mikex163

Does by any chance someone knows if the Nespresso boutiques inside Bloomingdales count towards Freedom's 5%?

I tried to find previous purchases in my CC statements to see how they were coded, but can't seem to find any.

FTR 787

why bother unless you just wanna 'diversify' your spend or really want URs -- in which case INK with VSE is a better option.

otherwise might as well just put that spend on 5% cards at your fave stores that only have a 1% mS fee/cost rather than 3.5% at Staples or Sears. apart from AMEX sync deals I havent bought any $200 cards and esp since portals died for that ave.

ericdabbs

I am already doing Ink with VSE and I have already done my quota for the month ($5K). If you have multiple Serve cards you can easily blow through the $50K/year if you wanted to...but whats the point?

I'll probably use it to buy some gas cards at Sears and when push comes to shove in Dec decide if I want to buy a few VGCs for the $6.95 fee just to get some URs even at 3.5%. Don't need anything from the dept stores since I am not going to spend money just to meet the $1.5K. Of course I would only be doing this because I want URs...isn't that the point (no pun intended)?

Liquidbee

FYI - most of you who have Freedom also have Sapphire (or how else are you going to fly away with your UR).

Anyways, Sapphire has 6% reward for Northstorm when you go through the UR portal, so that's 6x the points per dollar instead of 5x using freedom. Down side is no gas GC's.

Never less, Uggs are on sale for 40% off so if you are actually buying something from Nordstorm, use Sapphire through UR for the additional 1x points. Not a whole lot but just thought I would share.

Oh, and I'm new to the community

healthnut

Welcome! Also note that you can duplicate rewards and pay with your Freedom, granting you 11x the points.

nineworldseries

Some of the more useful gift cards sold on Amazon:

Southwest Airlines (up to $200)
Whole Foods Market ($25-$50)

ramkashyap

With the AA Promo of up to 2000 miles, I am thinking like this for my first $500 of the $1500.
#1. Go through AA Portal - Reload a Sears GC for $500: 2X + 2000 miles : 6X AA + 5X Freedom UR
#2. Use the loaded Sears GC and go through UR Portal to buy stuff: 5X
Net : 16X Miles (6X AA and 10X Freedom UR)


I had success with both the above steps in the past. So I am sticking to this for the first 500. Usually I buy stuff and sell for an agreeable CPM, but my local Sears will allow to buy other GCs with Sears GCs in case.

mikeyb45

Good idea as long as you don't hold the Sears GC any longer than absolutely necessary. I agree with the previous sentiment that it's getting risky to essentially loan Sears any money via buying their GC. They are absolutely scraping the bottom of the barrel just to stay afloat - Sears Hometown: sold, Lands End - sold, Sears Canada - sold, not to mention the myriad of store closings every day. I guess it would take some time anyway once a bankruptcy and liquidation is announced, but I know that announcement is going to be coming very soon.

kay11

Nice idea.

But I did not understand the above statment.

You buy stuff using Sears GC through UR portal.

I thought you need to use Chase card to get the points.

tcook052

As this is less of a manufactured spending topic than one of maximizing spending I've relocated it to the Chase forum for further discussion.

tcook052
Manufactured Spending forum moderator

arlflyer

Too many gas cards left over from last quarter's promotion, so not buying those.

Agreed. This is the route I'm taking. Did a $50 WFM one just as a test to make sure that for some odd reason it didn't ring up as merchandise. But bonus is showing so all systems go.

Is there a list of decent GCs on Amazon in some thread? Probably, but I'm bored so I'll start one of cards that jump out to me as being useful either for personal use or gifts to certain types of family members. Some of these may be redundant to products one can buy from one of the category merchants (e.g. Keurig pods off of amazon vs. from Keurig), but there also may be value in buying from the supplier directly.

-AMC theaters
-American Eagle
-Applebee's
-Bonefish Grill
-Boston Market
-Buffalo Wild Wings
-Burger King
-CPK
-Carrabba's
-Chili's
-Cracker Barrel
-DSW
-Forever 21
-Ghirardelli
-Gillette
-GNC
-Gordon Biersch
-IHOP
-Jiffy Lube
-Keurig
-Microsoft
-Morton's
-Noodles & Company
-Outback
-PacSun
-Panda Express
-Panera
-Papa John's
-Peet's
-Petco
-Qdoba
-Quiznos
-Starbucks
-Subway
-Supercuts
-TGIF
-Xbox
-Zaxby's

ramkashyap

I always use the chase card, but I have read many success stories without using a Chase card as well. Someone who did this by themselves should confirm this.

living

Can't people just buy $1500 in amazon gift cards?

blaz

Sure. But at my current spend at Amazon (i.e. almost zero) it would take me a decade to use it up.

enwhycee

What buying $1500 in Amazon GC and then selling at gift card mall for small loss..? Does anyone do that?