On May 9th, in the post “Experiment in progress: Sony 30X,” I described how I used a combination of techniques to attempt to earn 30 points per dollar from a Sony.com purchase.  I had hoped to report success by now, but I can’t.  Not a single bonus point has shown up in my account in the Ultimate Rewards Mall.  However, the experiment is not completely dead…

Background

As a reminder, the experiment went like this:

• I started with a Visa gift card that was bought at Staples.com.  Currently, the Ultimate Rewards Mall offers 5X bonus points at Staples, and the Ink Bold offers 5X for office supply purchases.  So, by buying Visa gift cards at Stapes through the Ultimate Rewards Mall and paying with an Ink Bold, one can earn 10 points per dollar.  This part of the experiment is pretty safe: it has been proven before.  I didn’t even really test this part – I just used a Visa I had lying around from a previous experiment.
• I logged into the Ultimate Rewards Mall with my Ink Bold account and clicked through to Sony.  For Ink Bold owners, Sony is currently at 10X AND is listed under “gift cards”.  So I bought myself an e-gift card using my Visa gift card to pay.  If things worked, I would have earned 10X for this part of the experiment.
• Once I received the gift card, I went back through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to Sony, and bought an iPhone dock using the gift card to pay.  The total purchase amount was $1.49 more than the gift card value so I used my Ink Bold to pay the remainder.  Ideally I would have earned another 10X for this final part of the experiment.

Results

Every day I’ve checked “Ultimate Rewards Mall & Travel Earnings” to see if any points have posted.  So far, not a single point has posted.  Is it time to declare the experiment dead?  Yes, and no…

What went wrong?

Buying the gift card: I was worried when I bought the e-gift card because I was routed to a different URL for the purchase.  It’s very likely that the failure to get points from this purchase was due to the fact that the purchase was made at cashstar.com instead of sony.com. 

Using the gift card: The Terms and Conditions for Sony in the Ultimate Rewards Mall do not say anything about gift cards so it should be OK.  However, it’s possible that the written terms & conditions are not complete.  So, it may be the case that I didn’t get points because purchases made with gift cards are not eligible for points.  That doesn’t make sense, though, because I did pay $1.49 with the Ink Bold.  Worst case is that I should have received points for 10X of $1.49, but I didn’t even get that.

Terms & Conditions:  I think this is the real reason I didn’t get points for the purchase.  The Terms & Conditions state:

Not eligible on Sony outlet, refurbished, clearance items, and Sony Ericsson locked phones, or Employee Purchase Programs.

Remember that iPod dock I bought?  It was on clearance.  The T&C clearly state that my purchase was not eligible.  In other words, I messed up big time!

Only mostly dead

The Sony experiment was a failure, but it didn’t prove anything other than my ability to make mistakes.  It’s still possible and even likely that the experiment would work under the following circumstances:

1. Buy physical gift cards which are sold by sony.com.  Don’t buy e-gift cards which are sold by cashstar.com.
2. Using physical gift cards, buy items that meet the T&C.  Don’t buy Sony outlet items.  Don’t buy refurbished items.  Don’t buy clearance items.  Don’t buy Sony Ericsson locked phones (that’s a weird one).  And, don’t use employee purchase programs.

I will redo this experiment, but unfortunately it will be too late to make a big impact.  The 10X promotion is scheduled to end at the end of this month so it’s unlikely I’ll have results in time for anyone to capitalize on them.

If anyone else has been experimenting with a Sony double dip, please let me know how you faired fared!

Related posts

• Experiment in progress: Sony 30X
• Ultimate Rewards Mall Awesomeness!
• Frequent Miler Laboratory
• Ultimate Question
• Ultimate Rewards, Ultimate Confusion: Shopping
• What’s my X?

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What a frustrating day!  Among other mishaps yesterday, I tried to book an Amtrak trip using points, but failed miserably.  I’ll explain the details in a moment, but first you should know that, according to Amtrak, they didn’t cause me any frustration — I did that to myself.  Really Amtrak?  Really?

I’ve booked Amtrak rewards before, and usually it’s a painless process.  My routine begins with a search on Amtrak.com to see the price I would be charged if I paid for the ticket.  Then, I select the “Redeem points” tab and repeat the search to make sure award seats are available.  When I select one I like, I generally get a message saying I don’t have enough points.  Like this:

That’s fine and expected.  My next step is to log into my Chase Ultimate Rewards account and transfer the right number of points to my Amtrak account.  I usually get a very respectable 4 or 5 cents per point value from these redemptions.  I’ll admit that figuring out the needed number of points is difficult, but once you know the amount, transferring points from Chase is a breeze. 

