For charitable donations, the websites I use allow me to set up recurring payments (e.g. monthly, weekly, etc.). You can set large amounts if you want. Charitable donations are also a great way to keep a credit card account active and preserve your average age of credit (use one of your sock drawer credit cards and set up a small amount for a monthly recurring donation).
Vincent Pascual Thank you for this. I’m kinda new to the credit card thing and was wondering what I’m going to do with my old starter cards when I start upgrading/applying for better cards. I think I’m going to use your way. It’s a great way to keep my accounts open, plus I get to do something good for others every month, and I can just write off the donations during tax season every year.
I pay car insurance for the full year rather than month to month. Paying for things I need to pay for later (advance payments). Or pay off remaining balance for a cellphone I financed on my phone bill.
So, Sebby if I use plastic for my overseas payment via Western Union, I would get my 1500 points every month until October and then due 2 large payments of $24,000 and all those will go on my CRS, is this correct ?
It wouldn't make sense to do that though. You're getting 1x back on points. Let's say you value that at 1.5% (travel portal) or 2% (transfer partners). You're paying 2-3% in fees for Plastiq. At best, you're paying 2% to make 2% (basically pointless). At worst, you're paying 3% to make 1% (statement credit). This assumes that they would be able to deposit/cash a US check. Use something like TransferWise instead.
Planned a family vacation with the family. Put everyone’s ticket on my CSR. Minimum spend met in just 2 weeks. Also got my 300 travel credit applied. Can’t beat that at all!
Buy a vacation. As luck would have it, we were invited to a destination wedding shortly after I was approved for a card. The couple had a planner they were working with that put together amazing packages so it was worth going for. Also, I don't have a bajillion points/miles/etc. like many of your viewers do to go toward traveling for free (yet!) Anyway, minimum spend met instantly. :) It was also nice it was a United card, and our flights were with United, so got a bonus for the flights and priority boarding. So that's something? Also something to consider, if you're a homeowner, renovations. The 2 or 3 percent card fee the contractor charges might be worth it depending on what kind of value your card offers.
Hi Sebby: Myself I m a local sports/local concerts fan so I generally buy tix early for events way in advance. I can sometimes flip them for a small profit on eBay or StubHub but at least it helps with putting $$ on the card. U just have to know what is a reasonable price.
I just got the Capital One Savor card 2 weeks ago. A little upset I miss the $500 bonus for $3000 spend but $300 is still good, when the year is over I will downgrade to the savor one for no annual fee. I pretty much saved all my large purchases that I need a couple months before like new gym shoes, tickets for future shows and car repairs. I also made it my main credit card, using it for all purchases except for my Amazon. 3rd I change all my bills to this credit card from my Citi double. I'm already half way there and its been two weeks. I should have no problem getting there in 2 months. I am getting the CSR next as I have many trips plan for next year. Christmas will do most of the work on that bad boy.
Paying all bills (cellphone, utilities, wifi) 2 to 4 months in advance if the interest rate is 0% Any large purchases especially on Black Friday, Christmas, vacation already planned and saved for
I buy tickets for my friends who might be rebuilding their credit or just don't use credit. I charge it to my card and they pay me in cash immediately. Also, I plan the trips I know I won't be using miles for well in advance and buy them then. (Living in Montreal and Air Canada's carrier surcharges means flights within Canada and the US aren't worth redeeming on.)
As for the question as to whether Citi (DoubleCash and others) will treat plastiq as cash advance or purchase.... I called them and they were able to set my cash advance limit to $0.00. So, there is 0 chance of something being charged successfully as a cash advance on my card. One caveat... If you request a downgrade or removal of cash advance, you can NEVER have it put back again.
I typically just pay my bills forward months in advance.. so a 200 dollar a month electric bill for 12 months is 2400 dollars. A water bill at 100 a month is 1200. 80 dollar cell phone is 960 a year etc. pay as many bills you need for the entire year. Then boom you get your min spend and can collect those points.
