Good luck to you, provided you are not Cardinal Fang, of course.:D

Why does this thread exist? Is the need to brag or engage in a "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" so urgent? Whatever momentary pleasure may exist in that, I can't help but wonder how this thread reads to a Cardinal or marketing analyst looking for ways to devalue, whether now or any time in the future since FT threads live on and on...

That's insane how much manufactured spending some of you guys do!

I am pretty new to the game and I signed up for HHonors AMEX (non-surpass one) 2 weeks ago. When I signed up it said 6x on drugstores, but when I received paperwork it doesn't mention that anywhere nor does it mention it on the website when I look at the app now. I guess I'll have to call AMEX to verify.

Points from Bank Direct
 

I see that several folks are getting 18.5K - 20K of points per month for Bank Direct.

I am unaware of what that program is all about.
Can someone point me in the right direction to get that kind of generating.

thanks

While “mine is bigger than yours” threads are generally pretty silly, this one has been very enlightening, thanks to all. I never did the mint and thus far I’ve not yet done prepaid/reload cards. As such, my manufactured spend is a whopping 108 :D (one hundred and eight, not a typo) miles per month from Audience Rewards Trivia (12 miles per cycle x 3 programs x 3 times per month). Reads like I should get familiar with the OD and CVS and WG stores in my area ... and blue is my favorite color! Thanks again.

As the doc said.. this is mainly for information for some of us who have not been doing this for ages. We get a sense of what a reference points (whether it is attainable or not is a different matter)

Then you're doing it wrong ;)

I'm also curious about this (and I have investigated a little on Google :D ). Not counting the initial sign up offer, you get 100 AA miles per $1000 in their checking account.

That means to get 20k AA miles/month someone has to have $200,000 sitting in a checking account. Lets say those are worth 2 cpm, that's a value of $400/month. Now lets say they get redeemed for business class, that's probably closer to 4-5 cpm(? just a guess as I haven't had the luxury of redeeming for biz/1st) so they are getting a value of $800-1000/month. If you were to park 200k in some retirement/investment account that gets 5% return (doesn't seem unreasonable to me), your value would be $10,000/month.

Why is anyone parking 200k in a checking account? I love to travel, but it just doesn't seem like the smartest way to stash your money.

5% of 200K is 10K/YEAR or $833/month. And it's generally pretty difficult to find a guaranteed 5% interest right now.

No, that's 60% interest. 5% gets you about $10k/year, not month

In today's low interest environment, 240k AA miles at 2 cents a mile is worth approx 5K. That's a 2.5% return and higher if used wisely on premium travel.Not bad if you ask me...

If you know of an investment that is not a Ponzi scheme that returns $10K a month on 200K I'd like to know about it. Check your math - 5% ANNUAL return on an investment account gives you about $800/month in return, not $10K.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milesbuzz-370;)

Seriously? I find it to be one of the most interesting "new" topics in a long while on here.

I park 200k in the BD checking account because I get 20k miles a month, tax free (everyone please do their own analysis, etc, dont depend on anything I say regarding taxation).

To me, AA miles are worth about 2.5 cents each. x 20k per month, so thats like getting $500, every month. And you can imagine what taxes I get hit with living in the Socialist Republic of California if I had them in a checking account or wherever else that I'd be 1099'd

Its a better return than anywhere else I can think of, while keeping these funds 100% liquid and FDIC insured.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that those miles are taxable. Doesn't BD send you a 1099 with a valuation of the miles each year? Or am I thinking of only Citi?

BankDirect is for those who have substantial extra cash. The most popular account is Mileage Checking With Interest. Some of the particulars are:

"...Earn 1000 miles for opening a Mileage Checking Account.

Earn 10,000 miles for signing up for payroll direct deposit into a Mileage Checking Account.
Earn 5,000 miles for using BankDirect's bill pay service for 12 months.

Earn 100 miles per month for every $1000.00 of the collected balance in your Mileage Checking Account up to the first $200,000. Earn an additional 25 miles per $1,000 in balances over $200,000, WITH NO CAP!"

In other words, to earn 20k per month, you need $200,000!

It is somewhat cumbersome to open an account and there is a $12 per month charge which was free until Jan of 2012.

Obviously, not for everyone.

I'm gonna blame my shoddy math skills on the fact that it is Friday :D'

You all are correct. About $800/month value at least if using for Biz/1st. Makes significantly more sense to me now.

Now I just need to work on saving up 200k to finance my AA travels! Thanks for the corrections guys & gals.

Why get a 5% return that must be used for miles when you can get that elsewhere as cash that can be used anywhere?

Hey, I signed up for DirecTV this month and got 15k AA miles. I'm a heavy hitter! Now to start a blog.

If you can guarantee a 5 percent yearly return after taxes on a $200,000 investment that has zero risk whatsoever to principal and is completely liquid, please share.

