Keeping track of manufactured spend
Jun 18, 2013, 2:35 pm
#31
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 1,153
How can I attach a pic to a thread? Do I need a 3rd party link? My backdoored EX report does not show. I can prove it.
Pic is very small, but on this AMEX example, it does not show:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...5632-amex.html
On the Chase, it does:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...633-chase.html
Pic is very small, but on this AMEX example, it does not show:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...5632-amex.html
On the Chase, it does:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...633-chase.html
Last edited by vagrants; Jun 18, 2013 at 2:48 pm
Jun 18, 2013, 2:47 pm
#32
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: SFO/SJC
Programs: whatever comes with CCs
Posts: 1,082
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...ub-carlson.jpg
Jun 18, 2013, 2:51 pm
#33
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 1,153
see this from experian report. US Bank account.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...ub-carlson.jpg
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...ub-carlson.jpg
And the AMEX, no it's not business. It's personal.
Jun 18, 2013, 4:46 pm
#34
Join Date: Apr 2013
Programs: UA MPE, BA Blue, AA, IHG Plat Amb, Marriot Silver, HHonors Silver, National Exec, Avis First
Posts: 553
How can I attach a pic to a thread? Do I need a 3rd party link? My backdoored EX report does not show. I can prove it.
Pic is very small, but on this AMEX example, it does not show:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...5632-amex.html
On the Chase, it does:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...633-chase.html
Pic is very small, but on this AMEX example, it does not show:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...5632-amex.html
On the Chase, it does:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...633-chase.html
Jun 19, 2013, 10:08 am
#35
Used to be garyjr316
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: LAX or SBA
Programs: AAdvantage, MileagePlus, Gold Passport, Hilton HHonors, Marriott
Posts: 800
That is one thing I have noticed... I try to get those manufactured spends off my credit card balance before I know my credit will be ran/checked. I use a spreadsheet to track my VRs/GC/PP etc... I also only use 1 or 2 cards on a regular basis for those purchases unless I have a new spend requirement to hit... then I switch it all over to those until I have met them. It CAN and IS confusing sometimes but that's where being organized can help.
Jun 19, 2013, 1:17 pm
#36
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: NYC
Posts: 1,756
I use a spread sheet and keep track of due date, close date, balance on cc, projected balance, payments in flight, un-cashed MOs, GC balances, VR balances etc. I mostly pay attention to ensure statements do not close with high utilization and make sure balances are paid down to zero by due date. For me, regular spending and manufactured spending are paid with different bank accounts. I also kept all the receipts as well as the physical cards so a month later I do a second sweep/load of used cards to ensure all cards are unloaded.
Jun 19, 2013, 1:27 pm
#37
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: LAX
Posts: 546
I use a spread sheet and keep track of due date, close date, balance on cc, projected balance, payments in flight, un-cashed MOs, GC balances, VR balances etc. I mostly pay attention to ensure statements do not close with high utilization and make sure balances are paid down to zero by due date. For me, regular spending and manufactured spending are paid with different bank accounts. I also kept all the receipts as well as the physical cards so a month later I do a second sweep/load of used cards to ensure all cards are unloaded.
The process so far netted me $500.
Jun 19, 2013, 2:19 pm
#39
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: LAX
Posts: 546
Now a days I tape the receipt that I get from WM around gift card and throw it in my used card box. Before that I used to write on each and every gc how I unloaded it.
Jun 19, 2013, 2:56 pm
#40
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: NYC
Posts: 1,756
5 years ago my spouse threw away a $200 costco cash card by mistake so now all cards get into discard pile only after get zero-value verified twice span across at least a month. I will dispose the "discard pile" maybe next year.
Jun 19, 2013, 10:46 pm
#41
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 1,184
Here's a long-winded but relevant cautionary tale for all your folks. It's from last night, actually.
I keep pretty meticulous records of all my financial activities, including churn type stuff. I use a program similar to Quicken to track all of my bank accounts, CC's, prepaid cards, and gift cards, and make an entry every time I load a prepaid card, then pair up the loads with the CC charges once they post to my accounts. The net result is a constant turnover of positive reload transactions (i.e., +500 to BB) that are simply awaiting the corresponding -503.95 or whatever to show up on my CC.
Last night I was reconciling my transactions and found myself in a bad situation -- one of my CC's posted a $496 VR charge for which I didn't have a corresponding card load. Double checked all ~15 of my prepaid cards against my records and confirmed that yes, there was a single VR that was missing. Crap.
Luckily, because it was an odd reload amount (I've started mixing up the amounts lately), I was able to determine the date of the missing VR purchase, on which I bought 4 VR's in 2 txns at the same CVS. So I open up my gallon-sized ziploc of saved receipts and dig through for the 2 receipts from that night. I can only find one of them...I probably threw out the other one out of carelessness. Next I go pull out my drawer full of several hundred used VR's and go through the whole mess of them until I locate the two VR's indicated on the receipt by the barcode ID number. Tried to load, both already redeemed. Call Incomm out of frustration, they tell me I'm SOL without the physical card. Crap again.
