Try Gas Stations
 

I live in southern California. Gas station never turn down a single roll as payment for $25 worth of gas from me. I usually use Arco. I've tried successfully a few times with a Costco, too. (inside the store, not the gas pumps)

Restaurants tend to want to open the rolls, though.

Never thought about depositing the rolls in a bank. The coins are money. I spend it. Pretty simple.

I'm a big fan of maximizing miles opportunities, but if I was behind you in line at Costco when you pulled out the coins...

Hmm, arco's an interesting spin... Might be the only way I would actually enjoy using them...

Good to know when I do my shopping in a few weeks will use some coins.:p

She didn't want to... the manager required it.

For us, Costco is about 45 mins away so we don't go often and don't want to be stuck with GC's if we're not going to use them soon. (the only reason we have Costco is my wife's parents put us on for free as their second user)

You should easily be able to get a card to give better cashback on gas than on standard/Gov't purchases, so you should use that card for gas!

Arco doesn't take credit cards, and is usually 2-3% less than the majors. However the better way to do this is to purchase Arco gift cards at the supermarket, when they are on a 5% cash back cycle (with Chase Freedom, Citi Dividend, or Discover).

On topic they made my dad put the member number in a sharpie on each of the rolls. But other than that no issues.

Assume you are kidding. I can see using coins at Arco but no where else.:confused:

If you need to meet some short term spend requirements, definitely buy some coins and buy some gift certificates for merchants that you'll otherwise use in the future.

Costco cards sounds like they'd fit for you. Buy them now, spend as you normally do.

Also, there is a way you can buy American Airlines gift certificates through a two-step process that nets you more than one point-per-dollar for the AA spend. Search the AA forum for a post about a guy looking to spend 4,500 on AA. Its laid out there.

Anyone got a definitive answer to this?

There is another easy way to spend Visa/MC on Costco, if that is what you want to do.

Go online and buy Amex GC using your Visa/MC and spend that in Costco. They even give you 'Cash Back'. Use 'Cash Back' to deplete the whole Amex GC, so there will be no balance left.

Buying the Amex GC, you will meet your spending threshold plus points. Also if you buy thru referal, there is a 1.6% cash back (IIRC).

Howdy! I've been searching the AA forum but can't find the right thread. Would you mind linking?? would love you forever!

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...-approach.html

It's on page 3 of the AA forum. Instead of loving me forever, I'd happily settle for a promise from you to demonstrate a little more patience in your searches in the future.

You're sure Costco gives you cash back on an Amex GC? I thought those were processed as credit cards. Are you sure you didn't mean Costco GCs?

I did it once, but not intentionally. How abusable it is I don't know. I was renewing my Costco membership at the service desk using my rebate check but was $3 short of the total amount. I gave the clerk my cash card, figuring they could take the $3 off of that. Instead (and without even asking!) they cashed out my $300 cash card and took the $3 in cash. Manager said it was the only way to do it.

YMMV.