Manufactured Spending for the Time Strapped & How I Can Meet the Minimum Spending on My Recent Application Round

1. My 2 cents…I use 2 red cards (wife and me), we have a young one as well. I drive past Ttarget regularly, so it is not inconvenient (live in SoCal, bought redcards on eBay). I’ve been loading both redcards for two months now, without her being with me (the cc is in my name). It takes 5 stops at Target per month (each visit, I do two swipes of $1k each, even though the limit is 3/day & $2500….I feel less conspicuous doing it that way..call me strange!). I recall one time where the cust service rep asked for ID since the “female” name on the redcard clearly wasn’t the name of the male who was swiping the cc! I explained I was loading for wife, rep took a quick glance at my DL to see that it matched name on cc, and no more issues. She said “I’d be thrilled if my husband put $1000 on a debit card in my name!” We both laughed.

   As I walked to the car, I was thinking ” yeah, but your happiness would fade once you realized he was using your debit card to pay the mortgage”

2. Really appreciate you taking the time to write this post. I’ve only been doing this since late summer of 2014 and it’s definitely easy to overestimate the time involved in getting these deals done. The time allocation for actually completing each MS opportunity is one thing, but I believe an overlooked aspect is the time spent doing research before pulling the trigger on any opportunity. I think we all do this, at least to some extent, for the pleasure of it (like a vacation fund and/or hobby income) but it’s still time and when you’re drained from life responsibilities, it’s still consuming time and energy.

   MS isn’t a one size fits all as far as available time, logistics (proximity to MS locations), budget, credit score etc. and I believe this is one reason MS’ing is appealing to many people. I’ve taken the route of looking for opportunities that fit within a limited amount of time and within our normal routine and then potentially increasing (or reducing) from there. What I’ve done is use Serve online credit card and debit card options to earn cash back (and/or meet minimum spend) at the $1,500 monthly limit per card (wife and I). During the weekly trips (shopping, errands, etc.) I’ll go to Safeway and buy $500 GC’s, hit Staples sales on VGC and go to the Walmart Supercenter. I buy 1-2 $500 gc at a time at Safeway (right now for 5% grocery category + Amex BCP), add it to Gowallet app on my phone to set the pin, then go to Walmart to unload (Kate is almost never up anymore). For me, that’s the extent of my MS’ing outside of our house.

   I have a binder with baseball card sleeves and use an excel document and currently use billguard (and am looking into other options, as Mint doesn’t do everything I want) in hopes I can stay organized. That’s one of the biggest issues with being time strapped imo. It’s very easy to lose track of things because you never have an hour or two to just jump into MS related things and never be bothered with tasks or babies crying so being able to stop and go has been huge for me. Having my smartphone (Note 2) has also been a life saver because I can get a lot done on it. I’d say to anyone looking to get into MS, make sure that you can stay organized and to start slow and small!

   I’m strongly considering switching one of our Serve cards to REDbird. There are however some downsides. I’ve done the Googling and searching of differences and pros vs cons for Serve vs REDbird over the last few months and there were four reasons I held back.

   1) It’s not available in California (although some test markets appear to be around but people don’t give out their honey holes).
   2) It requires standing in line and burning time waiting for the cashier to deposit for me (with potentially a cashier who gives me the deer in the headlights look because it’s foreign to them since it’s not sold in California).
   3) You lose Amex Offers. I had two sub Serve accounts so I’m losing three Amex Offer cards. For SBD alone that’s a $30×3 = $90 loss. The opportunity cost I set conservatively at $200/year.
   4) I’ve read reports (probably nothing more than opinions) that REDbird may lose it’s ability to deposit with credit cards, at which point I’d pull my hair out if I had to switch back to SoftServe, especially if I was in the midst of strategic cc loading to meet minimum spend.

   With that said, number one and three I’m at the point where I can obtain and also justify the transition. I can get a REDcard, although not for free. While I would lose out on Amex Offers, having a larger ability to churn more minimum spend (and cash back) would offset the $200/year loss of Amex Offers. MS’ing is always a calculated gamble, and number four is no different. This is why I’d only want one REDbird to hedge the risk of a change to their cc terms (and also is in line with my start off slow by not ditching my other Serve card).
   Also worth noting that this year we’re not going to have much time (or extra money for that matter) to vacation due to paying tuition for my wife’s master’s program, reduced work hours and our daughter. We’re trying to stay out of debt as much as possible (would never leave a balance on a credit card, I think I’d throw up before that happens) until we’re leveraged into a better situation mid-2016+. I also don’t like leaving a lot of points/miles in my accounts. For this reason, I’m looking for opportunities to exchange for cash or statement credits. I’m still trying to study which cards and programs have decent cash conversion before I jump into any. For example, I know I’m not going to do the Barclay arrival+ for cash. I’d do this offer for travel expenses.

