How much MS is enough?
 

Hello,
Very new to MS game - started not more than 3 months back.

Long story short - i have one ink bold and i did a total of $2,200 MS this month alone (GC + Red card)
I have heard people doing 30-40k a month - i am guessing with multiple CC and multiple Redcard/BB

My simple question: Does doing GC purchase of $2,000 - $2,500 / month from ink bold throw a red flag @ me?

Thanks!

just be smart about it.

1. don't spend more than your available credit every month at office supply stores
2. use your ink card for other purchases
3. don't max out the 50k year max at office supply stores

I would say $2,000 to $2,500 is a good spot. It generates 10,000+ points per month and you avoid the 3 rules above. Plus at that point you are already spend over $70 on gift card fees.

Thanks for the input.

Any other guru's with their thoughts on this?

30-40K a month certainly isn't high, people were doing much more than that on one card (OBC) although that didn't have a happy ending for some.

I would say that 2.5K a month should be safe enough, unless you give the issuer an opportunity to look at your account for other reasons

I spent more than $2500 at OM for this $20 off $300 promotion so I think you are fine. The important point I would make is don't spend over your CL if you can and pay if off every month to establish history.

Fear the toreador, not a red flag

There is no such thing as enough MS.

Do you want this to be a day job? If you can do the research yourself (because no one will share on public forums) some people have turned travel hacking into a full time job, which works great if you want to travel the world. But if I already have a day job, this is just gravy and something I can do as a hobby. Low hanging fruit on this forum, which is all that I do, is sufficient to get the annual vacation paid for at a fraction of the cost.

I agree with this. Wife and I have full time jobs which regularly go over the norm in hours. We also do ms'ing for once a year big travel as well as to pay for other things via cash back. We started small, steady, careful. To any new folks at this, don't get pressured or tempted to do too much too fast. Just when you think this is easy and you can do no wrong you'll find some unpleasant circumstances that many can avoid by studying the intro thread and heading wise advice. It took many of us many months to learn and we all continue to learn more about what works, what doesn't, when to pull back, when to modify methods and more.

I'm not a heavy hitter and yet we can go completely free each year to places like Bora Bora, Venice for fireworks over the Grand Canal, Bastille Day in Paris and on to other places. But, we also do this for cash needs and we also give back by donating at least 10% to charity. We have a ton of cards and 800+ credit scores which we protect evey month.

It's important to only do the amount that remains fun as a hobby. But, there are some who've had to use this method to feed their family and that's great. This is a wonderful opportunity if we all treat it right.

Chase doesn't publish guidelines, so YMMV. But I think you are fine doing about $2500/month on your ink card on gift cards at office supply stores. I've been doing that much for over a year. But I try to put other (non-bonus category) spend on the card as well.

No such thing as enough. As long as you don't go over your available credit (Personally I like to stay under 50% of available credit, pay off balance, the start again), you are good. It all depends how much effort you want to put into it.