Returning items allow you to keep Ultimate Rewards points?
 

Hi everyone new to this forum and been trying to read up on the FAQs. I had a question I haven't been able to find. I just applied for the Chase Ink Plus card for 70000 points for first 5k spent in 3 months. Now I do not spend that much, but I do want the promotional 70k points.

Now I hear about the gift card or vanilla cards and buy money orders to pay back card, but seems as if buying those cards are getting stricter by preventing the use of CC. Now I have my own online business and was thinking of buying something off of the site using the card to rack up the 5k spending and then refunding after points are added. Would Chase remove the points for the refund?

On my Citi card I have done couple refunds on amazon and the points stayed. So I'm trying to figure out ideas, anyone have any other ideas?

Yes, and chase can even clawback miles from United accounts, to the point of creating a negative balance. In addition, buying something for the sole purpose of returning it in an attempt to gain miles is an unethical practice and could lead to chase deciding that they no longer wish to do business with you.

You will violate your merchant agreement and could have your merchant account shut down. It is worth it?

Returning items allow you to keep reward points for CCs?
 

If you added your SO to your Chase Ink you could use Amazon payment till mid Oct. thus perhaps be able to put 4k through Amazon before it ends person to person payments. Check the forum regarding Amazon-payments

Ouch, thats a conundrum. Should have thought it out before jumping in the deep end without knowing how to at least doggie paddle:D

I was just wondering because the Citi card I used I noticed they did not take away the points on some items I returned.

Are there any alternatives? Can you buy money orders with the vanilla cards at walmart? I also needed the Ink card for business, but I definitely do not want to lose that opportunity for 70k points.

In my experience, Citi doesn't claw back. They just keep a secret miles debt against your future earnings.

If you can't find anything else, I'd suggest buying gift cards to hit the bonus, and spend those off later.

As far as returning purchases that earned UR points, there was a thread awhile back naming a few stores that will issue the refund to a different card. It would have to be another company's card, not another Chase card. Maybe somebody else can tell you how to find that thread again.

Or buy stuff you can resell on eBay or Craigslist. Obviously you won't get 100% of your purchase price back, but you can get a big percentage back.

Ya, looks like you bit off more than you could chew. I'd suggest reselling. You had a great opportunity with the iPhone 6+ preorders - the 128gb models are selling for over $1500 on ebay right now. If you're smart about it you can make some money while hitting minimum spend requirements. Buying big ticket items with the sole intention of returning crosses my personal line in the sand.

Hmm, well I was planning on purchasing off my own company's website and then just refund later as a last resort. But then again I do not want to take the refund route and then be affected due to it.

I guess I will purchase vanilla card for $500 and try to buy a money order at walmart. I read somewhere that it needs to be a debit card to buy money order, but if you put 4 random digits and use vanilla card as debit, it will go through. Anyone know about this?

Isnt this embezzlement? You are essentially using the company you work for to charge them processing fees so you move money around to make a commission.....sounds like fraud to me

Yeah, very bad idea to try that. Along with the AP suggestion, you can also use Amazon Local Register, although they prohibit swiping your own card. Still, if you have a SO, you could set up ALR in his/her name and run the card for 1.75% until they shut you down.

Way better ways to hit the minimum spend, but you don't seem interested in gift cards. (Hint: look into Serve.)

Thanks for the suggestions, but what is AP and SO and ALR? sorry very new to these abreviations, any thread on here that specifies each abbreviation so I can learn?

Spend some time reading in the manufactured spending forum before you go buying and returning things just to meet a min. spend.