forget it
theorem didn't work.

back to moaning about how great coins used to be

Is this same type of thing were if you do more then 200 transactions or more then 20k per year they need to report your "earnings" to like the IRS or something?

I didn't mean using it to buy miles 1 for 1, but to meet minimum spending amounts to qualify for the Citi bonuses and whatnot.

So instead of it being 2.75cpm, it'd be like .038cpm

If you are that desperate, then yes it's an option, but there are many other (better) ways to meet spend.

2.75% is actually pretty low for low volume transactions. You'd have to eat up the fee and withstand an inquiries they might throw at you for odd transactions

It has to be over $20K AND 200 transactions. Square's terms specifically state they won't be reporting to the IRS for tax year 2011 anyway. In 2012, if you were to do this, you'd still be fine. As long you kept valid documentation and honestly explained to any auditor exactly what you were doing, you'd probably get away with it.

Also, the point of holding the money is to account for potential chargebacks. They have changed the verbage, it's not a $1000 limit any more. Even when it was that way, it was only in the previous 7 days, not 30. The rule simply was anything in excess of $1000 in the past 7 days would be held for 30.

The way it works now is if you have a positive history with few or no chargebacks, you can easily surpass that $1000 without doing any paperwork about your business. You can sell old garbage at your garage sale at higher prices (even taking the 2.75% loss into accout) if you offer to take cards. ;)

But again - why anyone would do this for miles at 2.75cpm is beyond me. Other than meeting minimum spend requirements but that's only if you can't find a cheaper way to do it. Even my mortgage can be paid through ChargeSmart at a rate lower than 2.75cpm if I really needed to do it that way. I would rather buy a gift card and sell it on Craigslist for a 1% loss. But even then there are still better, lossless methods.

And 2.75cpm is NOT lower than the going rate for purchasing miles directly. AA and US (and probably others, I just happened to be checking them lately) sell them at 2.75cpm.

I see. The litte doohickey for ipads and iphones.

Seems ridiculous to me at the fee assessed, not even sure why you would do that...even to meet a spend requirement. If i was that desperate, just buy a gift card.

For most Android phones too. It's great for getting your friends / family to pay you money they owe you. They say they have no cash on them. "You've got plastic, don't you?" I'll give up 2.75% - it's better than giving up 100% :) Ugh, never loan money to family.

Ditto everyone else. Otherwise, I've used it in a pinch, to cash out when an experiment went wrong, for min. spend, or when I know I have some small unknown amount on a prepaid and I'm just being super lazy.

If you risk not meeting a min spend in order to obtain bonus points/miles, this is less than $0.0275 per mile.

I love Square! I use it for my business - I own a food truck so my transactions are usually just a few bucks. It doesn't make sense to me to pay a percentage, a per transaction fee, plus monthly equipment rental fees like I'd have to do with a regular credit card reader. Also the $ is in my account within 2 days.

Net rate is ~1.x% if you purchase a GC at a discount... (and you don't have to swipe your own stuff)... but as usual you have the transaction limits and possible account closing if you get abusive.

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Mods, I think we've had enough discussion about this for now, any chance you could remove this thread now so we don't get NPR'd again?

Wouldn't worry about it. The company tweets regularly, it's been profiled on numerous tech / gadget blogs and is no different than other payment methods (Amazon, PayPal, the competing Amex scheme that may or may not be live yet, et al). All have the same $20K AND 200 transaction IRS reporting requirement and all will shut you down for abuse. The trigger finger is just itchier for some.