It’s been a while since I’ve shared one of these manufactured spending reports. I’ve slowed down a bit with both blogging and MS, so the posts have been on hiatus. But I’ve got some 2020 travel plans I need to save up for. Also, I work from home now, which means if I don’t find an excuse to leave the house every day, I’ll literally stay indoors in my Pottery Barn bathrobe, intermittently working and binge-watching Gilmore Girls. And that’s no bueno.
I make an effort to get out every morning and since I don’t have enough daily errands and pilates classes are booked up 3 out of 5 days of the week, an MS run is the most productive option.
Last week, I did over $44,000 worth of manufactured spending. It was largely via $1,000 Visa gift cards from Simon Mall, which cost more than gift cards purchased online but are super convenient and far less time-consuming to liquidate. I managed to unload most of the cards.
The only ones left are a batch of $300 Visa gift cards from Staples, which were ordered online and will arrive who-knows-when. I don’t love the purchase/liquidation process for these cards, but it works out cheaper than Simon Mall Visa gift cards. Plus, I’m trying to be better about maxing out the 5X bonus on the Chase Ink Plus Card.
In any case, below is a break-down of my weekly manufactured spending activities:
Citi ThankYou points
Citi ThankYou points are quickly becoming my go-to rewards currency and have pretty much replaced Chase Ultimate Rewards. Not that I won’t continue earning those for World of Hyatt transfers, but I’m using Citi ThankYou points far more for airfare via LifeMiles and Flying Blue. One of these days I’ll do a “best Citi redemption post” (when I’m not busy writing for other blogs).
But in the meantime, I’m replenishing my balance after taking advantage of the 25% transfer promotion between Citi ThankYou points and Lifemiles.
Last week, I charged $11,000 worth of Simon Mall Visa gift cards to the Citi Prestige Card at a cost of $43.35. Look, I know there are cheaper ways to MS. But this is easy, fast and requires very little tracking. If I can earn points quickly and still grab a round-trip business class ticket for ~$500, I’m good with that.
Points earned: 11,043 Citi ThankYou points
Gift card fees: $43.35 fees
Money order fees: $9.68
Total fees: $53.03
Ultimate Rewards points
I bought $9,000 worth of Simon Mall Visa gift cards using my Chase Sapphire Preferred, which cost me $35.55 in fees. I also charged $3,707.40 worth of $300 Visa gift cards to my Chase Ink Plus card. Of that amount, $107.40 went towards fees and I earned 18,537 Ultimate Rewards points.
This worked out more expensively than buying Simon Mall Visa gift cards, but I have a specific redemption in mind and this is still cheaper than paying out of pocket. Plus, I had already maxed out my Sapphire Preferred, so this was the fastest way I could earn those points without cycling my credit line.
I also lost my Freedom Unlimited Card and once that gets in, I’ll max that out and then I’m done with my quota for December.
Points earned: 27,572 Ultimate Rewards points
Gift card fees: $142.95
Money order fees: $11.45
Total fees: $154.40
Cash back
Once I was done with points, I bought $21,000 worth of Visa gift cards on cash back cards. I charged $15,982.95 to the Fidelity Rewards Visa, which earned me $319.66 at 2% cash back. The remaining $5,100 went on the Discover It Miles Card, earning me $76.50 cash back. After fees, I ended up with $294.73 in cash back.
Cash back earned: $396.16
Fees: $82.95
Money order fees: $18.48
Total fees: $101.43
Profit: $294.73
Total earned
In total, I earned 38,615 points and $87.30 cash back. Not my best, especially in terms of cash back, but it’s fine considering it didn’t take very long. I’ve “trained” the cashiers at a more convenient Walmart location close to my local Simon Mall and make the rounds much faster.
I’ll try to keep these manufactured spending runs going at least three days a week. It gets me out of the house for an hour, it’s a nice break from work, I feel like I’m doing something productive and I earn miles. It works out well.
How much manufactured spending did you all manage last week? I’d love to read about it in the comment section.
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Do you have a liquidation friendly Walmart handy? Those have become a rare breed in SoCal.
Yes, several. That’s the only reason I’m able to pull this off.
Any reason why you don’t do buying groups/reselling? I’ve virtually stopped doing MS via GC–> MO, and instead and doing only BG’s.