I then go back to Amtrak and book the ticket without a problem.  Or, at least that’s what usually happens.  This time, I got a second message:

Uh oh.  I tried again.  Same message.  I reduced the number of passengers.  Same message.  I closed my browser and started all over.  Same message. 

What was going on?

I called Amtrak.  After a long wait I finally talked to someone who immediately transferred me to Guest Rewards.  After some more waiting, I told a rep my story.

“That date is a blackout date, sir,” I was told.  “No awards can be redeemed on blackout dates.”

“But I transferred points over when the website said I didn’t have enough points.  It didn’t say anything about a blackout date!” I whined.  “Can you make an exception and override the blackout?”

“Normally I could, sir, but in this case the blackout dates are clearly listed on the Amtrak Guest Rewards website in the Terms & Conditions.”

Ugh.  I asked to talk to a supervisor.  While I waited, I sought out the Terms and Conditions.  They were not on the website I was using (Amtrak.com), but on another website (amtrakguestrewards.com).  Do you see the Terms & Conditions link at the bottom?  I added a yellow arrow to help you find it.  How could I have missed that?

Meanwhile, the supervisor finally came on the line.  No, there’s nothing they can do, he said.  Could he make an exception?  No sir.  The blackout dates are clearly displayed, he said.  Could they return the points to my Chase account, I asked?  I knew they couldn’t, but I wanted to make him work for this one.  He said he would ask around and call me back.

Many hours later, he called back:

“Sorry sir, but there’s no way to return the points.  You will just need to find a different day to travel.”

“Can you give me something to compensate for the frustration?” I asked?

“Do you mean, can I give you points for the frustration?”

“Yes,” I said.

“I could, but we didn’t have any frustration.”

“I know YOU didn’t have any frustration,” I said, “BUT I DID!”

“We didn’t cause your frustration.  You caused it yourself by trying to book a blackout date.”

“AGH!!!!!”

Once I calmed down, I took a look at those Terms & Conditions.  Nothing about blackout dates on the first screen:

I paged down.  Nothing about blackout dates on the second screen:

Nothing about blackout dates on the third screen:

Oh, there it is!  Section E, item 4!  How in the world did I miss that!?  Any idiot would have seen and memorized these blackout dates…

I need to stop causing myself so much frustration…

On May 1st, I described some great new bonus opportunities in the post “Ultimate Rewards Awesomeness.”  Among other opportunities listed in that post, I wrote:

Sephora at 20X!  Holy cow, that’s a big number.  Someone with a Freedom card, please do a double dip experiment right away!!!

One reader reported that the experiment didn’t work, but another named Matthew reported complete success.  He wrote:

Update: I got an email late last night saying the my UR points for the Sephora purchases has posted. Sure enough, I got 200 pts for a $10 eGift card purchase and then another 200 pts for redemption of that gift card

Great news, right?  This means that Matthew earned 40 points per dollar at Sephora!  Unfortunately (and unbeknownst to me), the 40X deal only lasted until May 8th.  Matthew went on to write the following:

Unfortunately, the email came so late that I was unable to capitalize on the deal bonus before it was reduced to 5x points this morning. It would have been simply amazing to get 10,000 pts for a $250 eGift card purchase and redemption. Well played, Chase. Well played.

Oh well.  Easy come, easy go.

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As I reported recently, the Ultimate Rewards Mall is currently offering Ink Bold customers 10 points per dollar at Sony.com until the end of May.  That’s pretty good by itself, but I always like to see how far we can go.  Can we get 20X by buying gift cards for 10X, and then using them for another 10X? 

Examining the Ultimate Rewards Mall leads me to believe that the gift card double dip just might work.  First, notice that Sony is explicitly listed under gift card offers:

Second, notice that there are no explicit restrictions against gift card use:

The Experiment

Of course, I’m not content to settle for only 20X.  So, I started this experiment with a Visa gift card purchased at Staples.com.  Currently, for Ink Bold owners, the Ultimate Rewards Mall gives 5X for Staples.com purchases, and the Ink Bold itself gives another 5X for the office supply category.  So, you get 10 points per dollar when buying Visa gift cards this way at Staples!  There are fees, so the actual bonus is more like 6X overall (see “What’s my X?”), but round numbers like 10X are more fun to write about .

