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My week in manufactured spending: Slow start to a new year

January 6, 2020

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I love these weekly posts because they really keep me accountable. I sat down to write it on Sunday night and realized I had only managed $1,500 in manufactured spending. I’m trying to do better than I did last year, when I earned just 247,631 points and $1,994.14 cash back via manufactured spending.

Ideally, I’d like to earn at least 10,000 points a week. That’s not super difficult, considering a single visit to Simon Mall will allow me to generate twice the points. But last week I didn’t get a chance to go to Simon Mall and buying gift cards online was easier. And cheaper. In total, I earned 9,105 points and $30.87 cash back. Here’s a break-down of my earnings:

AAdvantage miles

The Citi AAdvantage Platinum Card issues a $125 American Airlines flight discount if you spend $20,000 per card membership year. It’s an easy way to offset the card’s $95 annual fee and the miles are a nice byproduct.

I now have five AAdvantage Platinum cards to complete this annual spending requirement for. The two $1,517.85 Visa gift card orders I placed via GiftCardMall go me about 15% of the way towards my goal.

The $35.70 worth of fees on these Visa gift cards were mostly offset thanks to cash back I earned from BeFrugal. In total, the fees per $1500 order came to $2.85. Factoring in the $0.88 Walmart money order fee per $1,000, my out-of-pocket cost came to $7.46.

Points earned: 3,035 AAdvantage miles

Gift card fees: $35.70

Money order fees: $1.76

BeFrugal cash back: $30

Total fees: $7.46

Chase Ultimate Rewards

The Chase Ink Preferred card has been underutilized lately, despite a large credit limit. So I decided to put some of it to use by placing two more $1,500 Visa gift card orders.

These orders were identical to the ones I placed using the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Card, so the fees worked out the same.

Points earned: 3,035 Ultimate Rewards points

Gift card fees: $35.70

Money order fees: $1.76

BeFrugal cash back: $30

Total fees: $7.46

Cash back rewards

I plan on using the Fidelity Rewards card a lot more and eventually supplementing it with a Citi Double Cash Card. In the meantime, I placed two Visa gift cards on GiftCardMall that totaled $3,035.70 and earned me $60.71 cash back.

Factoring in the fees and BeFrugal rewards, my total profit came to $53.25.

Cash back earned: $60.71

Fees: $35.70

Money order fees: $1.76

BeFrugal cash back: $30

Profit: $53.25

Korean SkyPass

So I’ve resolved to place at least one gift card order a week with the Korean SkyPass card to meet my miles goal. I got a head start with two $1,517.85 orders that earned me 3,035 miles at $7.46 out of pocket.

Points earned: 3,035 Korean SkyPass miles

Gift card fees: $35.70

Money order fees: $1.76

BeFrugal cash back: $30

Total fees: $7.46

Total rewards earned

In total, I earned 9,105 points and $30.87 cash back. If I keep this up every week for the rest of the year, I’ll have 473,460 points and $1,605.24 cash back. That’s much higher on the points front and lower in terms of the cash back I earned last year.

It’s still less than I actually need for all the travel I’m planning, so I’ll throw in a few credit card sign-up bonuses and do some retail arbitrage. For real this time.

How much manufactured spending did you manage last week?

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23 responses to “My week in manufactured spending: Slow start to a new year”

Jeff

January 6, 2020

I’ve read about people having trouble with GCM when changing credit cards. Do you have unique accounts for each credit card?

Reply
1. Ariana Arghandewal
  
  January 6, 2020
  
  Not sure what you mean. If you’re referring to GCM accounts, I always just check out as guest.
  
  Reply
Ed. C

January 6, 2020

Simon Mall

$24,998.74
VGC Fee – $98.75
MO fees – $19.72
20,000 AAdvantage Miles
7,498 Chase Ultimate Rewards points

Giftcards.com through AAdvantage eShopping

$4,985.42
VGC Fee – $85.42
MO fees – $5.10
9,970 AAdvantage Miles

Reply
1. Ariana Arghandewal
  
  January 6, 2020
  
  Nice! Gotta love the convenience of those $1,000 Simon Mall Visas. I just wish they’d throw in a $0 fee promo every once in a while.
  
  Reply
  1. Ed. C
    
    January 7, 2020
    
    Or, start selling money orders!
    
    Reply
CHARLES LIEBERMAN III

January 6, 2020

$0 last week but plan on MS’ing at Simon Mall later this month.
I normally liquidate $1,000 at a time at WMT since I have heard of MoneyGram banning when doing in excess of $1,000. Do you do individual money orders of $999.xx each transaction?

Reply
1. Ed. C
  
  January 6, 2020
  
  At WMT $999.12 MO brings total to $1,000.
  