But I did notice that the serial numbers on the two VR's I pulled out were sequential, which meant that maybe the two other VR's from that night were just before or after (assuming I pulled all four from the same rack). So I dig through my hundreds of VR's again (needle in a haystack...) and pull out every card with a serial number less than 50 or so away from the serials of the two VR's I've got. That ends up being a pretty sizable stack, since it's from my regular CVS and I buy from them all the time.
Next I fire up VR.com and start punching in the numbers...redeemed, redeemed, redeemed, ad nauseum. Every so often the site blocks me for exceeding "velocity checks" and I have to tether to my phone or VPN to change my IP and keep checking.
About 30 attempts in, I finally get a hit...never been so happy to see a terms and conditions agreement window before. Apparently I'd tossed the card in my used bin before actually loading the thing, which is easy enough to do when you're loading en masse...FWIW, the serial number of the 'winning' card ended up being 21 away from the other two I had. Start to finish, the process of recovering the card took about 5 hours.
Anyhow, a couple things occurred to me from this experience: I was only able to detect the 'lost' card because I was keeping detailed records in the first place (since otherwise I just would've been $500 poorer and not even realized it), and I was only able to recover the lost card because I kept both receipts and 'used' cards. Even then, I'd still say I got lucky in actually finding the live one in my card graveyard.
I keep pretty meticulous records of all my financial activities, including churn type stuff. I use a program similar to Quicken to track all of my bank accounts, CC's, prepaid cards, and gift cards, and make an entry every time I load a prepaid card, then pair up the loads with the CC charges once they post to my accounts. The net result is a constant turnover of positive reload transactions (i.e., +500 to BB) that are simply awaiting the corresponding -503.95 or whatever to show up on my CC.
Last night I was reconciling my transactions and found myself in a bad situation -- one of my CC's posted a $496 VR charge for which I didn't have a corresponding card load. Double checked all ~15 of my prepaid cards against my records and confirmed that yes, there was a single VR that was missing. Crap.
Luckily, because it was an odd reload amount (I've started mixing up the amounts lately), I was able to determine the date of the missing VR purchase, on which I bought 4 VR's in 2 txns at the same CVS. So I open up my gallon-sized ziploc of saved receipts and dig through for the 2 receipts from that night. I can only find one of them...I probably threw out the other one out of carelessness. Next I go pull out my drawer full of several hundred used VR's and go through the whole mess of them until I locate the two VR's indicated on the receipt by the barcode ID number. Tried to load, both already redeemed. Call Incomm out of frustration, they tell me I'm SOL without the physical card. Crap again.
But I did notice that the serial numbers on the two VR's I pulled out were sequential, which meant that maybe the two other VR's from that night were just before or after (assuming I pulled all four from the same rack). So I dig through my hundreds of VR's again (needle in a haystack...) and pull out every card with a serial number less than 50 or so away from the serials of the two VR's I've got. That ends up being a pretty sizable stack, since it's from my regular CVS and I buy from them all the time.
Next I fire up VR.com and start punching in the numbers...redeemed, redeemed, redeemed, ad nauseum. Every so often the site blocks me for exceeding "velocity checks" and I have to tether to my phone or VPN to change my IP and keep checking.
About 30 attempts in, I finally get a hit...never been so happy to see a terms and conditions agreement window before. Apparently I'd tossed the card in my used bin before actually loading the thing, which is easy enough to do when you're loading en masse...FWIW, the serial number of the 'winning' card ended up being 21 away from the other two I had. Start to finish, the process of recovering the card took about 5 hours.
Anyhow, a couple things occurred to me from this experience: I was only able to detect the 'lost' card because I was keeping detailed records in the first place (since otherwise I just would've been $500 poorer and not even realized it), and I was only able to recover the lost card because I kept both receipts and 'used' cards. Even then, I'd still say I got lucky in actually finding the live one in my card graveyard.
Jun 20, 2013, 12:31 am
#42
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: LAX
Posts: 546
The safest best is to try to load the money into your permanent accounts ASAP.
Jun 20, 2013, 5:12 am
#44
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Land of the parrots and parrotheads
Programs: Several dozen
Posts: 4,820
One trick I found useful long ago was to use a permanent marker to sequentially number gift/debit cards when you are tracking them in large quantities over time.
Here's a long-winded but relevant cautionary tale for all your folks. It's from last night, actually.
I keep pretty meticulous records of all my financial activities, including churn type stuff. I use a program similar to Quicken to track all of my bank accounts, CC's, prepaid cards, and gift cards, and make an entry every time I load a prepaid card, then pair up the loads with the CC charges once they post to my accounts. The net result is a constant turnover of positive reload transactions (i.e., +500 to BB) that are simply awaiting the corresponding -503.95 or whatever to show up on my CC.