Using the Visa gift card, I logged into the Ultimate Rewards Mall and clicked through to Sony.com.  There I purchased a $25 e-gift card and sent it to myself via a secondary email address.

Once I received the e-gift card (about 20 minutes after purchase), I went back the the Ultimate Rewards Mall, clicked through to Sony again, and bought a $20 iPod dock.  My goal was to keep the entire purchase under $25 so that I could pay entirely with the gift card, but shipping and taxes pushed the total slightly over.  I paid $25 with the gift card and a little over a dollar with my Ink Bold.  In retrospect, I see that I was an idiot because if I had added $5 to my order the $5 shipping would have been free.  Oh well.  They probably don’t sell anything for $5 anyway…

Wait and see

When buying the e-gift card I was routed to a different URL so I’m a little worried about that one.  I’m not sure at all I’ll get points.  I thought about switching to a physical card, but the 10X deal only lasts through May so time is of the essence!

I’m also disappointed that I didn’t pay entirely with a gift card.  If I get points for the iPod dock purchase, I won’t know for certain that points will always be awarded.  Sometimes when paying with a gift card through a shopping portal, you get points only if at least a part of your order is paid by credit card.

It usually takes 4 or 5 days for the Ultimate Rewards Mall to show credit for purchases (via the “Ultimate Rewards Mall & Travel Earnings” menu selection).  I should be able to report back with results next week.

How good would it be?

If all parts of this experiment succeed, let’s look at the bounty:

• Purchase $100 Visa cards through Staples:
• Points earned 10X.  Subtract cost of cards and real benefit = 6X.
• Purchase Sony gift card through Ultimate Rewards Mall:
• Points earned 10X
• Purchase Sony merchandise through Ultimate Rewards Mall:
• Points earned 10X
• Total estimated “rebate”:
• Points earned: 26X
• Value of extra points using Fair Trading Prices = 26X * 1.31 = 34% rebate!

Enough with the Ink Bold already!

People have asked me to find deals and bonuses for other cards.  Not everyone has a Chase Ink card and not everyone can get one.  But the Ink seems to have endless opportunities!  I can’t help myself! 

I will do my best to dig up deals for other cards.  One great one this week requires American Express business cards: see “Up to 14.5% off Amazon and Barnes & Noble.”

Related posts

• Ultimate Rewards Mall Awesomeness!
• Ultimate Question
• Ultimate Rewards, Ultimate Confusion: Shopping
• What’s my X?

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If you’re new to Frequent Miler, please start here

NOTE: Please do not miss reading my previous post, “One card to rule them all.”

Wow, thanks to HikerT for updating his website (lakebagger.com/ur/) that shows the Ultimate Rewards Mall payouts for different Chase cards, I’ve got some exciting news…

Ink Bold

If you log in with your Ink Bold account, you’ll find the following:

• Staples.com now at 5X!  Oh yeah, I’ll be writing a lot more about that soon!  Sorry Sapphire and Freedom, you’re still at 2X.
• Sony at 10X!  Time to run some Frequent Miler Laboratory experiments!
• Overstock.com at 10X
• Lenovo: 5X
• LuggagePoint.com: 5X (I’ve never heard of it either)

Freedom

If you log in with your Freedom card, you’ll find the following:

• Sephora at 20X!  Holy cow, that’s a big number.  Someone with a Freedom card, please do a double dip experiment right away!!!
• QVC at 10X!

Sapphire Preferred

If you log in with your Sapphire or Sapphire Preferred, you’ll find the following:

• J. Crew at 10X!  I seem to remember a tip from a family oriented blogger saying that double dipping works here!
• Ann Taylor at 5X

Happy online shopping everyone!  Enjoy the new bonus points while they last!

No more gift cards!  A single American Express card can earn 5X Ultimate Rewards points, everywhere.  Impossible?  Read on…

I’ve written several posts about how to earn nearly 5 points per dollar on all purchases.  For examples, see “5X Everywhere!” and “Almost too good to be true”.  Both tricks require a Chase Ink business card which earns 5 points per dollar at office supply stores (see “How to sign-up for the Ink Bold”).

In the posts mentioned above, the trick to earning 5X everywhere is to use a Chase Ink card at an Office Supply store to buy Visa gift cards and/or prepaid cards.  Since you get 5X from those purchases, you can think of the gift cards (and prepaid cards) as giving you 5 points per dollar when you spend them. (Note: Ink Cards obtained prior to mid-November 2011 do not have the 5X office supply benefit).

