JohnV

How can a person handle getting points or miles with credit cards we already have (we have 8 including various Chase & AMEX cards) dealing with people & businesses that will not accept any credit cards for payment? We have the biggest bill of ten years about to hit us within about a week with an emergency roof replacement for our house and don’t know any way to get any points, miles or cash back for this almost $17,000 bill.

We live in a rural area where local businesses know they don't have to take CCs as we're trapped by having to use their services....things like high bill local charges for things like car repairs or home repairs? I'm so tired and annoyed at having to pay over and over thousands of dollars of repairs or yardwork by locals with no points return to us on all this paying out we have to do....soon we have to pay $16,000+ to replace our roof and I'd hate so to get no points for that as roofers also take no CC's here. In the past I've tried to work with locals charging with high bills of over $1,000 to get them to accept Amazon payments but no go (and yes I’ve read that is a done deal itself too)...these guys locally only will take cash or checks. Any way I can get points for somehow getting them a check through some service that will take CC's and somehow turn that into being able to pay locals with a check? I have read about manufactured spending things that possibly could work but I don't know who to use or how to do that. Can anyone tell me how to handle this or where to look for that information please?

brplane

How about papal person to person

skitch23

not sure if you have a Walmart nearby but bluebird may be an option. you can get checks to write your contractors.

WheelsFirst

Tell them you don't have the cash and the only way you can pay is by credit card. This works a reasonable number of times.

JohnV

We live on a rural island but can get to the mainland by boat and get to a Walmart. So if I go there I'll find a way with bluebird (is that something from customer service department ... sorry I'm a newbie) to use one of my credit cards to buy a money order or check to pay this contractor (and other local businesses like well systems etc) what I owe them in a cash type form they will accept, as a check,is that right?

sdsearch

No, the reference to Walmart and Bluebird was to the Manfucatured Spending process of buying Visa gift cards (at grocery stores or wherever) which are up to $500 each (so you need $35 of them for $17500), going to Walmart and loading them ($1000 a day limit, and thus requires trips on 18 different days to Walmart for $17500) into your Bluebird account, and then using one Bluebird check (once you have all $17500 you can write one check of your Bluebird account).

But unfortunately, if you have to take a boat each time to get to Walmart, I don't know if 18 trips on 18 different days is going to make sense for you to earn 17500 miles (or whatever). And, btw, each gift card if typically $5.95 in purchase fee, so for 35 of them you'd be out $208ish, not counting your expenses to travel to Walmart by boat 18 times.

Walmart does not let you pay with a credit card for a money order. That would be too easy, and everyone would be talking about that if it were possible. What Walmart is good at is accepting generic Visa gift debit cards for money orders (or for deposits into Bluebird acconts), but in both cases no more than $1000 per day. And, in turn, many grocery stores (as well as some other stores) allow you to buy generic Visa debit cards with your preferred credit card. It's only multi-step processes like this that can be used (with Walmart just as the intermediary) to go from credit cards to checks or money orders.

But perhaps you should just use a different strategy for earning miles? You can earn 50000 miles by spending $50000, or you can earn 50000 miles by spending $3000. The difference is the first method is all you have if you keep and hold credit cards, while the second method is how fast you earn if most your spending is on "minimum spend" requirements for signup bonuses on new credit cards. "Churning" credit cards generates miles way faster than "ordinary spend" on credit cards, and while there are many ways you are disadvantaged from earning on "ordinary spend" on credit cards in a rural area, the much smaller amount of spend you need for the same amoutn of miles with credit card "churning" may work almost as well in a rural area as in an urban area.

JohnV

Thank you sdsearch for your explanation of bluebird and Walmart and your right, if it takes 18 trips to Walmart on the mainland it would be cost prohibitive plus 18 shot days, so not worth going that route.

brplane here mentioned paypal and when I looked at the paypal site it says
https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/paypal-fees "Sending money to friends and family is free for you and the recipient in the US when you fund the transfer with your bank account or PayPal balance. You can also use a debit or credit card or make an international transfer for a small fee.
USDebit/Credit card fee2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction (the sender decides who pays this fee)" so *IF* I can get the roofer or other contractor to accept payment by paypal could I then pay them the $16,000 through paypal and pay 2.9% fee but get 16,000 Chase UR points if I use my Sapphire card?

ibleed0range

This has nothing to do with getting points by paying for a roof job. Your are creating more problems/hurdles for the OP. You can do this without writing a check to the contractor so it makes no sense anyway.

MDtR-Chicago

Moving this thread over to the Manufactured Spending forum, where these techniques are discussed at length.

unkinected

Actually, the BB limit is $2500/day, not $1k. So that's only 7 trips. That said, BB is also limited to $5k/mo, so that obviously is a problem if your contractor doesn't want to wait 3-4 months for his money.

I too would love a way to be able to dump a large sum like that all at once. But if your guy won't accept CC, it is more difficult. And asking him if you can pay with 5 money orders, 1 check (from BlueBird), 1 check (from Evolve), etc, etc, can be a big hassle. He'll likely look at you as if you're crazy when you say you want to pay from 17 different sources.

sfriann32003

We are also getting work done. We are saving money by having the guys do it 'on the side', but they exept cash only for their work. I asked them if we could pay for the materials (instead of them buying it, then paying them cash for it)..We told them its a make or break deal. That worked, and we are (thank God) getting miles for $6k work of materials, and paying them cash for the labor. That might work

gggg707

I suppose you could pay them with a bunch of pre-paid debit cards, although I doubt they would be interested in taking 34 $500 gift cards as payment.

Or, you could take the gift cards and buy money orders with them. But, the logistics of finding a grocery store where you can buy that many MO's in a short period of time does not seem realistic.

gggg707

Nice, good solution. Missed this before I posted my last comment.

BaliParis

Would it be possible to pay your roofer indirectly - if the building/roof supply company accepts CCs, maybe your roofer would not mind if you paid on his account with the building/roof supply company. This is what I did.

hamokmonky

id go the money order route myself. Finding enough places to get than much money orders can be done with a little work, but in a short time if necessary, and you have a really good reason so it shouldnt look suspicious.