Last night I was reconciling my transactions and found myself in a bad situation -- one of my CC's posted a $496 VR charge for which I didn't have a corresponding card load. Double checked all ~15 of my prepaid cards against my records and confirmed that yes, there was a single VR that was missing. Crap.
Luckily, because it was an odd reload amount (I've started mixing up the amounts lately), I was able to determine the date of the missing VR purchase, on which I bought 4 VR's in 2 txns at the same CVS. So I open up my gallon-sized ziploc of saved receipts and dig through for the 2 receipts from that night. I can only find one of them...I probably threw out the other one out of carelessness. Next I go pull out my drawer full of several hundred used VR's and go through the whole mess of them until I locate the two VR's indicated on the receipt by the barcode ID number. Tried to load, both already redeemed. Call Incomm out of frustration, they tell me I'm SOL without the physical card. Crap again.
But I did notice that the serial numbers on the two VR's I pulled out were sequential, which meant that maybe the two other VR's from that night were just before or after (assuming I pulled all four from the same rack). So I dig through my hundreds of VR's again (needle in a haystack...) and pull out every card with a serial number less than 50 or so away from the serials of the two VR's I've got. That ends up being a pretty sizable stack, since it's from my regular CVS and I buy from them all the time.
Next I fire up VR.com and start punching in the numbers...redeemed, redeemed, redeemed, ad nauseum. Every so often the site blocks me for exceeding "velocity checks" and I have to tether to my phone or VPN to change my IP and keep checking.
About 30 attempts in, I finally get a hit...never been so happy to see a terms and conditions agreement window before. Apparently I'd tossed the card in my used bin before actually loading the thing, which is easy enough to do when you're loading en masse...FWIW, the serial number of the 'winning' card ended up being 21 away from the other two I had. Start to finish, the process of recovering the card took about 5 hours.
Anyhow, a couple things occurred to me from this experience: I was only able to detect the 'lost' card because I was keeping detailed records in the first place (since otherwise I just would've been $500 poorer and not even realized it), and I was only able to recover the lost card because I kept both receipts and 'used' cards. Even then, I'd still say I got lucky in actually finding the live one in my card graveyard.
I keep pretty meticulous records of all my financial activities, including churn type stuff. I use a program similar to Quicken to track all of my bank accounts, CC's, prepaid cards, and gift cards, and make an entry every time I load a prepaid card, then pair up the loads with the CC charges once they post to my accounts. The net result is a constant turnover of positive reload transactions (i.e., +500 to BB) that are simply awaiting the corresponding -503.95 or whatever to show up on my CC.
Last night I was reconciling my transactions and found myself in a bad situation -- one of my CC's posted a $496 VR charge for which I didn't have a corresponding card load. Double checked all ~15 of my prepaid cards against my records and confirmed that yes, there was a single VR that was missing. Crap.
Luckily, because it was an odd reload amount (I've started mixing up the amounts lately), I was able to determine the date of the missing VR purchase, on which I bought 4 VR's in 2 txns at the same CVS. So I open up my gallon-sized ziploc of saved receipts and dig through for the 2 receipts from that night. I can only find one of them...I probably threw out the other one out of carelessness. Next I go pull out my drawer full of several hundred used VR's and go through the whole mess of them until I locate the two VR's indicated on the receipt by the barcode ID number. Tried to load, both already redeemed. Call Incomm out of frustration, they tell me I'm SOL without the physical card. Crap again.
But I did notice that the serial numbers on the two VR's I pulled out were sequential, which meant that maybe the two other VR's from that night were just before or after (assuming I pulled all four from the same rack). So I dig through my hundreds of VR's again (needle in a haystack...) and pull out every card with a serial number less than 50 or so away from the serials of the two VR's I've got. That ends up being a pretty sizable stack, since it's from my regular CVS and I buy from them all the time.
Next I fire up VR.com and start punching in the numbers...redeemed, redeemed, redeemed, ad nauseum. Every so often the site blocks me for exceeding "velocity checks" and I have to tether to my phone or VPN to change my IP and keep checking.
About 30 attempts in, I finally get a hit...never been so happy to see a terms and conditions agreement window before. Apparently I'd tossed the card in my used bin before actually loading the thing, which is easy enough to do when you're loading en masse...FWIW, the serial number of the 'winning' card ended up being 21 away from the other two I had. Start to finish, the process of recovering the card took about 5 hours.
Anyhow, a couple things occurred to me from this experience: I was only able to detect the 'lost' card because I was keeping detailed records in the first place (since otherwise I just would've been $500 poorer and not even realized it), and I was only able to recover the lost card because I kept both receipts and 'used' cards. Even then, I'd still say I got lucky in actually finding the live one in my card graveyard.
Jun 20, 2013, 7:08 am
#45
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 784
A wise old man here told me to not bring my work home, so I don't do that any longer. No MOs, GCs, etc. laying around that aren't used. I use a sharpie to write zero on them as soon as they are done. He also taught me about parachute pants, but that a different lesson, lol.