The one thing that has stopped me from using the 5X trick for all of my spend is that using gift cards is a hassle.  You need to keep track of how much is left on each card, you can’t easily make large purchases, and some online vendors make it very difficult if not impossible to use them.  Further, unlike credit cards, gift cards do not offer purchase protection.  As I wrote about last week, an app called GoWallet can help a lot, but it doesn’t come close to solving all of these problems. 

Luckily I stumbled upon a new opportunity that changes everything…

The American Express Prepaid Card at Office Depot

The American Express Prepaid Card is not a gift card, nor a debit card, nor a credit card.  It is simply a “prepaid card”.  There are several things that make it unique: 1) No fees (except ATM use. More on that later); 2) Reloadable up to $2500 balance; 3) Purchase protection, roadside assistance, and other perks; 4) No credit check required; 5) ATM withdrawals are allowed; and 6) Partners with Office Depot (see the press release here).

The photo above shows an Office Depot display for this card.  The card on the bottom left is a temporary version of the Amex Prepaid Card.  If you buy one (for $4.95) you can fill it with up to $500 at the time of purchase and then you can later trade-up to the permanent refillable version of the card.  To trade-up, you browse to the website indicated on the temporary card’s packaging and request a permanent card.  The new card will arrive in the mail with your name and address registered to it.  Once you activate the permanent card, any money left over from the temporary card automagically moves over.

To the right of the Amex card, in the photo above, is the Vanilla Reload Network Prepaid Reload Card.  These are used to refill the permanent version of the Amex Prepaid Card.  Each card has a $3.95 fee and can be loaded with up to $500 at the Office Depot register.  To move this money to your Amex card, you simply browse to the Vanilla website and enter in the PIN number from the refill card and the card number from your Amex.  You can load up to $1000 in a 24 hour period.  Also note a limit of $2500 can be loaded every 28 days.  The following is from American Express’ cardmember agreement:

No more than $2,500.00 U.S. may be loaded to the Card in any 28-day period, and no more than $1,000.00 U.S. may be loaded to the Card on any day using a Green Dot® MoneyPak®, Vanilla Reload Network™ Prepaid Reload or other cash funding source or method accepted by us from time to time. The maximum balance of Available Funds loaded on your Card at any time is $2,500.00 U.S.

What this means

• You can use your Ink credit card to buy $500 reload cards.  The purchase shows up on your account as a standard Office Depot purchase so it will give you a total of 5 points per dollar for the purchase.  The fee of $3.95 is less than 1 percent (.79%), so you’re way ahead already. 

  NOTE: There is a risk that Office Depot will someday stop allowing these purchases to be made via credit card.  An industry insider I spoke with, though, believes that the ability to pay via credit card is not a fluke and should continue indefinitely.  Time will tell.

• Since the permanent American Express Prepaid Card can be loaded up to $2500, it has these advantages:
• There is no need to keep multiple gift cards in your wallet.
• You can use it to make large purchases
• You will get purchase protection.  It might not be as good of protection as you would have received with a different card, but still…
• It can be used any place that accepts American Express cards. To merchants, this card is indistinguishable from a standard American Express card.  There is one exception: American Express says not to use the card for car rentals.
• When using this prepaid card, you essentially earn 5X everywhere.  This requires no card juggling, and very little hassle.  This means that getting 2.14X from the Sapphire Preferred for dining and travel is no longer the best option for these categories!  It’s not even close!

ATM Use

• Up to $400 Per Day:
  With the American Express Prepaid Card you can withdraw up to $400 per day via ATM machines.  You are subject to fees imposed by the ATM owner.  On American Express’ side, the first ATM withdrawal each month is free.  Subsequent withdrawals cost $2.  This is a great deal even with the fees.  For example, suppose you pay $3 to the ATM owner and $2 to Amex to withdraw $250.  That comes to a 2% fee.  But, remember that you earned almost 5% in the form of points (or more depending on how much you value those points) so you are still well ahead.  You’ll obviously do even better if you find a low fee or no fee ATM. 
• ATM WARNING: DO NOT ABUSE THE ATM PRIVILEDGE!
  American Express is always on the lookout for suspicious behavior.  If a person adds money to the Prepaid Card and then withdraws it all as cash, that would look ridiculously suspicious.  Worse, American Express does not make money from these ATM withdrawals ($2 is unlikely to be enough to cover their costs), so with a pattern like that they’re not going to like you very much!  If you try to convert your Ink purchases to cash through frequent ATM withdrawals, I believe you will get caught and you will have your accounts closed.  Trust me, you don’t want that to happen.  Use the card for regular credit card purchases and use the ATM feature only for real world ATM withdrawals.  Withdraw money only when you really need it.  Or, establish a pattern of once per week moderate withdrawals (say $200 or $250) and you should be fine.

