Rehan

Just read through this thread and looked at the Southwest cards wiki as well and although I'm somewhat getting the gist of how to do manufactured spending, I am still unsure of the details and hope my posting in this newbie thread will provide some help.

First off, thank you to all of you who are tirelessly providing information and tips to others and figuring out ways to do this so that we can all benefit. Really appreciate it.

Now, my situation -- I have been approved for 2 Southwest Visa credit cards. Both will be giving 50,000 points each if I can spend $2000 per card in 3 months (so total of $4k). My normal spending will not cover that so I am looking for ways to increase to the $4k total.

What is the easiest way to accomplish this? I am not in a hurry and can use the entire 3 months to do the spending. I have read about some Walmart Kate kiosk but am not sure exactly of the flowchart? Do I use the Southwest cards to buy gift cards at Walmart and then somehow get cash back with those gift cards?

Also I have a pre-existing balance of $2400 on an American Express credit card which I was ready to pay off in full this month from my bank account -- should I not do that and somehow use the new credit cards to pay that off?

Any suggestions or tips are very welcome, thank you so much!