FYI, I tested making payments to my mortgage serviced by USB. Made payments over two days. Total paid actually exceeded the minimum payment. Two days after the last payment, they consolidated the payments and correctly applied them to principal, interest, and extra $$ applied to principal.

Duke Energy posts each payment individually. Not a bad way to cash out small Staples rebate cards.

Mortgage

I've paid US Bank mortgage just fine - just do them on consecutive days, and they'll put each into suspense, then automatically combine them once they've got the full amount. It happened automatically for me.

Thanks! This is good info. I could definitely purchase GCs to pay my mortgage and leave BB/Serve for other bill payments.

Any experience with BOA mortage?

Any one using everhome mortgage?

Agreed. When you're buying thousands in gift cards every month it's easy to become nonchalant about them. This was a good reminder to be careful.

Well I'm happy to report after talking to Evolve today they were able to cancel the $950 refund to my thrown out gift cards and were able to apply a credit to my evolve account. I just checked online and indeed it shows $950 in credit there. It will be applied to future bills. So it is not lost. I'm very happy that they were able to make this right and I can go back to using their service for lots of bills without any reservation. ^

Good to hear that your incident ended up very well.

This super great news!^ I was definitely cheering for you and you apparently gave me a wake up call. I have been going back and forth about keeping all these hundreds of cards but I now know that I should at least for a little while. I just need better bookkeeping. It will be horrible to try to figure out which one was used out of the many that I have scattered everywhere.

This is my first post! Maybe after you utilize the giftcards completely, you can use a sharpie/permanent marker and write the dates that you used them on it, perhaps also initials of where you redeemed them? Or make some type of code system where you can identify different uses that was implemented with the cards?

I just did my first transactions with Evolve to my utilities using staples rebate cards. They are pending.

Has anyone tried using rebate cards with someone else name on them? Success or not, shouldn't do? or is it okay?

As long as you use the billing address assigned to the rebate card. I use my parents' house for rebates from time to time. Issued payments to my own accounts using their rebate cards with no issues.

Welcome to FT, coinwhomper!

I take a photo of my new GCs, front and back, in case they are lost or stolen. You can get 10 or more cards per photo.

When a card is zeroed out, I clip off a small bit of the corner (not disturbing the magnetic strip or bar code). That way I can tell that the card is all used up, but if need be (funds refunded to card, etc.) could use it at a store again.

Rubber bands... cardboard box.

I carry a Sharpie with me when using them, and mark them all zeroed out.
Bundled up with their purchase receipt and banded together in huge piles.

In the case of two steps, like using AxGCs to purchase VRs or OVs, then I bundle the AxGCs with the cards that were purchased. Ax letter, value card (that's glued to card) and purchase receipts all together in one pile.

I also throw a sticky label on each card that's loaded to the more problematic online resources (i.e. MVD 1,2,3), since they were reputed to require original card and receipts to release funds.

My GF has made fun of this and questioned its value... but considering bank scrutiny these days, this level of detail might make the difference between audited vs. investigated.

An ounce of prevention and all that.. given the scale of $$$, a pound of prevention seems wise.


Side note: Every now and then I take a pile and get online to 100% confirm all funds used. Doing this I found an unused $500 card I had mis-marked (I had cycled through a LOT that month and just juggling too many cards) and that shook me awake. Takes about 15 minutes to do a bunch, but well worth it if I find an error. So far, that was the only error... but still...

I believe in electronic record keeping. I scan receipts and email to myself and then add details of 16 digit plus 3 digits and information to which card it was loaded and forward to myself.