How to get the card

There are two ways to get the reloadable Prepaid Card:

OPTION 1: Buy the temporary card in-store at Office Depot (as shown above) for $4.95 and then trade up to the permanent card. Note these restrictions (from American Express’ FAQ):

The temporary American Express Prepaid Card is not available for sale in Arkansas, New Jersey or Vermont. Cards purchased by residents in other states cannot be shipped to these two states. In addition, American Express does not sell or ship the Card outside the United States.

OPTION 2: Order directly from American Express for FREE.

• Click here: American Express® Prepaid Card or simply Google for American Express Prepaid Card to find a non-affiliate link.
• Note the following restrictions:

The permanent American Express Prepaid Card is not available for sale in Arkansas and Vermont.

LIMITATIONS AND WARNINGS

PLEASE READ THIS!!!!

• Chase has been known to completely shut down all of a person’s accounts when they think they may be a bad credit risk or when they suspect “perk abuse”.  If you put all of your spend in this one category (and this one store), you will be asking for trouble!  Please see my write-up here: “Why Chase cancels accounts (and how to protect yourself).”
• The Ink Bold is limited to $50K in purchases per year for the 5X benefit.  The Ink Cash and Ink Classic are each limited to $25K.  As a result, there is no reason for anyone to purchase more than $4K per month of the refill cards with the Ink Bold, or $2K per month with the other Ink cards.  Even that amount may be too high if you have a high credit card utilization ratio or if you do not have a long and positive credit history.  I consider $4K per month to be the upper limit anyone should attempt, but that does not mean $4K per month is safe.  You need to evaluate your own situation and establish spending patterns that you are sure will not trigger alarms with Chase.

  UPDATE: There is a built-in limit to the Amex prepaid card: a maximum of $2500 can be loaded per month.

• Watch out for American Express too!  As I detailed above, suspicious ATM activity is a sure way to get flagged and shut down.  American Express has extremely sophisticated fraud detection systems.  Don’t do anything to draw attention to you!
• Don’t be greedy, please.  Even if you only put $1000 per month onto this Amex card, you will earn 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points!  That’s a lot!  If you use this trick in moderation then you should be safe to earn huge numbers of points, year after year, without fear of bank retaliation.  If you go too far, you will get shut down.  If many people take this too far, the whole deal may get shut down. 
• Be responsible.  Don’t do drugs.

More to come

In the next few days, I’ll follow-up with more details and thoughts about this opportunity.  There are bound to be many questions, so I’ll do my best to answer them, but please take the time to read this post carefully and read the publicly available information from American Express.

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If you have a Chase Ink card that gives 5 points per dollar for office supplies, FAR (Free After Rebate) deals at Office Depot should be pretty exciting.  Currently, if you log into the Ultimate Rewards Mall with your Ink account and click through to Office Depot, you will earn 10 points per dollar for all purchases in addition to the 5 points per dollar you will earn automatically.  So, FAR deals are great because you can earn 15 points per dollar and get your money back!

The current deals

Currently, Office Depot lists the following FAR deals:

• QuickBooks® Online Simple Start, Online Service [518962]
  $79.99 – $80 mail in rebate ($80 check)
• AVG 2012 Anti-Virus + PC TuneUp, For 3 Users, Traditional Disc [708763]
  $39.99 – $40 in rebates (2  $20 Visa prepaid cards)
• Trend Micro™ Titanium™ Maximum Security, Traditional Disc [710446]
  $59.99 – $60 in rebates (a $20 rebate and a $40 rebate. checks?)
• System Mechanic® 8, Traditional Disc [388915]
  $49.99 – $50 in rebates (a $30 rebate and a $20 rebate. checks?)

If you do all of these rebates, you would spend about $230 which you would get back as rebate checks and Visa cards.  And, if you used your Ink card through the Ultimate Rewards Mall you would earn 15 X 230 = 3450 Ultimate Rewards points.

Why I’m not buying

Except for the QuickBooks offer, each of the others seems to have an Achilles heel:

• The AVG software returns Visa gift cards.  I can deal with $200 or $500 cards, but $20 and $40?  Not worth my time for 60 * 15 = 900 points
• One of the two Trend Micro rebates is an “upgrade rebate” that requires proof of a previous purchase.
• One of the two System Mechanic rebates is also an “upgrade rebate” that requires proof of a previous purchase.

