Other than their once profitable card, they pretty much suck as a bank.

Never said I hated AMEX's evil twin (read your history). They were a favorite of mine a few years back when I used to cycle 75k of presidential dollars a day through a branch that was definitely MLing. In fact I will soon be adding the pony folk to my portfolio of paper recycling centers as they are located on my central paper route. Should I not give this ungodly bank a chance for redemption - of my modest supply of money orders?:p

I'll talk about it now that the gravy train is dead. Hopefully I don't upset anyone locally but my location is not on the forum and I'll keep it vague.

I had 2 places where I could buy almost 10k everyday each. Not going to name it but you all know it/heard of it.

I had a credit card company that didn't care about BP or how much I spent. In fact, when I scaled my spending they rewarded me with a HUGE increase in credit I didn't ask for.

I had a certain "mart" that let me do as many BP as I wanted. I could bring as much in GC as I wanted and they would let me run them. Even if it took hours.

What has changed? One MSer started messing with management over $500 he/she was out over a failed transaction and management said enough is enough. They said no more. My gravy train store is no more :'(

Started doing MOs. Apparently banks doesn't appreciate receiving priority mail envelopes stuffed with rubber stamped MOs. Complete shutdown of me, all my family, and anyone that was an AU of mine and all of their cards even those that never saw a drop of MS.

Wasn't a big deal at first. I had the WF card and was pimping that for all its glory. That died.

Now my volumes are MAYBE 40k a month.. Probably less than that. The Citi shut down was very strange because that card hasn't seen any MS for a LONG time. I got my shutdown letter for one of my cards today and all it says is that they have the right to close my account at any time and they chose to exercise that right. No explanation of any kind.

It's a dying industry.. Now my goal is sustainable MS. Just something that can cover my rent and food when I go to college next year. Any tips are appreciated.

If you're doing $4OK a month that won't pay for college but will sustain accumulating miles for travel. Some people do sell miles to pay off debt but that's risky too. There was a guy that paid off student loans via credit cards (not selling miles). It's not for everyone but PM me if you're interested and I can search my notes for it. If you're unable to get new cards it's going to be difficult though. We're traveling but I can boot up my computer this evening.

It's only dying because of people like you who horrid large amount of MS. The days of Amp-o-rama is over with, now we need to have a plan to get the points we need. Which is fine, it's an art now, which I like.

With less and less options available, I don't MS much. I only do it if I need to meet minimum spend for a CC bonus. The bonuses are getting harder to come by as well with CC companies like AMEX putting restrictions. I have to use the points I've accumulated over the years wisely since they are getting harder to come by.

Nice. I definitely got in this game too late. Was a newbie doing mostly bonuses the past few years. Beginning early this year went full throttle with MS. Experienced the usual shutdowns, bad looks, visitors, and a one guy telling me that I'm an awful person (seriously).

I'm definitely on to the sustainable path now, although based on what is happening even that is becoming more and more difficult. A few shutdowns a way from throwing in the towel or just cutting back to periodic bonuses since I can do that in my sleep now.

Yeah. I had a mentally diseased guy start yelling that he's going to call the cops on me at a Walmart. I hightailed out of there but if he tried to detain me he would've been eating pavement. I don't play when I have tens of thousands of dollars in my pocket.

You had popo visit you? I prepared my family for a police visit and even went as far as setting up an arrangement with an attorney should that happen. Never did though.

I'll PM you

Thanks! Even travel help would be nice. I'd love to make a few trips. I have about 200k in AA miles that I saved from spending on Citi cards. Not sure what to use that on, though.

Go to Iowa and Wyoming.. there are a few M@rt$ W that allow $30k MOs each visit.. big time saver

Got shut down completely by Citibank about 6 months ago. First they shut down my newly opened checking account (opened for AA miles) after I tried to purchase a money order with my debit card on its second purchase. Dunno why that triggered a closure.

About 2 months after they closed the deposit account, they closed both of my credit card accounts. One of them had significant MS on it from 2014 and 2015 from VISA buxx, but I had stopped that in October of 2015 when usbank stopped their buxx program.

With AMEX's once in a lifetime bonus per card and Chase's 5/24 rule. I don't do app-o-rama's every few months anymore. I'm very picky with cards I apply for. I got the Chase reserve for the 100k bonus now I might get the club Carlson again since you get 40k pts/yr when you pay the annual fee.

Guessing u had preapproval for csr. I didnt and am around 10/24 but spouse was at 3/24 so got that for her. Already did the required spend.

Yes, me and the spouse both got the CSR but we were 0/24. I was doing a lot of app-o-rama's and MS'ing over two years ago, the most was about $80k/mo but I completely stopped MS'ing and cc apps since we bought another house and I was busy fixing it up. So now we are at 1/24 with the CSR.