I'm pretty young and don't have many expenses yet ( partially thanks to my parents & scholarships) so I'm considering creating a PayPal button and sending PayPal to myself if it gets down to the last day and I need to spend more. I think the bonus outweighs the PayPal credit card fee.
My apartment complex charges a 5% fee for credit card rent payment, so that’s more of a last resort option. I’m planning to pay off my financed phone, car insurance, and maybe overpay my cell phone bill.
Asking parents or other relatives to make major purchases (i.e. $360 for the two of them for two intra-Hawaiian airfare tickets which I actually asked them to do 2 summers ago when the UA offer was still a meagre 30K mi / $1K)
Buy something on eBay such as iPhones at a lower price that you know you can sell locally using your credit card and resell them for cash to pay off the credit card right away.
As of last week Plastiq is no longer allowing people to use VISA to pay their mortgage, VISA's decision not Plastiqs and there's even talk you can't use VISA for rent anymore but I haven't been able to confirm that yet. So far no changes with MC, AMEX or Discover but if they follow suit Plastiq is done. Would be interested with your sources if you could find out why VISA did this to Plastiq.
The main reason is because Plastiq picked a travel merchant code (when they're clearly not travel). People were using Plastiq to "buy" Chase UR points at 1 CPP (again, extremely valuable if you can use them for 1.5 to 2 CP).
I signed up for Plastiq to pay rent to a traditional landlord not a company. They then said because they don't have a "relationship" with this person your credit card company will count this as a cash advance. That was useless.
Again, their biggest concern is mitigating against fraud (people cashing out to a friend and claiming card was stolen). From a business perspective, it's not really feasible to do due diligence on "traditional" landlords that have
Not started any of this yet. Only have the capital one platinum card but i see a negative of the gift card thing is you will need to use it instead of a credit card with rewards so miss out. I guess if close and to meet that minimum spend.
Just reading my paperwork on my Chase cards, probably should have done so in April when I got them. Anyway, they consider using a 3rd party payer (Plastiq) to be a cash advance. So far I've payed my mortgage twice using Plastiq and they haven't posted it as a cash advance but just pointing out they do consider it to be a cash advance and wouldn't be eligible for rewards and towards your spend. As always YMMV
I have my 100K. I just have to get my balance back to 0 now and live life as usual with my CSR and pay it off before the end of the month. Quick question, How do you accumulate Citibank Thank you points and can they be transferred to other things, like air, hotels, etc?
Hey Sebby, really good video. I just got my CSR card (YAY!) and was wondering (1) If I could get a MO every month with my CSR to pay my rent? Would that be considered by Chase a cash advance instead of using the credit? If that is the case, then (2) Can I pay my rent online using my credit card at a 2% fees? Would Chase consider that a cash advance as well? Also, (3) Can I pay my car's monthly installments using CSR to cover my minimum spend? Thanks!
Rent, car, and mortgage payments are fine. Assuming you live in a new building that accepts credit cards, it's probably the optimal strategy to hit minimum spend.
anyone have problems with getting purchases to qualify for minimum spend on Amex Platinum? I used plastiq to pay my rent, but didn't get any MR points for it. I got off the phone with customer service and they said it was a "person to person" transaction, which doesn't qualify for reward points or minimum spend. I wasn't too pushy about it, but wondering if I should call again and try to get it approved
The company I'm currently working with is willing to use my credit card to buy Walmart store gift cards for employees as a gift on Christmas estimate worth will be 15k. I got approved on SPG,Citi Prestige and AAdvantage Premium so I will take advantage of the spend. Do you think amex will clawback the bonus if it is used on gift cards? I heard they changed the policy already regarding churners. I'm not sure about Citi.
If it's used on store branded gift cards (i.e., Walmart, Chipotle, etc.) no. They get level 3 data (see what you're purchasing exactly and they're concerned with people buying Visa/Mastercard/Amex gift cards.
BIG QUESTION : I have two minimum spends ready to go! Chase sapphire preferred & Amex platinum each with 50K points and 4K & 5K min spends. Do you know of any barriers or declines in using Plastiq or roomipay to meet min spend? Im also bay area and will meet min spend twice over in 3 months- just am concerned it might be rejected. have you known of cases of meeting min spend for both these cards using the rent app?