So, I looked into buying just the 1 QuickBooks item.  Since it is a different rebate number, it looks safe to buy even if you bought the same item through Staples.  When I went to buy it, though, I found that Office Depot didn’t let me do the trick of delivering downloadable software to a store in California (which doesn’t charge tax for downloadable software).  So, to buy this item I would have to pay sales tax or list a fake delivery address in a tax free state.  And, unlike Staples, I would have to register the software and then fill out and send in a paper mail-in rebate.  Is it worth the trouble for 80 * 15 = 1200 points?  Maybe, but I’d rather spend my time researching other schemes…

Where to get more information

I haven’t done any Office Depot FAR deals, so I’m the last person in the world you should ask for more information.  Instead, if you have questions or you’re interested in learning more, I’d recommend you read this post at SlickDeals.Net.

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I bought $1000 worth of Marriott gift cards via Daily Getaways yesterday.  As you probably know, each day at 1 PM they are offering a different travel deal through May 11.  Some deals are really special, some not so much.  With all of the deals, you can make them better by paying with an American Express card to save an additional 10%.

The Marriott deal, when combined with an American Express card was pretty good.  I was able to buy two $500 gift cards for $400.50 each.  So, I can now stay at any Marriott for approximately 20% off the best available rate.  Or, I can sell the cards and make a small profit.

5X Ultimate Rewards

My intention today was to earn 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar while purchasing the Marriott gift cards at 20% off.  How could I do that, you ask?  Isn’t that impossible since I had to pay with an Amex card? 

Here’s the story:

A few days ago I visited my local Office Depot with my shiny new Ink Bold card that gives 5 points per dollar at office supply stores.  My intent was to buy a few $500 Visa gift cards as I had written about before.  Well, I did buy a Visa card, but I also bought a $500 pre-paid American Express card.  Aha, I thought, that is the key to maximizing Daily Getaway points and savings! 

Not so fast…

I knew from experience that to use a gift card online, it has to be registered first with my home billing address.  I tried to do so online, but that didn’t work.  Finally I called 866-207-7970 and registered.  I was ready to go!

My intent was to buy a $500 card for $400 and a $100 card for $80 all on the $500 Amex.  However, these deals have been selling out in minutes, so I needed to be prepared.  At 1 PM, I had two computers lined up and I frantically hit my browser’s refresh button until the “purchase” button appeared on each screen.  On one computer I clicked to buy the $400 card and on the other I clicked to buy the $100 card.  On both computers I was taken to the payment screen. Success! 

Not really….

I started with the $400 card.  I filled out the credit card information accurately until I came to the expiration date.  Instead of a text input field, the screen had a pick list of years that ran to 2020.  My gift card’s expiration date was 2021.  Noooooo!!!!!! 

Just in case, I selected 2020 and filled out the form.  That took me promptly to an error screen.  I had to start all over.  By then, the order on the second computer had timed out.

I decided to buy gift cards with a regular Amex.  I clicked to buy and was shown this:

So, I tried again, and again, and again.  After many attempts, I was finally able to buy a $500 card.  Then, I did the whole thing again for another $500 card.  Finally, the site reported that the cards were sold out so I stopped.

Another chance for 5X?

Next week, Wyndham and Hilton points will be on sale.  I’d like to buy both if I can.  I submitted an issue report to Daily Getaway’s customer service and asked them to include more dates (such as 2021) in the pick list.  I received this very personal response:

Dear Customer,
Thank you for your inquiry.
Thank you for advising us of this, I have passed you comment along to the appropriate area so it can be corrected.
Daily Getaways Customer Service

Will they really change this?  If so, will it be in time for next week’s point purchases?  Let’s hope so!

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I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while, but it kept slipping my mind.  Remember when Barnes & Noble was 10 points per dollar in the Ultimate Rewards Mall?  During that time, I did a little experiment.  As a B&N member, I had received a coupon for $50 off a Nook Color.  We are a Kindle household, so rather than buy a Nook I thought I could turn this opportunity into points.  Here’s what I did:

