IAHtraveler

I just got home last night and my $500 box was waiting for me. I took it to Wachovia this morning without issue. They lady was sorta confused, but obviously didn't want to ask any questions. She just said, "I must admit that you're the first person to bring me Mint rolls of the dollar coins." I told her that she'd probably be seeing a lot more of me in the future doing this. She had a perplexed look on her face as she finished up the transaction.

Since that went over without issue, I just put in a 20 box order. My wife is ready to kill me... she doesn't see the value of airline points, I guess (but she does love to use them).

WonderDude

Thanks for the tip, imasosec!

Since I previously bought 2 boxes of the NAs, I ordered up 18 more just now. This'll put me over the top for the 10k bonus after 10k spend in year two of one of my AA MCs.

I bet these puppies won't stay in stock for very long! Is this 20-box coin deal part of the Obama economic stimulus plan??

Curious_George

My order of NA's have been on hold for about a month also. I called last Monday and the csr said they shouldn't be on hold for that long and she will take care of it. Looks like I'll have to call again next Monday as it's still on hold!

dreamfool

I just went to Chase with $500 worth of coins. They first want me to break up the coins, then the machine showed there are only $498.55. I want to argue that their machine has problems, but there isn't any proof unless one is willing to count the coins one by one.

Kind of upset...is it Chase or US mint??

biggestbopper

How can dollar coins come up as a number ending in 55 cents?

By the way, I have taken mint rolled coins to several banks and S&Ls. Nobody has ever asked me to unwrap the coins and there has never been any problem--except carrying those heavy, heavy boxes into the bank.

dreamfool

Exactly!

They said "there could be quarters that got rolled in there" (OS: I don't want to argue with you because obviously you don't know that you can't get 55 cents with dollars and quarters...)

I never liked Chase, and now I am fully disgusted by them.

gpapadop

waiting to pull the trigger on 18 boxes with any double miles/promo from any of my cards....any day now....

JudyJFLA

Not much of a promo, but I did get a mailing with a individual code from Citi AA card with 1.25 miles per dollar thru 4/30 and a bonus 5000 miles with $20K in spend thru 7/30/09. I use this card to get AA miles to move to Hilton in places that don't take the Hilton Amex. So if you are really bonkers on this deal then 20K in coins would equal 30,000 AA Miles or 60,000 Hilton points.
JudyJFLA

ExitRowAisle

Without some creative ways of "beating the system", a person has only had the opportunity to buy $8,500 of coins to date ($500 for 7 Presidents and $5,000 on the new Native American coin). Currently, you can't even order all 7 Presidents -- so a $20,000 spend seems to be out of reach on this program for the moment.

thehawk75

But you see... many of us are 'beating the system'. That's what a bulk of this thread is about.

mooper

Furthermore, there are a lot of people ordering $500 at a time, and it blows my mind that they are deeming the return worth the risk+cost. Not everyone values miles/points the same, but the mean range for FTers is around 1.5 to 2 cents per mile/point. Lets assume 2 even. For $500 worth of coins, you are getting a $10 payout for the time it takes you to place the order, track and receive the order, and deal with cashing in the coins (whether this is a drive to the bank, specially handling them for tips, or whatever). Add the perceived risk is of an order or delivery gone bad, the time needed to rectify such a problem, and the risk of having a valuable stash of coins on hand, and I simply don't see how so many people deem it worthwhile. Even if you deem the risks minimal, you can see by simply reading this thread that there are a plethora of complications that may arise that require time to work through. Even if you are lucky and everything goes smoothly, if you are spending just 20 minutes of total time to deal with the process, you are making $30/hour. This might be worth the time to some people, but represents a best-case scenario. Opportunities like 500 miles for a 2-minute survey or $18 for a case of Fiji water and 2,500 miles make sense, but $10 worth of miles for the hassle and risk of dealing with $500 worth of coins... I don't get it.

soitgoes

a) some of us want to have some dollar coins
b) it's a great way to meet credit card spending thresholds

mooper

A) If someone is doing it for the novelty or interest of having the coins, then that adds to the value of the process, and I could understand. I should have specified that I am talking about those ordering primarily/solely for the miles/points.

B) This too would add some value beyond the raw points/miles earnings itself, but I suspect that a relatively small percentage of people are ordering enough to make a substantial difference to hitting thresholds. However, if someone is trying for $25K on an Amex DL card and could only hit $20K without this offer and is able to get $5K of coins with ease, I could see this being reasonable.

soitgoes

These coins are especially suited to cards that have initial spending thresholds to get bonuses (e.g., AA, UA, NW).

mooper

Yup, I can see that being a nice fit too. Again though, my wonderment was really directed at those ordering primarily/solely for the value of miles/points earned directly - not at those interested in collecting, the novelty, or threshold benefits.

There's another thread where people were discussing the act of rounding purchases or otherwise making transactions that yield one "free" mile/point per 15-20 seconds of effort. Similarly, I can't see how this makes sense, as earning 250 miles per hour equates to a payout so low that it isn't worth the time alone.