Why did you stop Manufactured Spending?
I'm curious from those who have stopped MS as to why. Is it because options dried up? Was the risk of a shutdown too great? Or do you have enough points and it's time to start enjoying them?
I'll start.
I was a late bloomer to MS, in that I missed the "golden days" of MS with the mint. I just heard many stories, but i wasn't a frequent traveler then, so I didn't pursue.
Once I became a frequent traveler with a new job, I learned about MS and became hooked. Target, CVS and Walmart became my favorite stores. The days of Vanilla Reloads and Target Redbirds were amazing. I was easily able to earn Delta Amex MQMs, 100k signup bonuses, etc. Things were great, and I made a saturday routine of walking to Target, reloading my redbird, walking to CVS, buying VRs and depositing cash from Target for Amex into my ATM.
I even dabbled in NW Buxx to earn Amtrak TQPs and earn easy Chase UR points.
But now all those programs are gone. I stopped doing NW Buxx when I was hearing about Chase accounts being shutdown from its usage.
And I've completely stopped MS.
For me, the reasons are this:
- There are no "easy" programs left. I have 0 interest in MOs and Debit cards. I liked NW Buxx since I can do it at home. I liked Vanilla Reloads because there was an excitement in finding a CVS full of VRs. I didn't mind going to Target for Redcard and AFT
- I'm too afraid of being shutdown now. I highly value my chase and Amex relationships
- There seems to be a lot of banking shutdowns with MOs. I don't mind opening/closing a ton of credit cards. Checking accounts are a different story
- I routinely charge around 3-5k in expenses per month for my day job (on top of my organic spending). Most of these are dining (client meals) or traveling (ubers/trains, etc) and I maximize them with my CSR
I think the biggest thing for me - even if a Redbird/VR type program came along, I would be too worried about being shutdown now.