Hi all,

Yes, I am a newbie to this forum, but not to the art of CC churning and getting miles without flying. I just returned a book the other day and didn't have the original CC on me that I had used to purchase it. So they reimbursed me on a different CC.

After that happened, it occurred to me, could I make large purchases and then return them, making sure they are returned on a different credit card? This way the CC company will never know I returned it, and on their side, it will still look like I purchased the product and will give me the miles?

What do you guys think of this trick? Could it work if I bought expensive products and then returned them immediately on a different CC?

Many of today's modern retailers have more sophisticated computer systems these days.....

Many retailers do not need to have your original CC that you made a purchase with to refund a returned item. I've seen many places now have a barcode printed on the receipt somewhere and they just scan that to find the original transaction in their system and can process a refund with just a few button pushes.... (no card needed).

So, good luck... but I don't think it would be worth your while.....

this topic has been mentioned numerous times around here
You should take a look at the following threads.

Get miles for a purchase, redeem miles, return purchase.. is this possible?

I refunded my purchase and still got miles - here is how!


The practicality of buying and returning stuff the the miles

great thanks for guiding me to these threads. Indeed, it doesn't seem worth it. If only there was something a bit easier to carry around than mint coins!

Well, if you purchase something from an online store that offers you bonus 2x or 3x miles or more for every $ spent than even if they refund your purchase on the same CC, you will still get the bonus miles. CO usually doubles the bonus miles if charged through CO debit or CC however CO miles take a long time to post. DL is much quicker. Infact I bought something from HD using DL AMEX CC and my bonus miles posted on my skymiles a/c even before the purchase was posted on the CC account!

IMHO ....

This (buying with the intent of returning) might work sometimes but, I suspect, you will eventually get caught and have problems. The merchants and/or credit card companies may actually pursue getting the points/miles back from your accounts. If they were to notice a pattern of this, it could also cause some of your accounts (credit card accounts as well as points/miles accounts) to be closed.

This also seems highly unethical .... intentionally doing this would be most commonly referred to as fraud (or close to it).

It should not be referred to as (or even associated with) "churning" which is getting credit cards, etc for the bonuses, closing them afterwards, and then repeating the process ....

I highly recommend against it. I suspect it won't be worth it in the long run.