• I listed the Nook on EBay before buying it.
• Once the Nook sold, I went through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to buy a B&N e-gift card for myself for just a little bit less than the Nook was going to cost me.  The reason for buying the gift card was that the Barnes & Noble terms & conditions made it unclear whether I’d receive points when using a coupon.  However, I knew from experience that I’d receive points for buying the gift card.
• To buy the gift card, I used an American Express business card in order to get 5% cash back from the OPEN Savings program.
• I went through the Ultimate Rewards Mall again to buy the Nook.  I knew they wouldn’t give me points for the part of the purchase using the gift card, but I hoped to get points for the extra amount above the gift card value.
• I picked out the Nook and applied the $50 coupon.
• I addressed the shipment to my EBay buyer.  Thanks to my B&N membership, shipping was free.
• When it came time to pay, I used up my gift card and had a remaining charge of a few dollars.  By total coincidence, B&N and MasterCard were running a promotion that day in which you would get a $25 gift card for buying a Nook with a MasterCard.  Well, why not?  So, I used my Ink Old MasterCard to pay the remaining few dollars.

Results:

• My EBay customer was happy.
• I received the full 10X points for buying the gift card (as expected).
• I received 5% back from Amex OPEN Savings (as expected).
• I saved $50 thanks to the Nook coupon (as expected).
• I received 10X points for the little bit of the Nook that was paid for with the Mastercard.
• I received the $25 gift card!  I didn’t expect that!

After factoring in EBay seller costs, I made a little bit of money on the deal and received the full 10X points.  Not bad!  Sure, it’s not quite as good as Amazon paying me for collecting BA miles, but I’ll take it!

Now to drop ship stuff from Office Depot for 15X…

NOTE: PLEASE SEE WARNINGs ABOUT DANGERS OF DROP SHIPPING IN THE COMMENTS SECTION OF THIS POST

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If you’re a regular Frequent Miler reader you probably already know that I love the Ink Bold business card.  Like the Sapphire Preferred, the Ink Bold rewards you with Ultimate Rewards points which can be incredibly valuable when transferred (instantly and for free) to airline miles or hotel points.  Where the Ink Bold beats the Sapphire Preferred is in the ability to earn points quickly.  The Ink Bold offers 5 points per dollar when used for office supplies, phone, and cable bills (for up to $50K in purchases per year).  For a few examples of how to maximize this benefit, take a look at “How to increase the Ink Bold bonus by 27K.” 

Lately a lot of people have been asking me if they can apply for the Ink Bold without owning a business.  Others have asked if they can get approved since they recently signed up for a different Chase credit card.  The purpose of this post is to answer those questions, and to show step by step how to apply and get approved for the Ink Bold.

Who can apply

The Ink Bold is a business charge card so you do need to have a business in order to apply.  The good news is that you can have a business simply by saying so!  Do you sell things via EBay, Craigslist, or yard sales?  If so, you have a business!  Even if you simply intend to sell things in the future, you can declare that you have a business.  Other examples of legitimate businesses include blogging, owning rental property, consulting, etc. 

Chase is known for not liking to approve multiple cards at once.  However, they will approve both a personal and a business card at the same time.  If you applied for the Sapphire Preferred recently, for example, you should be OK to apply for the Ink Bold.  The exception to this is if you’ve applied for several other cards recently.  If so, I’d recommend that you wait 3 months before going for the Ink.

OK, now let’s look at how to apply:

Step 1: Find the best bonus offer and click through

Click here to apply through my affiliate link, or look at my Best credit card offers page to find the best current link.

Step 2: Prefill info

If you already have an online account with Chase, you can have Chase retrieve a lot of info for you.  Do this first before anything else since it will cause other entries to be cleared out:

Step 3: Check the boxes

Step 4: Tell Chase about your business

Assuming you don’t have an already established business, here are some examples of how to fill this out. 

• Legal Name of Business:  Use your own name or make up a name
• Business Address:  Use your home address
• Type of business: Sole Proprietor
• Annual Business Revenue: 0
• Tax ID: Use your social security number
• Number of Employees: 1 (you)
• Nature of Business: Other

Step 5: Tell Chase about yourself

• Authorizing Officer: Owner
• Gross Annual Income: An estimate is fine.  Since they don’t specifically ask for individual or family income, I always report family income

The rest you should be able to figure out yourself:

Step 6: Optionally get additional cards

I always leave this part blank.

