distantarray

if your only valuing 504 UR points to $5 your spending them VERY wrong. I get about 4.3 cents value per each of mine.

amolkold

Your way to use UR points may not be everyone else's way. You should always get at least 1.25cents out of UR, but just because you get 4.3 doesn't mean everyone else will.

Also, some people purposefully undervalue their points currencies so as to dictate the cost of being indifferent between cash/points.

dogbyte

What are you spending the points on to get 4.3 cents per point?

augustus21

You can easily achieve this kind of value per point with United awards. Even economy has something like 2 cents per point in value, and way more with premium redemptions.

chemist661

When I activated my INK Bold, I told them I would be making some major purchases ($4-5K) in the first month. I mixed up the spend with $500 Vanilla (2x),a $1000 prepay on electric bill on a rental house, another $500 GC, plus alot of smaller spends. Had no problem as I called ahead of time and I mixed up the spend very well! Next statement, the 50K bonus plus 5K spend will post. (I was a few $ short on the first statement.)

Bottom line: Best to call ahead and let them know you will be putting some large spend on the card. (Note: I am speech impared but the rep understood my request).

prasha11

Calling and telling, CS can make a note but has not made any difference to me, because its not manual but random computer/auto program.

fangtl

#1 240 x 3.95 = $948 not $708.
#2 is correct.

But then one should ask themselves, is the $76 difference offset by gas, time, and other intangible expenses? So unless a FTer has a OD right next to a CVS, I can't see that being any more efficient.

bocastephen

whoops, that was an embarrassing typo.

The difference between the two schemes is less about gas and time and more about being able to throttle more VR cards through the CVS system without having your CC blacklisted or temporarily blocked.

Depending on how comfortable you are buying GCs at an office store with your Ink Bold (not an issue for those with multiple Ink cards), you could scoop up a large number of GCs in one visit, then find 3 CVS locations and run 1K or more through each, so you can push 2, 3 even 4K of spend through in one week and one visit.

I could do at least 2k of VR at my CVS with the right cashier, I just need to split up the transactions at 1k and let other people in line cash out in between.

farwest101

True, but in my experience, only a few CVS will take gc. And even then is cashier-specific. I suspect even fewer would take them if I started presenting $200 gcs.

It's always better when transactions go as fast and "normally" as possible. I can't ever remember seeing anyone paying for "normal" purchases with multiple gcs at CVS. Buying cash equivalents with multiple gcs only makes that transaction less than "normal" - with multiple gcs, you seem to be bringing additional unwanted attention to your activities rather than less.

That said, I like that you are reducing the demand for VRs this way.

bocastephen

I've never had a problem buying VR with GC in my area across multiple locations and cashiers. I'll do blocks of 2k using 4-5 GCs (the former 500 size) split into two transactions with a normal item capping each transaction.

Lemma

I don't know what to make of that. I had to talk to the Chase fraud department after I tried to purchase a VR on a new Southwest card while I was traveling out of state and got declined. It was my second purchase on the card, with my first being a VR a mile from where I live. After I confirmed that the purchase was not fraudulent, I was asked whether I was buying medicine or getting cash advances. Not wanting to lie, but also not wanting to accept the premise of the question, I said neither, I was buying gift cards, which seemed to satisfy them. I also told them I travel a lot for both business and pleasure so they shouldn't be alarmed to see the card being used out of state. That was over a month ago. I've had no problems with the card since and the 50,000 point bonus posted to my Southwest account just fine when my statement closed earlier this month. Maybe it's because I was using a personal and not a business CC?

I've been declined for VR purchases by both Chase and Citi before, and what has triggered it for me has been either purchases while traveling or multiple VR purchases in one day. I suspect the multiple purchases in one day is a red flag because someone with a stolen credit card could be experimenting to see how much they can milk the card for before it gets shut down. Citi isn't so bad because you can confirm the purchase via text message rather than having to talk to India. But I think it's best to avoid being declined if possible to stay under the radar.

I think a lot of this is determined by their assessment of the individual cardholder's risk rather than a policy that applies to everyone. Many people buy VRs as a way to get cash advances without paying fees and interest. Getting cash advances on a credit card can be a sign of financial distress, so it's natural for them to be concerned, but if they are otherwise convinced you are a good credit risk I suspect they are happy to have the swipe fees. I pay my balances in full as soon as the statement closes rather than utilizing the grace period, and make mid-cycle payments if my utilization on any individual card goes above 30% or so. It's true, I could be putting those payments in a savings account during the grace period, but I think what I am doing gives me a lot of extra leeway with my CC issuers to manufacture lots of spending without getting shut down, and with interest rates the way they are now I am only giving up a few pennies to do so. Someone who is financially distressed and using VRs to get a cash advance rather than miles/points/cash back would not pay their cards the way I have described. With all of the opportunities out there to manufacture spend, the main limitation comes from the risk of getting your credit cards shut down. Of course, it also helps to spread your manufacturing across multiple banks. But I have not had a problem manufacturing five figures a month, several times my income (which I reported honestly in all my card applications without including "household" income). I don't make any particular effort to conceal it either, I have cards where all of the transactions are for $503.95 at CVS.

carsnoceans

Lot of good info on this thread. I got my Ink card today and straight away went hunting for VRs at CVS. Found couple of stores that carry them as well but just as I was about to buy I started pondering on the cost per point. And, it just doesn't seem worth it unless it's an effort to meet a spending. I missed the glory of OD days and it's not worth it on Ink without a multiplier. One of the previous posters' gave a nice breakdown on the cost. If I had the freedom card, this would be a great quarter to use it at CVS though.

OTOH, there are office supply store that have rewards programs for in-store credit (found one giving 5% reward on all purchases). On top of that 5x from the Ink card.... though it's not all miles/points but it's still double the return.

c2d

The Freedom 5% bonus drug store category was last quarter (Q1 ending Mar 31st). This quarter the bonus categories are: Restaurants, Movie Theaters and Lowe's.

SuperKirby

Maybe i'll get a $1500 McDonalds Gift card. That will hold me over for the year...

peedarp

For meeting the Ink Bold spend requirements, my calculations suggest VRs are the way to go, in case someone was interested.

VR - $5000 spend requirements requires 10 $500 VRs at $3.95 each, costing $39.50. This results in 0.07 cents per mile (cpm) [39.50/55,000]

GC from OD or OM - $5000 spend requirement requires 25 $200 GCs at $6.95 ech, costing $173.75. This results in 0.23 cpm [173.75/75,000]

Also note, it's much easier to load VRs than GCs to BB.