AlohaDaveKennedy

Like MSing. For years I drained IRAs and used the rollover window to "loan" the money to the banking systems through BoA, UFB, SunTrust and others via the old coin on a string routine. If there is one the banking crisis taught me it was the importance of keeping the American banking system capitalized. Then the government went and changed changed the IRA regs.

devnull

Wrong method!

iflyjetz

You didn't answer my question. Which Walmarts are you using so I can MS there since they much more lenient than my Walmarts. City and street as a minimum, please.

And if you want to enlighten all of us on the correct method to MS efficiently, that would be great. Your two word response is not helpful.

tcook052

Folks it seems several members have temporarily forgotten that the topic of this thread is Simon mall gift card so let's please return to that and leave other matters for other threads.

tcook052
MS forum moderator

MileageGoblin

You should always be pushing the limit with WM to see what you can get away with. Even be friendly with employees you regularly see to see if they will "skirt" store rules.

As for your WM request, I can't give that out. Someone took a shotgun to my golden goose that had unlimited MO. I can tell you that Neighborhood markets get coded as Grocers. To keep on-topic, I will also tell you that the Simon's in Allen and Garland now track your purchases in the company computer system...

markr33

I'm not sure I understand how that was particularly beneficial to you. When you withdrew the funds from your IRA for 59 days and put it into a CD to get the interest, it wasn't earning interest inside the IRA for those 59 days. Why not just invest in a CD *within* the IRA and keep the gain tax-deferred?

And if you really needed the cash from the 59 days of interest, you could have just as well set up a SEPP and withdraw some from IRA on a regular basis.

The MS technique that I miss most is purchasing I-bonds using credit cards. That was, by far, one of the best techniques that ever existed.

crazy_p.o.w.

So I go to my usual SM yesterday and the lady finally asks the dreaded question, "What are you buying all these cards for?". My first thought was to say, "None of your f-in business", but I was in a good mood and it was a very polite and friendly question. Told her I did it for the miles but didn't go into further detail. She proceeds to tell me that there are A LOT of people who come in to buy cards and it has increased over the past few weeks. I guess they got some memo regarding credit cards used for SMGC purchases and to double/triple check the ID and card because of CC fraud around the holidays. I knew there were a few of us out here in the Midwest, but didn't think it was a big community. Apparently I was wrong. Luckily there are a lot of outlets here to utilize...for now.

trueblue84

Which mall did you go to? I'm from midwest.

crazy_p.o.w.

Castleton Square Mall in Indianapolis.

Kudu19

Hi everyone,

I'm very new to MS'ing, just did about $2,000 in the past two months (following the take-it-slow rule to learn and not lose $$).
Yesterday I went to a Simon MalL to pick up two $500 VGC's.
When I asked the clerk that I wanted to buy a couple of giftcards, he asked how many, I then said two $500 ones for the upcoming shopping season and he goes "Oh that's it? I thought you were one of those guys that come here to buy 20 or 30 at a time. They spend $10,000 to $15,000 at a time"

I looked surprised and commented something like "Wow, they really like to shop with GC''s don't they".
His answer was "No actually they say they do that thing about making a #$#@load of points with credit cards, wish I knew how it's done".

My jaw dropped (in my head), I thanked him and left.

I can't believe there's some MS'ers that tell store clerks what they are doing!

That's how Target and hard coded registries happen imho.

Wish there folks would be less sharing of how "cool" their ms'ING accomplishments are out there, and keep their success stories to this board.

Leo

PittPoints

I cant believe that anyone believes that statements made to clerks has any effect on corporate policies.

DeaconY

Oftentimes it is better to share a little bit of 'inside information' with a friendly CSR than to have them look at you suspiciously as though you were doing something wrong, or perhaps illegal.

By knowing you are in it for frequent travel as opposed to credit card fraud, they are more likely to be friendly and helpful.

Kudu19

Well, again imho and based on my knowledge of corporate, they are connected in some way to the stores, so if more than one clerk goes to a store manager to "tell the story" of these customers who spends $10,000-$15,000 on GC's, a manager may or may not talk about it with his piers or at the next sales/store meeting with the regional directors and so on and on... someone, somewhere may catch wind and shut it down cause:
1) He can't do it
2) No one else can do it if he can't.
3) Wants a promotion and decides to shut down "a flaw in their system" to look good with their bosses.
4) Many other reasons.

Again, YMMV, if you want to talk about it with the clerks then you may or may not impact your own MS'ing.

I prefer to keep what I'm doing to myself and come up with creative and logical ways for clerks to not question why and what I'm doing.

Leo

crazy_p.o.w.

Sometimes when asked, I will just say that I am doing a home remodel and I give this to my contractors to buy materials. Makes budgeting easier, tracking purchases and don't have issues with payment or money going missing.

shadow520

I'm bummed. Closest Simon Mall is over an hour away from me. Had my first experience buying these while I was in Vegas last month.

Going to FL this w/e, will def hit them again, there are 3 malls near where we will be. I've been in a lull since the AGC/portal cash back died.