I am not aware of anything close. Yes, you can possibly get better than 5 percent if you put your principal at risk. And maybe you can start to get upwards of 3 or 4 percent if you lock up your money.

But if I had $200k and did not want to put it at risk, and also potentially needed it somewhere other than in a maturing-nonliquid investment, 360,000 miles a year is pretty good.

No kidding!

I would say around 5k on my Ink Business bold (cable, phone... spend)
and 7-10k on Amex PRG (primary spend, groceries...)

If a 5% guaranteed investment were available with no withdrawal restrictions, the BankDirect AA miles program would cease to exist.

One of the best rates I know of is a PenFed 3-yr CD at 1.85%. But that locks in your money for three years.

P.S. For those of you not familiar with PenFed (Pentagon Federal Credit Union), they have some of the best rates on loans. I recently bought a new house and got a 2.75% 5-yr ARM with NO closing costs. I didn't need the loan but I saved the closing costs and can pay the loan off at any time of my choosing. And you have to qualify for the loan.

Anyone can join PenFed with a $20 donation if you don't qualify for free membership.

They have a 5% gas card which is free money. I like free.

I think another way to say it is that if the cost of money goes up, Bank Direct would have to give you more miles to make their program competitive. Which, it turns out, they likely would. If banks could make higher interest loans, they would pay more for your money, whether in miles or dollars or whatever else.

Here's the key to bankdirect -- they pay less to AA for miles than the rest of us can. So, they can afford to buy the miles in lieu of paying you interest, and you get a mile that is worth more to you than the foregone interest. Win-win.

Is Phil Mickelson a flyertalker? :p

360,000 miles a year is a pretty good start is what you meant to say. Gimme the 200k and I would play coin on a string with some of my favorite banks. Oh wait a minute, BTDT. And the RoR is multiples higher than 5%. The downside, of course, is that you pay no taxes.

Great thread and after reading it, i realize that what i thought was good was merely me getting the scraps from the table. Time to pick up my game some, let's just hope it doesn't lead to an FR or anything. I knew i'd be behind some of the business spenders, though. Thanks for the insight everybody.

The question is while we can join PenFed via the Internet with an opening deposit made via credit card, how much is the max deposit?:cool:

This thread is a BIG eye opener! 2012 was my first year churning cards netting 355K in bonuses. I thought I was on a good start until I read this thread. Can some one tell please what these acronyms stand for:
IB
OD
GC

Regarding manufactured spend, can someone point me please on how to do it on Amazon Payment and other potential methods? Excuse my ignorance.
I got the Bank Direct method.

Men & women of FT, you are amazing!!!!

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milesbuzz-370/

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milesbuzz-370/

Before everyone gets their eyes opened on the manufactured spend thing, please realize two things:

-It's generally not free.

and

-It generally takes a decent amount of time.

There is no free lunch.

And there is some risk, in some cases, quite a bit of risk if you get shut down and have money held up.

Yes - this all takes money that you don't otherwise need anytime soon.

Further risk: tax forms.

I'm not saying everyone should stay away, but these techniques take time and research. Don't just jump in and hit something until you really understand all of the nuances - especially the true costs.

true nothing is free nowadays. It does cost something... and the main goal is to minimize the cost as much as possible..and yes it takes a lot of time...

For me, there's definitely a diminishing returns aspect. I'm pretty low key compared to the crowd in the thread about spending without the mint. I accumulate my points mostly through legitimate spend. My main source of manufactured spend is AP, which I hit extremely lightly and within the rules. I hit promos like Grand Slam pretty hard when they come around, mostly because it's fun. For me, BB is amazing because it converts a substantial amount of spend that I was previously unable to get points for into a points earning potential.

But, in general, I follow a 2-step/3-step rule. I'm also all about safety. I don't go for stuff that will raise red flags. Slow and steady is good for me. I generally won't go for a scheme that requires more than 2 steps in the physical world or 3 steps on line. This means I generally stay away from going to a store and buying physical cards to buy other cards elsewhere to put on BB and then use for spending. That's 3 steps. Even so, at this point I'm much more focused on status than sheer number of points. I've been accumulating points faster than I can use them recently, and I've burned through a decent number of points. Paying my mortgage at a 1:1 rate on a card that gets me EQM through BB is good enough for me at this point. I wish I had time to fly SQ suites for a 3-day Tokyo jaunt and stay in the Maldives three times a year, but I don't. For the time I get off, slow and steady has been working great. It's already difficult enough to explain to colleagues taking the entire family to New York, Hawaii and Europe in premium cabins in one year.

lol

Anyone earning more than around 47k in California is feeling the pain.

Isnt the max only $100 for CC funding? thats what I recall... so unless you are going to open up dozens of accounts ... HMMM... lol

Yet, we're also living in California . . .

Interesting. I just happen to have $200K coming free from Fidelity's 100K promo. Won't need the cash for ~10 months, and I want it liquid, so I smell 200K miles coming...