   Anyways, thanks for this post and maybe you can shed some light on what you think about the concerns I listed for REDbird.

   • Thanks Anthony. I am fairly certain that credit card loads on REDbird will go away eventually, although it doesn’t seem like it will happen soon. The loss of Amex Offers is a concern for me as well, but I don’t use them that often on my Serve cards. (Of course Small Business Saturday was a different story.)

     For me the convenience of just walking into the store and loading outweighs the loss of unique Serve benefits. If/when REDbird no longer allows credit card loads, it isn’t too difficult to switch back to Serve. Thankfully Amex has made switching products pretty easy.

     • How long was the process for you to transition to REDbird? Can you deposit to your REDbird card using an AU card of your wife’s cc?

       Reason I ask is because asking my wife to come with me to deposit is like trying to sell snow to an Eskimo. In all fairness she’s also time strapped so I can’t blame her. If I’m going to transition to REDbird, I have to assume I’ll be the only one doing the trips to Target. If she’s not coming, the 1.5k online load limit with Serve is better utilized in her situation (because I’ve read you can’t load to REDbird at the register like you can with Serve).

       My plan is to keep Serve in her name and REDbird in mine. Assuming I can use an AU card, we’ll effectively increase from 3k to 6.5k cc load limit per month.

       • To clarify, I meant loading to a card in someone else’s name.

       • I haven’t yet switched over, but most people report being able to do so immediately after closing out their Serve card. I also know several people who have no problems loading funds on to someone else’s card.

3. […] and 10,000 bonus miles after the 1st year anniversary. (Thankfully this card doesn’t have a high spending threshold like some of the other cards I […]

4. You were approved for all 12 cards that you applied for? I tried to get Southwest personal and business and was rejected for the business card!

   • Between my wife and I, we were approved for 12 out of 13 cards. You can find the details in the post that I linked to.

5. @Shawn,

   Thanks.

   So, I guess I will have to pick one up on a MR as they do not have one within more than 500 miles of our State! Perhaps they have a plan to market farther, sooner?

   • I know the plan is to roll it out and more and more stores are getting them. Some markets have them even if it hasn’t been announced, so it is a good idea to check your local store.

     With that said, I am in the same boat and have to get them somewhere else since they aren’t being sold in Vegas.

6. So, I have heard that you may not have a Bluebird and a REDbird account, is that correct? And if so, what happens if a person with a Bluebird account attempts to open a REDbird account?

   We do the Bluebird, but get frustrated having to drive around because it seems that the MoneyPass kiosks are any Walmart are down 30% of the time, so we have to find another in our town that day when they are “Not in Service.”

   • You are correct, you can only have one card. To get the REDbird all you have to do is cancel your Bluebird first. People do this all of the time.

     If you try to open REDbird without first closing Bluebird, it won’t let you.

7. ” I actually disagree with the assertion that manufactured spending is tightening. Sure we have lost some easy opportunities, but a lot of avenues still exist and new ones are opening all of the time.”

   Whuwhuwhat???? That’s just a bald faced lie or a willfully ignorant statement.

   • The word tightening indicates less opportunity. That simply isn’t the case. Perhaps some of the low hanging fruit methods are going away (i.e. Vanilla Reloads and Amazon Payments), but there are still plenty of ways to manufacture spend.

     Oh and then there is REDbird. It is one of the easiest and most lucrative MS opportunities to have ever come along.

     Thanks for commenting Paul! I appreciate your opinion.

     Thanks Paul!

8. For me it’s about time and sanity, both having equal value. While I do have access to a WalMart I loathe going there as it does not have a kiosk so that means having to either deal with the Money Center or a cashier, both can have longish lines while one may require more time due to improper training. So having the online method for Serve which is free to load and free to use bill pay I’m thrilled with using this. We don’t have the REDbird here yet, but I’m switching as soon as we get them! When I got 2 AA Citi Exec cards last year 2 weeks apart I had a little panic attack on how I was going to meet the $20k in 3 months spending requirements. I relied on OneVanila gift cards from one drugstore and money orders from the other. Thankfully it was a walk at lunch to do one and a slight detour on my way home for the other. But I did it in 3 weeks! Now with a new AA Platinum card and $3k in 3 months I can use Serve to finish it, but it’s back to sniffing out ReLoadIts and loading my Serve card….because I like going to that store , just for the added spending.

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