I love credit cards so much!

[pillow]

I can live with just getting discounts in other forms. Sometimes the best deals come at a price you don't want to pay. Or don't need to pay.

I did sign up for Swagbucks a couple months back just to use in store at Best Buy. That was a good deal! Now I use it just as another rebate portal option. (Random note - they pay out on Home Depot purchases when paying with a Home Depot gift card.)

 

[pillow]

If I were to buy Home Depot gift cards with an Amex business card while doing a spend, would that be considered manufactured spending? I'm going to use Home Depot for a project but not right now. Lets say I bought about $2000 in Home Depot cards?

I think it depends on where you buy them and whether the merchant reports level 3 data. I know Staples does, which is a shame cause you could get 10% off with the Amex offer.

 

[speedyfishy]

Yeah, that was a real First World Problems post right there Our Hilton spends will fall during our DL trip and our OK trip AND my work conference though. So we’ll be able to meet them, I’d just rather earn URs.

I’m also planning to get that same Barclay AA card @speedyfishy got, but that’s just 50k AA ankles for making a purchase in the first 90 days, so no big deal.

It’s still not showing on any of my credit reports.

 

[chattadisser]

I don’t post often but I wanted to share my win this morning with you. We have been in AZ this week and we’re flying back from Phoenix this morning on SW. Due to a change in planes they were over booked by about 30 seats. We are now booked on a later NS flight to ATL this afternoon and are over $2700 richer in SW flights for the four of us. When do those SW Hawaii flights start???

And we are waiting in the priority pass lounge with our mimosas. Gotta love the points game...although when I finally get home about midnight tonight I might be questioning my sanity.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

If I were to buy Home Depot gift cards with an Amex business card while doing a spend, would that be considered manufactured spending? I'm going to use Home Depot for a project but not right now. Lets say I bought about $2000 in Home Depot cards?

Home Depot doesn't send the level 3 data, that we know of, so you'd probably be fine. I'd just break it up and mix in organic spend too. Don't go plop down a flat $2k at HD on only GC all at one time so as not to draw any attention.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

anywhere to get jimmy john's gift cards discounted? My dh and ds8 have been eating there multiple times a week lately.

 

[Albort]

If I were to buy Home Depot gift cards with an Amex business card while doing a spend, would that be considered manufactured spending? I'm going to use Home Depot for a project but not right now. Lets say I bought about $2000 in Home Depot cards?

its not considered MS, but i usually tell people not to do that during MSR as it may give amex a reason to deny you your bonus(assuming your buying from a store that gives L3 data to Amex). Like what @disneymagicgirl said, you should be fine if no L3 data is given.

 

[DisneyMandC]

It’s still not showing on any of my credit reports.

Thanks! I asked about it on reddit yesterday and several people indicated the previous DPs were wrong and it was people confused about business cards making a hard pull on your credit report versus actually showing up as an account. I’m going to apply sometime in the next couple weeks. No immediate need for the miles.

 

[havaneselover]

I did sign up for Swagbucks a couple months back just to use in store at Best Buy. That was a good deal! Now I use it just as another rebate portal option. (Random note - they pay out on Home Depot purchases when paying with a Home Depot gift card.)

Yep. You don’t really have to be a swagbucker to take advantage of the Best Buy offer and they do credit even if you pay with a gift card. Also there have been times when they offer cash back and no other portals do (like the Monticello shop which I shop at for gifts for my dad occasionally).

Swagbucks is definitely not for everyone but I’ve made over $4500 from it in three years mainly while I’m exercising and watching tv. It does require work to stay up to date on what’s crediting.

 

[Lain]

If I were to buy Home Depot gift cards with an Amex business card while doing a spend, would that be considered manufactured spending? I'm going to use Home Depot for a project but not right now. Lets say I bought about $2000 in Home Depot cards?

Home Depot doesn't send the level 3 data, that we know of, so you'd probably be fine. I'd just break it up and mix in organic spend too. Don't go plop down a flat $2k at HD on only GC all at one time so as not to draw any attention.

its not considered MS, but i usually tell people not to do that during MSR as it may give amex a reason to deny you your bonus(assuming your buying from a store that gives L3 data to Amex). Like what @disneymagicgirl said, you should be fine if no L3 data is given.

