earning enough points for a top-tier Category 7 Radisson award, would cost you just $115. That’s a pretty great deal on hotels like the Mayfair London, where rates can easily top $600 per night.” Radisson Certificate is now good for US only, no?
I believe the free night certificate is us only but the points can be used anywhere. Id need to spend about 7k to get to my free certificate (Every 10k spend up to 3) but it would also give me enough points for a 2nd free night if I do it.
That’s correct with respect to the free night certificate–US redemption only, which is pretty limiting.
I was referring to generating Radisson points using this credit card. But a byproduct of that would be the free night certificates.
I’m referring to the number of points you can earn with the Radisson credit card during this promo.
I can see all the Simon mall locations here:
https://www.simon.com/mall. I see they have one location near my home in Hawaii but that location is an outdoor outlet mall. Where excatly would I go to buy the gift cards? There is not a Customer Service at that location I have ever noticed just all designer outlet stores.
Maybe this offer is only valid at certain key locations and not ever location listed on there website?
Try the mall office. Usually the outlet centers have either a mall office or customer service counter.
It’s next to the bathrooms near the Ugg store.
You have to buy them in-store. Just go to the simon customer service center, tell them you want the $1k gift cards “for MS” or “for miles”.
I just got back from the mall, and it was an easy process. Fill up the form, and that’s it. 24k worth in VGCs, because they include Fees in the 25k.
Just curious, are you already a “registered” Simon Mall customer? The mall I went to would only let me buy $10,000 because I wasn’t “in the system” and they said I could only buy $10,000 until I had made 10 purchases….
But, I used my CFU so still managed to get get 15,000 UR points.
I am a business costumer, but this was my first time buying.
Hi, Just came back from WMT. I converted some of the Simon GCs into MOs and I was surprised to see they are once again asking for SSN and occupation (last time I purchased MOs was in May and they were still not asking for SSN). When did this change occur? Any reason to be concerned they are asking for it again?
Are you in Arizona? If so, that’s the law.
No. I’m in Texas. And 2 months ago there was no SSN requirement
That probably means they’re reporting your purchase as “suspicious”. Maybe intentionally or the cashier hit the wrong option. That’s happened to me a few times.
In Ohio this has been happening if you get more than 3000.01 in money orders. If I limit the total to 3 at 999.12 I am not required to put it in. My cashiers know me and have no issues so this is a computer generated question.
I picked up $7K today at my local Simon Mall. Used one to buy a $999.12 MO at a local WM, which is a 1-swipe-only location.
Nice and easy!
for gobank, do you only load if the balance is about zero? and can you only have 1 gobank card? server you can get like 5
Everyone says you should reload at zero but I’ve been loading when it hasn’t been. Just any chance I get.
Just went to the Flsm Simon Mall and she would not sell me the $1k cards as “I was not a regular customer”. She said I would need to purchase 2 $500 cards ten times to be considered a “regular” customer. Then I could begin buying the $1k cards. She said Vaca location would be the same. ;-(.
I don’t think that’s right. Ask to speak to a manager and let them know you’re doing this for “manufactured spending.” I’ve heard the Folsom location can be difficult.
Thx! Do you know if the Vacaville location is any different?
Hi Ariana, Just returned from DR trip. I went to Folsom Simon Outlet Mall, and she would not let me buy any $1K card since I am not her “regular” customers which lists in the black binder. She also mentioned that it was her manager’s direction from corporate email. I asked what I could do in order to be her regular customer. She said that I would have to buy two times per week with 15 $500 cards ??? I politely thanked her and left …. Thanks.
Folsom has it wrong. I’m going to reach out to the corporate team and let them know because several readers have reported this. The $1,000 cards aren’t supposed to be restricted. Buying more than $10k is.
Finally it worked here in Hawaii, now off to Wal-Mart to ensure the MO transfer works. Do the visa gift cards have a pin?
Yes. It is the last 4 digits of the card number.
Just do NOT tell them you are using a GIFT card. Tell them it is a DEBIT card. They may ask if you have a PIN, and of course the answer is “Yes”. Don’t let them see your card, either.
All WMT’s seem to have different rules, so best of luck and post your results!
Success I was able to purchase $2000 worth of MO’s loading 2 x $1000 cards in Wal-Mart MO’s. It cost $1.76 for 2 x $1000 MO’s. They said $1000 was max limit per MO’s.
Which Walmart did you go to? Did they ask for ID?
Awesome! I also made my first MO run this morning and it went smoothly.
I went to my local Walmart in Waipahu. They did ask for ID. They punched in some data from my ID in to the computer but never asked me for any extra info that was not on my ID.
You could do $4,000 per day with the $1,000.00 cards. They are pretty nice there. Then run down to Tanioka’s and get some poke and fried chicken.
Karim, I think I just saw you standing next to me at the money center in Kunia Wal-Mart you were wearing red shorts and cashed out $4k 🙂
Haha, if you would have said black shorts and in Līhue you might have seen me last night but I didn’t buy MO’s because the line was too long and only 1 clerk dealing with returns.
Is that the Village Park location? I gave up with Walmart after the Pearl City location cut out MO;s. Also, how hassle free was your MO transaction there – any resistance from the clerks? Or were they kinda versed in the whole thing? Thanks
I’ve done 75k so far, my issue was that My Chase card didn’t go through even having the money, I will try calling them tomorrow and try again 25k more. Other than that I was telling the manager that they would offer MOs too and gain that part of the business too. He was open to the idea but we know that orders come from upper management. Fingers crossed that idea can develop someday. What do you think?
That would be amazing as far as I’m concerned. They’d have to hire a lot more staff to accommodate the herd though!
Does anyone know if car dealers accept Visa GCs for payment on a car purchase? Or do they get dinged with the transaction fee like they would on a credit card?
I have no idea. It depends on whether they accept debit and are willing to process gift cards as such.
Yes in Kunia. It was pretty easy waited in line at the money center asked for $2k money order they asked for my ID and I did it with 3 split payment 2 x $1000 and another card for the MO’s fees.
Hi @ariana/all, a quick question.. I’m planning to use my chase ink business cash card and buy the Simon card 1k$ one.. My mortgage company Wells Fargo said they’ll accept money orders… Will I earn 5x UR points as its a gift card? If not, what brings the best value.. I’ve Csr, citi premier, Barclay, citi AA, chase Hyatt.
You will NOT earn 5X points on your Ink Cash card, doesn’t matter what you are buying. 5X points is at office supply stores (Staples, Office Depot, etc.)
You’ll earn 1 point via Ink. A better option would be the Chase Freedom Unlimited or any card that either earns more than 1 point per $1 or gives you some kind of spending bonus.