M² Episode 141: 4-For-All Referrals, Mistakes Were Made, Keep Or Cancel & More

0:20 Bravo 2% Dies

• Starting 10/20/2021 < $500 transactions went from 2% to 3.5% + $0.30
• Even on old versions of the app
• Still “emergency” utility here at 3.5%? Non-emergency?
• Opportunity is there if the numbers work.
• The number one thing bravo has going for them is that they will take any card and as many cards as you throw it then and not say a peep and there is utility in at any rate.

07:12 Fluz Time

• Saw some card denominations fall temporarily to for $50 to $100
• But also saw some desirable cards to go a limit/day of $1,000 in the Power Portal
• When these code as Grocery or Shop Small (Han’s) this makes it really important to consider whether you’re in a position to take advantage of the Amex Personal Platinum Upgrade for 10x on Grocery -or- the 10x/15x for Shop Small on new Platinum varieties. Make sure you and yours are taking a hard look at whether Resy/Morgan Stanley/Schwab might be possible.

10:23 Best Buy GC Resale Rate Trending Up

• Q4 is here, rates are up
• Seeing 97%+ from some buyers
• Q: Are there any online stores that sell Best Buy GCs and code as 10x Amex Shop Small?

13:17 mastercardgiftcard.com: 25% Off Activation with SHOPEARLY2021

• $500 eMCGC for $4.46 (not a huge deal, but)...
• Codes as 3x on AT&T Access More last I checked
• Runs for 1% on Plastiq
• Is stockpile compatible
• ...if you can get orders through and don’t mind an occasional phone call from them

19:28 Dell Difficulties

• Wanting to redeem the additional $100 that’s been added to each Amex Business Platinum
• Did some buyers groups orders this year now I’m having difficulties getting any more of those through
• Flanked to xbox digital GCs and those orders are now all getting canceled
• Flanked to a $24.99 Logitech Bluetooth Mouse shipped to my house and that went through
• Am I going to have to use these credits for actual merchandise!?
• Does “losing” my Amex Business Platinum card to get a new card number helpful?

25:52 Quitting Amazon GC Buyers Club Purchases

• Too many DP of this backfiring for me to continue.
• Long delays in shipping products that are backordered mean GC can’t always be applied ahead of time if I want to limit exposure.
• Bit of a Buyer’s Club PSA here-- at this point, don’t use ANY account (Best buy, Walmart, Amazon) you can’t afford to lose.
• Probably a matter of when not if as purchases scale up.
• Getting myself ready for Black Friday.

28:22 Keep or Cancel: Business Platinum

• Annual fee came up on this a bit ago. I’d been holding out hope for a retention offer and at this point am no longer seeking one. 
• Annual fee now past 30 days ago. 
• Still has unused $100 Dell Credit.
• What would you do?

33:02 Mistakes Were Made: Accidentally Cycled Citi Credit Line

• Credit line on DoubleCash is piddly $5,000
• Charged $4,800 on Plastiq at 1.75%
• Paid it down close to $0
• Schedule another Plastiq payment for $4,000 the next month a couple days after statement closed
• Plastiq took that date as the when I wanted it to *arrive* and charged me a couple days before statement closed (doh!)
• That’s credit line cycling: In that one statement cycle I used $8,800 worth of credit even though my outstanding balance never exceeded my credit limit
• This is said (known?) to be a Citi scrutiny/shutdown trigger so I wanted to try to increase my credit line before the charge posted
• Citi allows an automatic online credit line increase. I tried that and they bumped me $2,000 to $7,000. Doh!
• I tried calling a couple times to see if I could transfer credit line from other cards and couldn’t get anyone to entertain that request. What a bank.
• So now I feel like I’ve had a near death experience with Citi in addition to Amex and I’m living on borrowed time
• Great tip from Danny: Freeze a Citi card in the app after you’ve come close to depleting credit line in a month to avoid accidents
• Transferred out half of my TYP to AsiaMiles, will keep balances low going forward a la Amex

44:15 Closed/Opened Morgan Stanley Personal Platinum

• Had the card for 2 years
• Got a 50k retention offer the first year
• Wanted to close and try to churn it for 100k + $25k of 10x Shop Small/Restaurants
• Update: Applied for another of these 4 days after closing. Didn’t get the pop-up.
• Morgan Stanley Platinum application link
• 100,000 for $6,000 in 6 months + 10x up to $25k for 6 months at Shop Small/Restaurants

48:02 4-For-Us. Discussion

• Milenomics Post on the topic. (Link)
• Referral and retention. Referral (for the Lowes’ Card) off of Personal Gold for some 8x Grocery and then will upgrade to a Platinum for 25k +10x for 14x.
• Robert: Personal Gold to a Business Green ($0 fee first year). For 8x Grocery. Penalty box concsiderations.
• Email instantaneous for Robert, delayed a few hours for Sam.
• Won’t be our last 4-for-us.  Learning as we go.
• Points seem to be posting very fast (next day?) like the 3-for-all points.

54:43 Follow Up: IHG Extends Status Expiration

• Way back in Episode 44 we discussed an IHG status status match opportunity that was supposed to only last 90 days
• This was September 2019 so I was surprised to see I still, somehow, had Spire status
• Spire isn’t much better than Platinum but it does come with a “choice” benefit: 25,000 -or- you can gift Platinum status to a friend (or an enemy?)
• I don’t think the Spire status that came through a match was intended to include the choice benefit but upon checking I was able to click to add 25,000 points to my account
• Give it a look if you’re in the same boat somehow, the ability to choose is set to expire 12/31/2021