as a follow up to my prior Rant 2 posts backstream:

I took a field trip to several cvs this morning determined to get some or find out whats going on and talk to some store employees.

cvs1 - no go, rack empty. Asked clerk to check behind counter and he mentioned he saw a pack of these behind the counter over by photo last weekend . He checked around and said didnt see any. Says gets shipments on Wed and should all be out by thurs/fri.

cvs2- 6 mile drive!- rack empty just like 2 weeks ago when i checked. Went up the counter over by the photo area and i saw just a few dangling there! took all 6 and picked up some regular products that we needed to give them some business. Nice teenage girl rang me up, i gave her the ID when it hit $1000 to help her along.

cvs3- rack empty, asked checkout lady behind the counter if they had any of these ( showed her one that i bought just prior)? She looked behind the counter and showed me the green dots- i said no look again. Sure as shatner she pulled up 2. I didnt ask for more and did $990 in total. manager came over and said no go on the those with credit card. I said no your mistaken its the green dots that are cash only. He stayed with the clerk and tried it. Scrutinizing my ID (since this cvs is in the hood) allowed 1 VR at a time. I told him i buy these all the time with card and its no problem. he said ok.

cvs4- (further in the hood) never ever been to this cvs. located the rack and they had about 25. Grabbed 2 for about $950. The clerk was nice enough to even write on the back with marker how much the amount was on each so i could keep them straight (not that it mattered to me).

If store 2 would have had $5k worth i would have been done and gone home but its nice to know the other 2 have stock and allowed cc for purchase. Total time for trip 1hr 50minutes. Not to bad. Lost 1 tick of gas on my meter so 1/12 of my gas tank. Costs about $60 to fill up my tank.

I wonder people search/drive desperately for VR, is it worth?

I came back to the store and met the manager. He gave me bs reason why the clerk is not comfortable for ringing this kind of purchases bla bla bla. I pointed out to him that the other 3 stores near there have no problem with me buying the bean, I also offered him to just grab some and drove with me to see how they process them. I also pointed to him that the corporate policy is 5k/day. He said it's not possible. I just said to him if he doesn't believe his own corporate policy, try to ring me up for 5k beans and see whether it went through or not. He called my cc to confirm my identity in front of me. He rang me up for 5k & voila all passed. I guess he's still dumbfounded looking at the approve transaction without any drama. He told me next time to get him to ring me up for this transaction. I don't care whether he trained his cashiers or not, all I care I got 1 store manager who'll ring me up 5k every month :p

I bought 2k at a CVS that I normally go to, but a different cashier than normal. My Citi TYP card didn't go through on the first time (common problem). I asked her to try again, and it still didn't go through (I think she type in the wrong last 4 digits), so I tried it again and it finally went through.

However, she took my license and wrote down my last name, ID number, transaction #, and my address. Any ideas as to why she would need that info?

You do know that $1K and above purchase does require DL info, dont you?

Wouldn't the DL swipe would capture those info automatically? May be the DL swipe broken and she needed to manually write those down?

DL swipe went through fine. She seemed like she was writing it down to cover her own ....

Absolutely fantastic result !!:D Perfect example of not taking BS when you know what can be done. And at the end, you made a friend, who will now be actively helping you make the purchase go through. I had a similar situation in England with a program we had with Tesco for a few weeks - at first, refused to do what I knew was possible. When manager relented to "try and see if it would work", all was good, we shook hands, and he gave me his work schedule and said in future, just come to see him and he would approve all purchases.

I am aware that "others" on this forum would not agree with your "above the radar - drawing attention to yourself - blah blah blah" behaviour. I am pleased you did what YOU FELT was RIGHT FOR YOU. And what a great result - very pleased for you !!

I am hoping in a couple more days to not have any issues - but, like you, ready to stand my ground.

Can't really blame him. These guys are so desperate for their jobs so they are so reluctant to do such high value transactions. My local CVS new manager didn't believe the corporate limit is $5k/day until I asked him to double check the corporate memo and he also had to call the corporate number to confirm that I can purchase bean with CC. Took almost 40 minutes for the purchase but he remembers me now and he said he'll have no problem next time if I need to buy $5k bean again.

