Happy to report that I found a very simple way that doesn't even involve physically going anywhere, and no additional fee to liquidate other than the original $4.95 purchase fee (ie. 1% on my $500 OneVanilla card). I won't say exactly which one it is, but it's really surprisingly straightforward. Works better if you are married and your spouse doesn't share your last name
And I think it is public knowledge, since I found out about it by reading a blog post that is already >2 years old. I'm surprised that this method didn't get killed already. Funds are already available in a bank account and could be immediately withdrawn in cash, or bill pay in a month or so to pay back the credit card before it's due.
At only 1% total cost, the method would be profitable when using just about any decent rewards credit card to purchase the OneVanilla. But you would need a really high volume to make decent amounts on the arbitrage, so this would be likely to attract attention from the financial institutions. I will only use it to meet minimum spending.
Things I tried earlier in the day that did not work, before I found the above :
- purchase + cash back at 7/11 (even only $10) . OneVanilla was declined .
- Moneygram bill payment . OneVanilla was declined.
- also tried Moneygram directly from my CSR to pay mortgage. Total fee would be only 1.6% on a $2500 payment, ie. less than Plastiq. But the payment was also declined. Most likely because my CSR cash advance fee is set to $100 (minimum they would allow). And in any case, cash advances don't count towards minimum spending, and don't earn rewards.
Things that had some promise :
- VCOM 7/11 ATM : showed the bill pay option. My water company, which doesn't accept any cards, was listed. I did not proceed, so I don't know how much the payment fee would have been.
- Mortgage company was not listed.