I recently own the Chase Ink Preferred card. I tried using both plastiq (2.5% fee) and Venmo (3% fee) for paying rent. After spending $900 each, I noticed that I get 922.50 UR points from plastiq (spent $922.50) and 2781 UR points from Venmo (spent $927). Theoretically, I could treat the UR points as cashback. Despite spending extra 0.5% on credit card service fee, would you recommend me to continue using Venmo for minimum spending and for breaking even the credit card service fee?
I just got approved for a signature card at navy fed.... My minimum spend is 4000.... If I pay off my other credit cards will that count toward my minimum spend ?
I rather help people maximize the value of their ordinary - organic - spend :) Not really a fan given where things are moving (www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-08/amex-seeks-to-weed-out-credit-card-churners-chasing-rewards) and recent horror stories I've read (Amex clawback of ALL bonuses).
It really depends on your spending. I apply for cards based off my ability to hit minimum spend and based off improved bonuses as well as trips I want to take.
I have a card that I'm trying to hit minimum spend and I wanted to buy a bunch of gas/grocery store gift cards. The card doesn't have 0% interest, and I want to avoid paying interest on "prebought" groceries. Would it be a good idea to get the gift cards and transfer the credit card balance to a card with 0% interest while I pay it off? (I don't normally carry credit card debt)
Ah Sebby, lol, this is like pulling teeth, lol. There is a Maybank in the Philippines and here in New York City, Can I get an I guess, an Air-miles card and try to get my points that way? Also, would I be about to transfer those point to my CSR? I need a hack so bad for these points. Also, for future purposes abroad to get point like this what should I do, from the get go. Because, if everything for my deal works out I can do a similar deal 6 months after completing this one plus my credit score will be higher. I can easily earn 60 to 70,000 points in 1 year or more. So, what should I do or can I do from the get go in another country for business?
What I'm saying is that there's no method that leads to a positive expected value. Let's look at an example: - Let's say you did Plastiq at 2.5% for $10,000 a month and deposit it to Maybank before transferring it, that's $250 in fees - Let's assuming you can transfer it between Maybank countries for free (you can't, see source below) - From the CSR, you're getting 1x UR back, so that's 10,000 UR points, at a minimum it's worth $100. Ideally that's $150. Aggressively you're looking at $200 - Even if you assumed the best case (aggressive) example, you're LOSING $50 for each of these transactions; at a maximum you're losing $150 per transaction - You're paying someone $250 for them to give you points worth $100-$200 - I'm 99% sure there's no strategy where this makes sense, outside of hitting minimum spend Source: www.maybank2u.com.my/mbb_info/m2u/public/personalDetail04.do?chCatId=/mbb/Personal/ACC-Accounts&programId=ACC04-FundsTransfers&cntTypeId=0&cntKey=ACC04.01
Look at it another way. Imagine if you're going to Dave & Buster's and you're handing them $100 to get tokens to play games. You're planning to use this as a hack to get a $300 Nintendo Switch for cheap because you're really good at Game A. Even if you play amazing, you're getting only getting 95 cents on the dollar. So optimistically, you'll end up paying $315 for the Nintendo Switch. At worst, it might end up being $350 or $400. The only way you can come out ahead is if they're giving two Switches away for your first redemption (or some other "signup bonus" equivalent). You're better off buying the Switch without trying to "hack the system" since, in this specific situation, there is no hack.
I'm moving forward, Your way is the best way to hack points and miles. Anyways that was for business. For pleasure, your way is the easiest and efficient way to go to rack up points. You and Mandy are the 2 best people in my life and I and other are lucky to have you both. Thank you. :)
I wouldn’t pay for the group meal because what if someone doesn’t send enough or doesn’t understand how important it is to send their full portion? It would get awkward quickly.
I have an AMEX card I'm trying to meet the minimum spend on. First time I'm going for a signup bonus. Is there a way, other than contacting AMEX CS, to see how close I am to the bonus? Basically I'm concerned I may not actually get the bonus I signed up for.
