FlyerTalk Forums - Using Paypal to generate miles?

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Quote:

Originally Posted by mia (Post 15530931)

I'm having trouble replicating your calculation. If the card earns 1.5 miles per dollar and the transaction fee is 0.022 per dollar, the cost per mile must be 0.0146, which is $1,466 per 100,000.

Sorry - you're right, my bad. Still, though - fr from the 0.03 airlines charge per mile.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pseudo Nim (Post 15530765)

I'm curious whether this applies to personal towards business accounts. I'm not clear why Paypal would/should care if you send money every month (say, $10k) from your own account to a corporate merchant account.

The benefits are huge - if you have a points multiplier on your card, say 1.5x, the txn fees are 2.2%, you are looking at ~$1,350 to get 100k points - which is nothing to sneer at.

1) I'm fairly certain IF PayPal finds out, it would be a problem.

2) Even if PayPal doesnt care, it's likely the cc companies would.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rajuabju (Post 15531265)

1) I'm fairly certain IF PayPal finds out, it would be a problem.

2) Even if PayPal doesnt care, it's likely the cc companies would.

I'm not sure why either should care (Paypal get their txn fees, CC company gets the annual and a cut of the PP fees) but you may be right.

I emailed PP. let's see what they say :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pseudo Nim (Post 15531587)

I'm not sure why either should care...

Financial institutions and governments care about any activity which shuttles money between accounts for no productive purpose. This is the essence of money laundering. They don't have the resources to evaluate whether you are doing it for some harmless motivation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pseudo Nim (Post 15530989)

Still, though - fr from the 0.03 airlines charge per mile.

Indeed, but that's a very low standard. Airlines intentionally set the retail price of miles to consumers high. There are plenty of ways to generate miles through economically productive activity.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mia (Post 15536363)

A fair point, hence why I was asking. It does seem like too much trouble for what it's worth - but that wouldn't prevent discussion, would it :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by mia (Post 15536363)

Indeed, but that's a very low standard. Airlines intentionally set the retail price of miles to consumers high. There are plenty of ways to generate miles through economically productive activity.

Here I'm not sure I would agree. What would be other ways of generating miles at 0.01466 dollars per mile? Even in MR realm this is considered fairly good if I am not mistaken - and an MR implies flying to places you may not want to go to (leaving aside the fun of MRs, obviously) - not to mention potential loss of revenue from work (i.e. vacation days).

honestly IMO this sounds like a good idea, if your limit's high enough, if you had some sort of multiplier then at $1350 for 100k miles it would be well worth your time if you flew internationally a lot.