SO why are not purchasing a full 1K, if you are driving around get the most you can get. Also no one stated that this hobby was going to be easy, people need to realize that at times you will have to spend some money and time.. How much money and time is all up to you... So to spend 1K for a 15K trip is that worth it? Now with UA devaluing the MP it appears that people need to reevaluate this, I'm glad I have a LH CC which I'll be doing MS on since UA had really made it not worth using MP for LH trips.

Yeah i couldve did $999 on those two transactions but im not going to get upset about 60 points. I am usually trying to get starwood or AA points because they are harder to earn IMO. Also using LH your going to pay heft surcharges on awards unless your redeeming for domestic flights. Not saying thats not a deal still for $10k ticket tho.

I am still skiddish about the DL scan thing. I know it's been a couple months of it now but I do hate Bancorp and dont trust them at all. I think if they are collecting this data it could come back to bite us somehow. I have no proof of this but I have just seen way too much in my time to think otherwise.

This is not to say that I havent done the ID scan--did it once last week in fact. But I dont trust it. Not 100% sure where the data is going. We have gone over this before but here's one concern that another worried friend brought up: What if somehow some way some faction of something like the IRS slaps us all with some kind of 1099X based on how much CC spend we did? Not taxing CB or Miles or anything, rather, taxing based on what you are spending! Wouldnt that totally blow? Does anyone remember using the Square or PayAnywhere or Intuit swiper to burn GCs and then all of a sudden they all sent a tax form that made it look like you made an extra $$$$$$ in income that year? I ran into that and it was horrid (but I did not have a problem in the end, because my tax accountant worked his legal magic and I was spared but he told me to NEVER do swipes again like that!)

The point is that until we know more about where the ID scan data is going, it is a point of contention.

As well, for me, I tend to space out my CVS buys like the example below:

Have $6500 CR on the Citi TYP on day 1.
Go to CVS1 and buy 1 $500 Visa GC + 1 $499 VR
Go to CVS2 and repeat that
Do the same at two more CVSs. In new England there are CVSs all over the place because it was started in RI.

Head to other stores and get more GCs, etc.
Burn through anything between $3k and $6k in the day.

Pay the CC off within the next two days
use checking acct at Citi to pay it so it posts immediately

Repeat.

So I don't actually NEED to get all $5k in one day anyway. Can visit more CVSs and so yah that adds a tiny bit of time but not much. TO me it's worth it given what I've outlined.

Also, I can get many of my VR between statement closing date (around the 25-27th of a month for my TYP) and the first day of the next month, AND can continue to do so in the first half of the month. I also tend to want to get more GCs right off, because it takes more effort to get GCs and burn for MOs than it does to do VR, so I make it so my harder work is in the first half of the month and my easier work comes later. I can also load VR to Amex PP cards too where needed and when available. And so towards the 3rd week it's all gravy! More VRs if needed, Other gigs if they come up, more GCs if time allows, etc.

With this plan, I've been able to pull $60+k a month of the TYP in recent months... and plan to do that going forward.

I'm with you on your philosophy. I have a CVS on every corner, so simply purchase a $500 VR at a time. Slow, but steady, and no red flags.

I would rather not to do the ID scan either, but how could a 1099 get issued for something you purchased (not received payment for). What amount would be listed as income? I think a 1099 could only come from the CC side (if it ever does). Also CVS follows privacy practices and it is not in their best interests to proactively/secretly share information to help some other organization nab their customers. Yes, if law enforcement or a government agency specifically requests it, it will be shared. But my opinion is before the IRS goes on a manhunt for personal CC rewards (that ambiguously aren't taxable if you read their publication) they would first clarify their position in these circumstances and probably setup a 1099 for CCs to issue over a certain annual rewards amount, etc. Just like they methodically addressed online sellers with a 200/20k rule and people were given notice. Just my opinion.

Since UA devalued MP, I'm not too worry about the surcharges, I'd rather pay surcharges and get a true FC experience then what COdbaUA give it's passengers.

You are speaking to someone who does this, I have 3 CVS's by me (within a 5 mile radius) 2 well sell bears with a CC the third will not, but I'm temped to go and speak to the manager. I can usually get as many beans as I want. Not like you 60K but close to 40K...