I've said this before, the good ole days are over with, however, my monthly spend has increased significantly that I don't need to really worry about MSing anymore. I have a co worker who wants to get into this hobby, we spend a good 4 hours going over each company (i.e Amex, Chase, citi etc) on the good and the bad, it's become a strategy on what cards to get and when.

I agree about the strategy or art of getting approved for CCs. I cringe every time I read about people randomly applying and getting denied. You want 30 cards the first year? Study the rules, constraints, and which credit bureaus are pulled by each issuer in your state.

^^

Afraid if there is not an app for that many of the new folk will never learn. Seems many of our budding MS artists are just paint by numbers folk.:eek:

Lol. And that's a bad thing?

Yes, you need a certain amount of creativity in this game. MS is an art, not a science. You have to constantly adapt your ghillie suit or the goblins are gonna spot you. Bank management these days seems to be directing the goblins to look for the MS folk to divert eyes while they rob the bank. :cool:

Any losses from MS folk pale in comparison to the losses the shareholders are gonna see from management's internal control failures in the Fargo Fiasco. And Wells is just the tip of the iceberg.

Did somebody say goblins? :D

Been hitting Simon hard lately. The recent hotel merger has allowed some very cheap RC redemptions......I've said too much...;)

Why hit Simon when there's cheaper options? I've said too much....:D

Oh no, I've said too much
I set it up

Oh no, I've said too much
I haven't said enough

Arrgh - that rem is confusing.:p

:rolleyes: Ok newb. Unlike you, I said my method. But go ahead and make up ambiguous comments in reference to the limited free MS methods still available. I'll gladly hit $80k/month at Simon + my other MS methods (Grocery, Staples, Etc) some of which are free while you talk a big game.

$80k is thin with potential for 4x that if you can find a bank willing to take in reams of paper. Hmmm....wonder what bank out there might be starved for cash and legitimate customer accounts these days?:D

Hmmm...maybe if you watch CNN you can piece it together. :)

$80k only if she's 5'3"...

Now, now - no weight shaming allowed on this thread. All MS opportunities are beautiful in their own way. As I recall, the most beautiful MS opportunity of all times weighed several thousand tons.:D

Lost my CapOne 360 checking today.

Really sorry to hear that. Would you be willing to share any DP why you think this happened?

At least you didn't loose all your CapOne credit cards....

Don't jinx it!

What kind of volume?

[edit] Nm, saw your link.

CIti shut down my 4 cards. I was caught totally off guard by this one. Haven't had a bank account for over a year, no credit line cycling, no bp, no debit phone payment, no new apps in almost a year. I had a reserve, double cash, and 2 AA card most are over a year old.

The activity leading to this shutdown is either gc.com purchases or MO payments at Citi branches. About 7.5k a month across 2 cards <50% of the available credit. I've been doing this for about 10 months. FML first shutdown by a major player. Also they won't give me my 2nd free night cert even tho my account is over 2 years old.

Seems pretty obvious to me.

I've experienced my first shutdown, also Barclay A+, unexpectedly. Learned the hard way not to leave large balances on CC's before the statement closing days. My FICO tanked over 150 points due to high balances. I didn't care as I am not planning to apply for any CC or other credit right now, but I didn't realize high balances can actually affect the existing CC's. Well, at least that's what Barclay told me. I remain skeptical though, as the other creditors that gave me much higher CL's (and several CC's) didn't seem to care about my current status quo. I'm thinking the FICO score caused Barclay to do a manual review and then they saw a bunch of MS and no benefit from me. That'd be my bet.

I'm now more cautious about other cards and would like to cash out in a timely manner, as suggested by littlewinglet. I'm not sure though I understand how the hotel "trick" works. I booked a refundable hotel before, but when I canceled the booking, they simply refunded my card back. The refund came back as a statement credit. That's very nice, but I'm thinking if I keep doing it, that will be a giant red flag and won't be tolerated. Is there another way to get the refund from the hotel?

Thanks,
DJR

When you got the refund did you not get dinged for the miles/points? I had my miles taken back when I used the same strategy

Not sure what you mean. How did you get dinged? If you got a credit statement, you wouldn't get points back. Otherwise it would be double dipping. When I got the refund, I didn't get my points back, but I got a $ statement credit equivalent of the travel purchase that was redeemed with points, which is a preferable option anyway on a straight through reward card like Barclay. I'm not sure it'd be wise to make a habit out of it though.

I'm sorry. I meant they clawed back the miles and so my account shows negative miles balance after the hotel charge was refunded.