Warning: This isn’t going to be my typical manufactured spending report. The months when I’d earn over 100,000 points are going to be few and far in between. At least for now. Visa gift card churning isn’t viable in my area anymore and I’m mostly sticking to reselling and buying clubs to earn points.
In August, I went in the red in order to do so. That’s because I had a $15,000 spending requirement to complete on my Amex Business Platinum Card. I also had a $4,000 spending requirement to complete for my sister’s Chase Sapphire Preferred, which came with a 100,000-point bonus.
I managed to meet about $10,000 of my Amex Business Platinum’s spending through my brother’s home renovation expenses. For the rest, I turned to Buy For Me, MYS Buying Club and The Deal Buyer.
Note, if you use my MYS or Deal Buyer referral link, I’ll earn $50 after you bring in $5,000.00 in receipts.
Now there are other buying clubs out there, but these are the ones I stick with to keep things easy. I didn’t want to deal with more than three clubs at a time, since that would just complicate tracking. The last thing you want to do is lose track of a purchase and then end up $1,000 in the hole for a MacBook you essentially gifted to one of these buying clubs. Keeping the operation small helped me avoid that.
Related: My year in manufactured spending: How I earned points, miles + cash back In 2019
Total spent
Points earned: $7,900.93
Reimbursed: $7,755.93
Total cost: $145
In total, I bought $7,900.93 worth of merchandise and received $7,755.93 back. That’s a loss of $145, which would normally be a terrible return on 7,900 Membership Rewards. However, in this case, it was worthwhile to me because I was trying to meet credit card spending requirements without gift cards. I earned over 157,000 Membership Rewards and got the remaining $2,900 of my sister’s Sapphire spending done. That brings the total to about 257,900 points.
I’ll share a more detailed post later about how I track my buying club purchases and tips on how to keep your order from getting canceled. In the meantime, here’s a link to the spreadsheet I’ve been using to track everything. Feel free to download and use for your own buying club purchases.
Related: 6 tips for avoiding credit card shutdowns and bad credit while churning gift cards
Was it worth it?
I could have tried to meet more of the spending requirement through regular purchases, but I wanted to get this out of the way quickly. Paying $145 out of pocket seemed reasonable for the convenience of checking these two spending requirements off my list.
Plus, I recently racked up $198.99 in Amex Offers savings from a $0-annual-fee card, so I felt those savings offset the extra expense of trying to earn more Membership Rewards. Maybe that’s a stretch, but in addition to the convenience factor, it played a role in justifying the expense.
Related: My low volume, high-impact manufactured spending strategy
Final thoughts
Overall, I’m happy with the turnout for August. I’m relieved I got the remaining spending requirement done for two cards that required a combined $20,000 within 3-6 months. Plus, I did it with a very minimal time commitment from the comfort of home. Outside of meeting large spending requirements, I don’t resell unless it’s at least at a break-even rate. The use of Amazon gift cards purchased at office supply stores using my Chase Ink Plus card helps make that possible.
Purchasing U.S. Mint coins for buying clubs is also a great way to knock out large amounts of spending but I have yet to be able to get one of these purchases through. They tend to sell out fast or I end up with the page that never loads. Plus, I don’t feel totally comfortable buying coins with an Amex card, considering how vigilant they’re being when in regards to manufactured spending activity.
Related: 10 best credit cards for manufactured spending
In addition to buying clubs, I also resold about $300 worth of Dagne Dover merchandise from their refresh sale a few months back. This is a popular brand that sells various bags that are both functional and stylish. I bought several of their neoprene laptop bags and sleeves at a steep discount and unloaded them via Poshmark at a small profit. But that’s a small drop in the bucket and not part of my August haul, so I left it out of this tally.
It’s just something to be aware of if you’re looking for opportunities to put extra spending.
Photo credit: Jennifer J Taylor/iStockphoto
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