MPX sells Home Depot e-gift cards at face value in customizable denominations up to $500 (per card) with a 1 UA mile/$1 bonus (and +25% mileage bonus if you have a United credit card attached to your MPX account). MPX also sells Lowe's e-gift cards in customizable denominations up to $500 (per card) with a 2 UA mile/$1 bonus (+25% mileage bonus for United cardholders). I've purchased numerous gift cards on MPX with an Amex while meeting MSR and never had a problem with the transactions qualifying.

PPDG on eBay often sells Home Depot and Lowe's gift cards at a discount, and I've never had a problem with PPDG not counting towards an Amex MSR.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I don’t post often but I wanted to share my win this morning with you. We have been in AZ this week and we’re flying back from Phoenix this morning on SW. Due to a change in planes they were over booked by about 30 seats. We are now booked on a later NS flight to ATL this afternoon and are over $2700 richer in SW flights for the four of us. When do those SW Hawaii flights start???

And we are waiting in the priority pass lounge with our mimosas. Gotta love the points game...although when I finally get home about midnight tonight I might be questioning my sanity.

We just got home from AZ last night! No issues with overbooking on AA though. I’d have been willing to take a later flight if they’d offered, since we had today to recover.

 

[Judique]

anywhere to get jimmy john's gift cards discounted? My dh and ds8 have been eating there multiple times a week lately.

7% off a $50 card at cardcash.com.

 

[Judique]

MPX sells Home Depot e-gift cards at face value in customizable denominations up to $500 (per card) with a 1 UA mile/$1 bonus (and +25% mileage bonus if you have a United credit card attached to your MPX account). MPX also sells Lowe's e-gift cards in customizable denominations up to $500 (per card) with a 2 UA mile/$1 bonus (+25% mileage bonus for United cardholders). I've purchased numerous gift cards on MPX with an Amex while meeting MSR and never had a problem with the transactions qualifying.

PPDG on eBay often sells Home Depot and Lowe's gift cards at a discount, and I've never had a problem with PPDG not counting towards an Amex MSR.

Thanks to all who answered! My organic spend is so low that in order to do a $5k for a card, I'm going to have to do something like this or wait until project time.

Editing to add: I'll always have home projects of some sort and Lowes and HD are the go to's around here for the most part. Plus my son in law has a little side hustle doing weekend deck work, and can use up cards for me if necessary.

 

[jen7233]

Does anyone have suggestions for a credit card for someone that just started a job and has not good credit? She needs a credit limit of about $3500. Asking for my DD in her 20s. I don't want to be a coapplicant.

 

[AmyAnne]

Does anyone have suggestions for a credit card for someone that just started a job and has not good credit? She needs a credit limit of about $3500. Asking for my DD in her 20s. I don't want to be a coapplicant.

By "not good credit," do you mean bad credit or just a lack of credit history? If you mean just a lack of credit history, I think Capital One or Discover might be good choices (my teens/20s kids started with those).

 

[Haley R]

By "not good credit," do you mean bad credit or just a lack of credit history? If you mean just a lack of credit history, I think Capital One or Discover might be good choices (my teens/20s kids started with those).

Dh and I started with Discover, also. We were in college and it was an simpler way to get cashback because you just had to know what the monthly cashback bonus was for.

 

[Lain]

Plus my son in law has a little side hustle doing weekend deck work, and can use up cards for me if necessary.

Did you mention a side hustle? Sounds like DSIL needs a business card.

 

[jen7233]

By "not good credit," do you mean bad credit or just a lack of credit history?

Well, I've never seen her credit report but I'm going to say bad credit. I know she had some medical bills that weren't paid as she told me. She has some credit history, had financed a car before but that had quite a bit of late payments.

 

[ctinct]

By "not good credit," do you mean bad credit or just a lack of credit history? If you mean just a lack of credit history, I think Capital One or Discover might be good choices (my teens/20s kids started with those).

Does Capital One still do a hard pull on all three credit bureaus? If so, I’d try Discover first.

 

[AmyAnne]

Well, I've never seen her credit report but I'm going to say bad credit. I know she had some medical bills that weren't paid as she told me. She has some credit history, had financed a car before but that had quite a bit of late payments.

Ah, that could be trickier. If she has a local bank or credit union, I think they might be more willing to approve a credit card application than one of the big, national banks.