M² Episode 146: A Big AA Gamble, Fluz Opens the Floodgates, and We Play Old Blue Cash 'Keep or Cancel?'
Added 2021-12-16 07:12:38 +0000 UTC0:22 AA Simply Miles 240x Opportunity
- Offer died 12/14 -- Waiting to see if the miles are paid out.
- AA card-linked program that supports Mastercards only at this point
- They’re running a promo whereby they’ll give you an “additional 5x” on points earned through 12/27/2021
- This is more generous than it sounded to me when I first heard about it, but evidently they ran this promo in 2019 and it’s whatever the offer is + five times that
- Example: 40 + (5 * 40) = 240x for a charitable donation
- Plus other compelling retailer offers
08:46 Rakuten Card-Linked 5x
- Includes some gems like Walmart, Office Depot, Walgreens and Best Buy.
- Lowes, one of the most terrible places to shop is also included in the 5x
- Staples holding at 2.5x
- Need to ‘activate’ each time before use
- Accounts have been shut down in the past for abuse buying GC. Add filler or pick random amounts for one card.
- In store right now vs. online
- Stacks well with other good offers: 5% at Office supply, Amex +4for you, 10x SYW at Home improvement/electronics. .
14:15 New-to-me online GC purveyor: The Gift Card Shop
- Looks to be a clone of mastercardgiftcard.com / vanillagift.com
- Run by InComm
- Sells Plastiq compatible $500 eMCGCs for $5.95 activation fee
- So a way to spend on Amex at 2%
- Likely earns 3x on Citi AT&T Access More, good way to establish Citi balance for paying off with Fluz
- SHOPEARLY2021 code does not work
- I'd imagine limits are $1,000/day
- Could be something to try if you're banned by mastercardgiftcard.com / vanillagift.com -or- you're looking to increase daily spend on this type of cards
- I'm unsure if their Visa BINs are useful from a liquidation standpoint (anyone know? probably same as vanillagift.com)
- https://www.thegiftcardshop.com/mc-radiant-evergreen
21:20 Plastiq Time
- 409758 BIN SecureSpend and newer Vanilla VGCs w/Green Present working at 1% again on Plastiq, good towards HELOC/Mortgage/other payments (thanks for the heads up Mike C!)
- Plastiq “overheating” when a lot of payments pushed through within a certain amount of time. Unclear what the threshold is but it resolves after a few hours.
- Discussion of how to spin up new Plastiq Accounts (need new information)
29:27 Fluz Time
- In App amounts trending up, one day even had $2000+ in app
- Great way to gain Power Portal Access
- In Addition to the 0:00 UTC reset there have been refresh events mid-day
- Mid-Day refresh have been better than the reset that follows in some cases.
- Alerts-fluz channel is a must follow/must have notifications on.
36:00 Chase 5/24 Breakthrough Cases
- Some approvals report from people over 5/24 for:
- Southwest Personal
- United Personal
- Amazon card
- DoC datapoints
- Hyatt personal/business apps seem to still be solidly blocked over 5/24
- Some concerns about rocking the boat with Chase if carelessly lobbing in applications
- Robert: Tried for a Hyatt Personal. Denied.
40:10 Amex OBC: Keep or Cancel
- In a moment of weakness Sam considered closing this to make CC space
- Discussion of low value $6500 in spend + 5% vs. Freedom Flex 3x * 1.5cpp (4.5%)
- Maybe on paper they seem comparable–but Amex cards work, nearly every time.
47:31 PSA: Make Sure to “Pay” For Amex Business Platinum for 35% Rebate
- When you use Membership Rewards to book flights, Amex asks you which of your cards you'd like to use to "pay" for the flight.
- It's confusing because you're not really paying for the flight - you're using Membership Rewards for the flight.
- In the past, it didn't really matter which card you chose.
- In fact, at one point some time ago you'd get 5x for the airfare if you chose a Personal Platinum card.
- I wanted to test whether this might still be working so I chose a Personal Platinum card for the transaction.
- I noticed recently that the 35% rebate didn't post 30 days after the transaction as it normally does so I chatted them up.
- They swiftly told me the transaction didn't qualify because I elected to use a Personal Platinum card rather than a Business Platinum card.
- And they wouldn't budge on this or patch it up.
- Fortunately in this case there was a schedule change significant enough to request a refund, but I'm going to be careful going forward to associate these transactions with a Business Platinum card.