Possible Workaround for the US mint issue
 

Just purchase $XX.XX Amex Gift Card with your mileage card.

Go to the US mint website and buy coins.
Even if it shows up as a cash advance on the gift card, it doesn't make a difference.
This way would enable you to continuously buy coins without worrying if it will be coded as a cash advance.

This will insure that even when the NA coins go back on sale, it will still be possible to get points. Just one extra step...

P.S. First post and I am sure someone must have thought of this but I can't find it anywhere. Also there are promotions and cb options through fw that can make this potentially sweeter.

This will also allow you to keep on ordering as you can buy cards in increments up to 3k and every card will have it's own number (obviously) making it harder for the mint to keep track.

Any flaws?

You are trying to figure out a solution to a problem that does not exist. The mint never said these would be coded as a CA or the way they currently code them will change in the future. Everyone needs to take a chill pill.

i agree.

I dunno.

But I just applied for my first rewards card in years. I plan on sending my college aged daughter her allowance in coins.

Purchased $500 order of $1 Pres GW coins before the backorder (now 3 Dec) on 12 Nov,
coins arrived 17 Nov..transaction coded on my CC (no CA) just like previous buy.

The same was true for me.

I spoke to a rep at the Mint yesterday about an order I wanted to cancel (the cancel button was not on the website for me to use). I explained the situation and she was shocked to hear about the Mint possibly charging these as a cash advance and said that would kill the program since no one would purchase the coins that way.

She verified the info with a supervisor and was told that the Mint will charge the transactions as a regular purchase. It is up to the individual credit card company to change the charge from a purchase to a cash advance or decide not to give miles for the purchase. The Mint will continue business as usual.

Keep in mind this was one rep and a supervisor that gave me the info and until an order actually goes through we will not know for sure.

Can someone explain where this insane idea that the Mint is changing their policy to code coin purchases as cash advances came from?

A couple of weeks ago, the mint added the following comment to their coin web site: The purchase of $1 coins under the Circulating $1 Coin Direct Ship Program is a cash equivalent or cash-like transaction. Ordinarily, such purchases are not eligible for credit card rewards, cash-back, cash rebate, and similar programs. Check with your card issuer for its terms and conditions.

Some people have assumed that this means the coins will be posted as a cash advance by the mint. I am not that familiar with the inner workings of coding of CC transactions but the CC companies and retailers must have some way of differentiating sales because AMEX has a statement in their T&Cs that cash equiv transactions will not earn points / miles and they were able to eliminate getting miles / points on TC purchases.

That being said, even if the mint does change to posting the coins as a cash advance, there are ways to circumvent the system. First, like others have said, think of the possibility of utilizing a gift AMEX or Visa type card. However this may not work as, at least in the case of AMEX, they say that the card can not be used for cash type transactions.

Another possible workaround is to use a bank debit card that earns miles. As long as the mint is accepting CC there should not be an issue with this approach.

Correct me if I am wrong, to qualifty as cash advance, you need to enter a pin number. I also talked to BA credit card person, same answer on cash advance, also i spoke to mint csr, ask about if its a cash advance, she never heard of that before.

Since day one of this program these coins are non-numismatic, circulation-grade coins. Purchase of non-numismatic, circulation-grade coins has always been considered cash equivalent or cash-like transaction. Because the Mint is making sure you are aware of this does not constitute a change in policy.

OK, I will correct you. Many have seen funding bank accounts with a CC show up as a cash advance. No PIN needed.

The inevitable result of these schemes and workarounds is that reward programs will be scaled back or eliminated.

You guys are confused between cash advance and cash equivalent. Everything said in here was already said in the main thread (including the gift certificate idea).

As the coins are still unavailable, this thread is now locked.