Ben Woodruff Does AMEX have a website that tracks what you spend on that card? If so, there may be an option to export your expenses on to a spreadsheet so that you can track your minimum spending. Chase has these tools available for their customers.
Emmanuel Trinidad They do, but my concern isn't so much about how much I've spent as actually verifying that it is being counted and that I'll receive the bonus. I don't see anywhere on their site to track that.
Nothing I know of. Just look at your statement and add up the spend. To play it safe, I would NOT include the annual fee for the card and any "cash equivalent" transactions (Amex is known to clawback bonuses if you buy things like Visa Gift Cards).
Michael Roof, as I understand it you cannot pay your car loan with a credit card. However, Toyota has informed me I can pay my lease with my credit card.
Can i pay off the card as I am spending? For example, If i have 3 months to spend $4,000. Should I pay off the balance at the end of each month as I usually do? Or should I let the balance sit there until I hit the $4,000 minimum spend requirement?
Hi sebby.. Can i use plastiq to pay my mortgage and monthly car payments on my amex platinum to meet min spend? Or does amex consider that manufactured spending?
I bought a new car from Jeep in 2014 and they did not accept credit cards at the time. It was through PNC, wondering if maybe the banks make a difference....
Hey dude.....wondering what you do about cards that you're mainly only opening for the sign up bonus? does closing accounts have a negative affect on your score? apart from losing the age of the account you're closing. I'm new to the credit card game and trying to tie up the lose ends in my knowledge....and do you know if theres much difference between the credit score game in, I'm guessing you're from, the US and britain? Thanks man, I'm kinda addicted to watching youre stuff really enjoying them and learning loads :D
So nothing to "fear" about canceling cards, unless I've had them a while?, canceling a card doesn't otherwise leave a negative score unless I'm continuously opening and canceling yeah? sorry to bother, just as I said I'm new to this and trying to iron out the creases in my knowledge....awesome stuff man and a major thumbs up on the lightning fast reply :D
Aki Masumura I used AMEX Platinum on Plastiq for rent the last couple of months. Once I uploaded my rent lease and a picture of my driver’s license on their site, I didn’t have any issues.
I have a baby on the way I don't want any debt but I'm going to rent an apartment for 600 a month I have a tons of stuff to buy what credit card should I get? and I want to pay only 100 a month back
If you're not going to pay off the cards in full, I wouldn't recommend credit cards (you'll be paying more in interest than you'll get in rewards for most no annual fee cards).
Second question would be do you want cash back or travel points? If you want cash back get a card for that travel points focus on that a quick google search could show you which cards.
I'm typically looking for cards that have good signup bonuses and add value to me long-term (I'm still building the foundation of my credit and don't want to cancel cards for no reason). In the long-term, those cancel cards drop off your average age of accounts and will negatively affect you.
No. You just don't get the bonus. Almost all credit cards don't have a "minimum amount you need to spend to keep the card alive" - just have some form of transaction every 4-6 months.
Not a fan given the horror stories I've read - Amex has pulled ALL of someone's signup bonus before (they ended up with negative points) + Chase shutting down all of someone's credit cards due to "non-satisfactory relationship." Obviously, it depends on how you gauge the risk of a shutdown, but articles like this (www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-08/amex-seeks-to-weed-out-credit-card-churners-chasing-rewards) make me want to keep spend organic.
Ask Sebby I remember the days of camping out practically at CVS and getting those reloadable cards. Got 100K Advantage miles that way. Of course cvs killed that deal.
For dining? It feels pretty standard/normal in the Bay Area. That might be because a lot of places limit the number of cards, even for big parties (" 2 cards only for party of 8? Ok I'll pay and everyone Venmo me").
ah, sorry. i didnt mean shady. i meant more so.. where i live, you'd just take the whole bill and if anything the people will just pay the bill next time. its kind of scary/greedy? to ask for that money. not hating anyone who does this. its just something we dont bring up, because its kind of rude here. but thats just the culture here.