Step 7: Agree to the scary terms

This is the part that feels wrong.  Here you agree that you will use the card for business purposes only.  Yes, I’ve signed up for multiple business cards from Chase and I’ve checked this box each time.  And, yes, I’ve used the cards for purchases such as groceries, gifts, and travel that would be hard to justify as business expenses (research for my blog, perhaps?).  I don’t think there is any real risk of Chase coming after you for this, but you do need to decide whether you can live with this:

Step 8: Call the reconsideration line

Has anyone ever been approved instantly for a Chase business card?  I haven’t.  So rather than wait to be contacted or denied, I always call them proactively the day after I apply.  The number for the business cards is 800-453-9719.  They generally answer quickly (Monday through Friday during business hours).  Here are some tips for the call:

• Be honest.  if your business doesn’t make any money tell them so
• Be sure to mention that this is just a side business and that you also have a real full time job (or a real pension, or a retirement nest egg, etc.). 
• Be prepared to negotiate.  You may have to move available credit from a different Chase card (personal or business) in order to get a credit line for this one.  For example, I let them move $15K of credit from my Ink Old to the new Ink Bold.  It helps to know in advance which cards you are willing to do this with.

Step 9: If not approved, call again

If the first call doesn’t go well, try again.  In my case, it had been 5 months since I had applied for the “Ink Old” and the first person I talked to said that I had to wait at least 6 months between applications.  So, I called a few days later.  The second person I talked to never even mentioned the 6 month requirement.  After several questions he approved the card.

Good luck!

Once you get the card, read my blog daily for tips on how to meet minimum spend and how to maximize benefits.

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Just two days ago I was approved for the Ink Bold credit card.  I already have an old Ink Bold (which I refer to as an Ink Old), but I’ll get another signup bonus from the new one because the new one is a different product.  The new Ink Bold offers 5 points per dollar for office supplies, phone services, and cable bills and 2 points per dollar for gas and hotels.  The Ink Old, on the other hand, offered only 1 point per dollar base (with some options to increase the payout a little bit).

The current offer for the Ink Bold, if you signup via a referral link (see Preparing for Miles), is 50K points after $5K of spend in 3 months.  Unfortunately, it looks like this deal will go away soon (my guess is end of month) to be replaced with a $10K spend requirement.  See Gary’s View from the Wing post for more information.

The +27K bonus plan

I love that the Ink Bold offers 50K Ultimate Rewards points as a signup bonus.  To me, Ultimate Rewards points are among the most valuable points available, so 50K is awesome.  However, I’m greedy and will happily do what it takes to earn even more!  The trick is to spend the required $5K in ways that will earn as many points as possible.  Here’s my plan:

Office Depot via Ultimate Rewards Mall: $100 = 1,500 points

Currently, Office Depot is offering 10 points per dollar for purchases made via the Ultimate Rewards Mall if you sign in with your Ink card.  By going through the mall and making purchases that I need anyway, I’ll earn 10X from the mall and 5X from the Ink Bold’s office supply category bonus.

Staples Free After Rebate Downloads: $3000 = 21,000 points

Almost every week, a new deal is available in which you can buy “free after rebate” software from Staples.  By going through the Ultimate Rewards Mall you can earn 2X bonus points, plus you’ll get 5X from the Ink’s office supply category bonus.  Staples has been averaging about $1000 per month in available FAR deals so I hope to do $3000 worth in 3 months. 

Note that some people see Staples at 3X in the Ultimate Rewards Mall so they will earn even more points!

Office Depot $500 Visa cards: $2000 = 10,000 points

As I posted a couple of days ago, it is possible, in person, to buy $500 Visa gift cards at Office Depot with only a $4.95 service fee.  Purchases made at Office Depot count as office supply purchases, so these Visa cards will net 5X points!  I’ll buy at least two of these and use them for non category purchases such as groceries and department stores.

Add it up

The plan shown above will return over 32,000 points with only about $5,000 spend.  If all $5000 went instead to 1X purchases, you would gain only 5,000 points above the sign-up bonus, so this plan gives you an extra 27,000 points!  In reality, of course, you would probably have a mix of 1X, 2X, and 5X purchases without this plan, so 27K extra is a bit of an exaggeration, but it sounds better than saying “between 0 and 27K extra”…

Note that the amounts shown are approximations of what will be spent.  The Staples deals, in particular, will depend on what is available at the time.

Caution

As I wrote about a few days ago, Chase may cancel your accounts if they suspect you of abusing your card’s benefits.  That being said, unless you have a very low credit limit, I do not think that spending $5K in 3 months on office supplies will raise any eyebrows.  If you spend $10K per month all on office supplies, however, you may be at risk.  No one but Chase (I suppose) knows the magic amount that is safe, so use your own judgment here.

If you do not have a Chase Ink card, you can read more about those and other cards on the Preparing for Miles page which can be found as a menu item at the top of every page on the Frequent Miler blog.

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