romsdeals3

Use your SPG card, points are worth the most.. worth at least 2 cents each and you pay 0.78 cents each.

arsenalman

just keep in mind - SPG is an Amex card and you can get FRd for unusual activity. Just a Fyi.

bocastephen

Do the math based on buying $200 cards at OD for 5x at the new fee and then converting to VR at your normal VR spot.

fangtl

it'd actually be more costly at that point if you have to buy the VR with the 5x OD card (38.75 + gas run to CVS/WG etc vs 39.50), mind as well buy the VR outright.

bocastephen

Let's take the hypothetical 120k biz ticket to Asia on UA.

Option 1 - buy VR outright.

120,000 miles=120,000 spend / $500 per card = 240 cards (that's a lot of trips to the CVS). 240 * 3.95 = $708

Option 2 - buy 200 GCs at OD then 500 VRs

120,000 miles / 5 = 24,000 spend.
24,000 / 200 = 120 cards * 6.95 = 834
24,000 / 500 = 48 cards * 3.95 = 190
total cost $1,024

Extra $316 - but - you'd need far fewer cards and you'd avoid the 1k per day limit at CVS along with the daily purchase lockout their POS system hits credit cards with after 1k....I've regularly done 2k in VRs in one visit with the right cashier splitting the transaction and not worrying about my CC being locked.

farwest101

Careful. I had a not-so-nice call from Chase Internal Compliance (in Arizona) about my VR purchases with my Ink Cards a few weeks ago. Read me the riot act for using the cards in a manner that wasn't approved for business use (or words to that effect). He was clearly aware that I was buying VRs/GCs - maybe from spend amounts (multiples of $500) or perhaps he got more detailed receipts as part of his investigation. I've since toned down the spend moved to my CSPreferred. I thought it was an unusual call and was a bit pissed off - had lots of legit spend on the cards. I've since moved all but the 5x category spend over to my Amex cards. For the lousy 1x I was getting on the VRs, I was irritated about being hassled. There was no call when I was doing all that 5x OD spend

For 1x, VRs are barely worth bothering with, even with higher value points, if you include time/gas to buy/liquidate. I continue to use my Hilton Amex at 6x, but that bonus category goes away in May. Then I'll probably just use for min spend bonuses as the need arises and the odd card where I get bonuses/perks for meeting spend thresholds that I want. As for my Ink cards, I'm keeping them, but they are suddenly gathering dust after being my most well loved cards. Hopefully something comes along to make me shake the dust off again - if not, they get cancelled once the AF comes around in a few months.

mjadas

Now I'm reconsidering using VR to push about 3k of the minimum spend for my new Ink. Safe to assume you were doing a little more volume than I'm planning?

TTnC4me

Oftentimes the history of the card is more important.

iqbalt80

So my wife opened a regular hhnonors account in Jan 2013. Bought two VRs in Feb and 4 VRs in March. Yesterday she received the FR call and asked to submit the 4605-T form.

In contrast, I have spent a lottttt on VRs.. and nothing...

tsmith12

Did she use the card just for these 6 transactions? Or was it mixed with daily spending?

iqbalt80

She had some other spend on the card as well..

arsenalman

Is her income to credit limit ratio different to yours?

User Name

This VR business is far more trouble than it's worth...

arsenalman

i only use it to meet min spend

ddallas

+1