Need to pay a bill with CC for bonus
 

I was hoping someone could share some insight on this. I am taking advantage of the 50k bonus mile promo for citi aadvantage cc after 2500 spend within 4 months.

Is it fair game to purchase gift cards and subsequently sell them using online services like plasticjungle.com? They do instant funding for select retailers - ie: Home Depot, Nordstroms. Any margin that this is against the T&C's of the credit card or to be eligible to receive the bonus miles?

Thanks!

It's possible but please dont abuse this.

It's been mentioned in other threads

Where would you buy them?

on the retailers website: ie homedepot.com

lakers6902 -- can you clarify "It's possible but please dont abuse this."

Buying merchant giftcards is 100% legitimate. The card issuer does not care. The only problem you might encounter is if the transaction size is unusual for the type of store. For example, I recently purchased $300 Home Depot giftcards at a supermarket (because my card earns more points at supermarkets). The transaction was approved, but Citi contacted me later to verify. Two weeks later I purchase another $400 at the same store, no contact. (The store may be nervous if you try to buy a large amount of giftcards with a credit card, but that's a fraud consideration.)

If you buy American Express, MasterCard or VISA giftcards the situation is potentially more complicated because some card issuers regard those as "cash equivalents", but you don't want to buy those at retail because they are sold above face value.

I think this is an extraordinarily bad way to get the bonus miles unless you are against the deadline for meeting the spend. The best you can do on a site like plastic jungle is 91% (they claim 92 but I have never found a card that goes that high). Target or Walmart will fetch 91%.

So for your $2500, you would lose $225 on the transaction. Granted, if you want to cost it out, that's 0.4 cents per mile, but why would you give up that money? Look at paying your cell phone bill, groceries, or other utilities with your card to get your spend up. Or at least do some early Christmas shopping.

I understand if you are trying to manage cash for the lowest impact and don't want to spend $2500. But look for items that you need to buy anyway. I would only go the gift card route if I am in month 4 and and short on meeting the goal.

I do this alot. LAst time I bought $5,000 worth of mastercard gift cards. Grocery story was giving 10% back on all gift card purchases (including mastercard) in the form of a grocery store gift card -- good, 10% back that works at their gas pump.

Amex card I purchased them with gave 5% back at grocery stores -- more than coverered the $5 purchase fee for $500 gift card

I could liquidate the mastercards at 3-5% fairly easily. Essentially, I printed free gas cards until I ran out of time/money to liquidate the MCs.

Plastic Jungle is a bad route to take.

You would be better off buying Amex gift cards and using them over time. This only pulls your spending forward to fall within the required period.

You could also consider SquareUp.com as a means of hitting your spend. It's easy to set up and costs 2.75% in fees. It's not ideal, but you have total control over the process and it works. You can find a review of the service on my blog.

Buying GCs for face value is a poor deal to begin with. Most stores can be obtained at a discount fairly easily.

Need to pay a bill with CC for bonus
 

Hey FTers,

I have a condition where I need to run $5000 or so more through my CC in the next 2 months or I will lose the chance to get this additional 50,000 Miles for $10,000 spend in 12 months. I make a payment of around this amount monthly but by cheque, is there any way to do this through CC. I know there's a fee but in this case paying 2.9% or what not seems the lesser of two evils.

Thanks for all the help in advance!

just pay your rent or mortgage through chargesmart. 2.9% total fees vs gift card fees and the hassle of having the separate card. Super easy way of meeting min spend.

Chargesmart (https://www.chargesmart.com/) has been mentioned elsewhere. No experience with them and YMMV.

I was able to purchase gift cards (in store) to hit my cc spend threshold. No fees as long as they were for stores (not Visa gift cards).

I'm not sure how much money your bills are but this could be a way to avoid that 2.9% charge. I just bought gift cards for stores I shop at on a regular basis (grocery, department, pet, etc).

In case you miss some legend threads, please read on:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...nt-2011-a.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...ints-then.html

Good luck!

I use charge smart if I can't reach spend for a sign-up bonus. The fee ends up being about 2.5-2.7% and is only shown, in total, on the last page before you submit the payment. Works well, though they don't take Amex and they don't work for every kind of bill.