These last two weeks I did $95k, and earned myself not only a $1500 profit, but also 306,000 Cap One points (Spark bonus), 55k AA, and 200k across other currencies such as Marriott, Hyatt, Citi, Amex, and Chase UR.
Much easier than having to go liquidate via WM’s.
It would be good to learn more about reselling. I do mainly GC to MO around 30 to 40k a week. What are BG’s?
Buying Groups
Have you had any issues with Best Buy and Amazon cancelling your orders?
They do cancel sometimes based on quality limits, but there’s no harm in the cancellations (meaning they don’t close your accounts or anything).
I keep meaning to. Someone recently invited me to one of these groups but right now I don’t have the time to learn new processes. Maybe in the new year – those numbers are impressive!
Which BGs do you use?
How can I get some more info about the groups?
How much time did you have to put in to do that volume of reselling? It sounds like a lot of work but I’m quite naive to the process.
But that’s a boat load of points!
Any help on what buying groups you are using?
Was wanting to get into group/reselling. Any advice in how I can get in contact with or more info on this? Thanks!
Do you have a Double Cash card? I use that and my Cap One Venture at Simon Mall. My favorite points opportunity right now are getting 2 $200 Visa cards at Office Depot and make $1.10 profit and 800 points on the Double Cash.
I don’t, but it’s on the list. I’m just using the Fidelity Rewards card for 2%. I do want a Double Cash for the 2x TY points.
Can you give a yearly total on your points earned? I’d like to see how much a professional does at this compared to us home players. I collected just under 1 Million points/miles this year between AA, Cap One, Citi, Amex, Hilton and Marriott.
I was thinking about that. The only problem is because I didn’t keep up with my weekly MS posts, it won’t be completely accurate. I can probably account for 75% of my annual MS through these reports, so I’ll try to piece something together.
Consider getting the “dine everywhere” visa’s. They work the same and the fees are $2 less every $400.
Can you use these to load GoBank cards?
How have you not been shutdown by MG for MOs?
I’m sure it’s coming.
What is MG?
MoneyGram
Ariana when you say “you trained cashiers” can you offer some tips. I just recently started getting MO with Simon Mall VGC and I have only been able to do 1 at a time for $995 or $998. The one time I tried to do more they asked for my DL and SS number
It’s a whole lot of social engineering. I’ll do a more extensive post on it one day, but basically you befriend them and then work your way to “I’m doing this for the miles so I can travel” so they know you’re not a criminal.
They’ll always ask for ID and SSN over a certain amount, which is fine. I’ll gladly comply as long as I can buy my MO’s.
Ariana with me being so new to this it freaked me out when they asked for my ss number. I know that this is not illegal but it makes me nervous for them to ask for DL and SS. What do they do with that information?
It’s how they ensure you don’t exceed your daily maximum purchase and it’s also shared with law enforcement to combat illegal activity. Personally I don’t mind entering this information when it’s on a computer. Some stores ask you to write it down on a piece of paper that they later redact but keep in a folder. Not everyone is comfortable with that.
ok thank you
Ariana, what banks have you had the best luck with depositing MO’s? My Chase is getting hinky about them. Thanks!
I’m curious as to why you currently value Citi Thank You points higher than Chase UR. Chase points are so flexible. I’ve been using their Travel Portal a lot lately to book any hotel or flight.
The travel portal can definitely come in handy, but I mostly use 2% cash back rewards for any non-point redemptions. Citi has better options. Star Alliance awards are cheaper via Lifemiles than United. I find myself taking advantage of that more often these days.
Ariana, is your max at WM $8k/day? So, are you doing 4-5 WM runs/ wk, or have you found another option for MO?
Yeah it’s pretty much a daily run for me at this point. Though sometimes I’ll distribute them to family members for faster liquidation.
I’ve tried some MS by purchasing Visa gc’s from giftcards.com, and have been able to liquidate to money orders at walmart without issue. So far, so good.
Much to my surprise and slight horror, I recently placed an order on giftcards.com, and found that I accidentally ordered some mastercard gift cards. Have I shot myself in the foot? Should I still be able to liquidate these at the walmart money centers? Or will I have to employ some other means to liquidate these mc gift cards?
Nope, you’re good. See this post: https://www.pointchaser.com/the-trick-to-buying-money-orders-with-mastercard-gift-cards/