  I have no trouble doing $4,000 at a time at my very MS friendly WMT. Any total over $1,000 you have to provide ID. Any total over $3,000 you have to provide ID and SS number. You can do up to $8,000 per 24 hour period at WMT.
  
  As in all things having to do with WMT, it is VERY location dependent what you can do.
  
  Reply
  1. Charles
    
    January 6, 2020
    
    Thanks for the feedback!
    I do numerous MOs of $999.11. My WMT is friendly as well. I have been wary of doing anything over $1,000 because I have heard of shutdowns. I am glad to hear that you are able to do $4K without any issues.
    For your UR points, I assume you are using Freedom Unlimited (1.5%)?
    
    Reply
    1. Ed. C
      
      January 6, 2020
      
      Yes, CFU for 1.5X UR Points at SM.
      
      Using an AAdvantage card (Citi or Barclay) nets 2X miles when going through the AAdvantage eShopping portal.
      
      Reply
2. Ariana Arghandewal
  
  January 6, 2020
  
  It’s worth trying – see if you’re banned or not. It would make liquidating a lot faster.
  
  Reply
PointchaserUser

January 6, 2020

So are you able to use GCM again, I remember you said you were not able to do so in the past? Did something change?

Reply
1. Ariana Arghandewal
  
  January 6, 2020
  
  Yeah that was a few years ago. For whatever reason, I could never check out at GCM. But for about two years now, I’ve had no problems at GCM.
  
  Reply
Tony Melançon

January 7, 2020

Just stopped off at the OD store at lunch to pick up VGC, I’ll move them to Green Dot this weekend. I’m trying to keep to the $3k per 30 day limit or there abouts to build up UR points for 2020.

I don’t like to play hard and fast, I’m slow and easy. 180k UR points by the end of the year and I’m fine with that.

Curious what are you doing with Korean Air Miles?

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1. Ariana Arghandewal
  
  January 9, 2020
  
  That’s smart. Saving those points for a trip to Europe, probably. It’s only 80k RT in business class.
  
  Reply
NaturalSpender

January 9, 2020

Ariana – as someone who has never done any MS, can I ask you for a few specific pointers?

– Is there such a thing as banks/cards that frown on GC purchases (online, like the avenues you mention)? Is this ok with Chase & BofA cards, for example?
– Are there adverse consequences for having your particulars noted when you do these Walmart transactions? For when you have MSARs filed (if you are not actually doing anything wrong)? For example, do you know if these could affect credit applications in the future (business, mortgage, etc)? Or even other matters like background checks?
– I assume it is good practice to deposit the afore-mentioned cash instruments into a bank that is separate from the one that issues your CC. Are there any banks that don’t like regular deposits of these instruments? Specifically, do you know about US Bank, or local credit unions as a rule? Or Citibank?

I have read your content off and on for a while but never posted before. Thank you very much.

Reply
pvtd

January 12, 2020

Did 75k at Simon Mall here last week. Saving up some miles for my sister and her fiancé to fly to New Zealand for their honeymoon. I have something that I am curious about and maybe someone can help. Anyone know why Simon will not just sell us 24.9k on one single card (still paying the fees for 25 cards)? That would make life so much easier for liquidating, and up until this point I just always believed what was told to me, that the cards cannot have more than $1000 on them. Where do they choose that $1000 mark from? When I was liquidating a few weeks back, I ran into a situation where my 4k at a kroger had to be refunded to me and it was refunded onto one card. That was awesome.

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1. Ariana Arghandewal
  
  January 13, 2020
  
  That’s very nice of you – good luck! RE load amounts, I’m sure it’s a compliance issue that the gift card issuer regulates. Allowing people to put huge sums like that on a gift card is a huge liability. Just imagine if one of those cards got hacked and Blackhawk had to reimburse the buyer $25k.
  
  Reply
Hardik Patel

January 16, 2020

I have a newbie question, for example, if a $3000 SImon GC is purchased, what method would be used to convert this back to cash in the bank, MO?

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1. Ariana Arghandewal
  
  January 19, 2020
  
  Money order.
  
  Reply
david diaz

January 19, 2020

im new to ms. i want to do my first ms

what website u recommend to buy gift cards?

and im using chase saphire p

and money order how it work?

Reply
Amy

January 22, 2020

My Walmart will not take these debt visa gift cards for a money order ;-( Is anyone else running into this?

Reply
Tony Melançon

January 30, 2020

Hiya – While I’m trying to decide if I should try for any Citi ThankYou cards I saw this post from you. You have 5 Citi AA cards, where you not impacted by Citi locking AA accounts? You don’t need to answer openly – email me if you care to.

Reply
1. Ariana Arghandewal
  
  February 10, 2020
  
  I haven’t. They’re not all mine though. I currently only have one personal Citi AA Platinum card.
  
  Reply