Free $40 and 500 Miles

by Gary Leff

This Slickdeals thread discusses how to make the most of Nationwide Bank Visa Buxx cards: $43 profit and 500 miles for a little bit of effort. (If you pull the cash off the card your profit will be $40.)

Their prepaid Visa cards have a $50 bonus promotion. The initial load of the card needs to be $25 or more, with a maximum of $500, and earns a $50 bonus.

The account setup fee is $5 and loading the card costs $2, so you’ll make $43. You can set the card up to be able to pull out cash, up to $200 per withdrawal at a cost of $1 as well.

  1. Go to the Visa Buxx page and enroll.
  2. Sign up as a parent.
  3. Select yes to the option to withdraw cash from an ATM.
  4. Once you’ve created an account, you want to “Add New Teen”
  5. You can just use your own social security number (that you used when creating the card) to add a teen if you wish.
  6. Use promo code 02010059
  7. If you just want the cash, load $25 (minimum to earn the bonus). If you want to maximize the miles earned funded by Visa or Mastercard, load $500 (maximum permitted).
  8. You should receive the card in less than 2 weeks
  9. Visit an Allpoint ATM and you can withdraw cash off of the card, $1 per withdrawal up to $200 each time.

This is also discussed at Fatwallet.

You can get one card per social security number. And if you want to keep using the card and pulling cash off of it (likely until Nationwide decides to ban you), you could rinse, repeat to earn 500 miles for $5 and a bit of work (the $50 bonus only applies to your first time).

I haven’t done it yet and it won’t be worth it for me on an ongoing basis, but for the first-time use with the promotion code you can earn a net of $40 and 500 miles it might be worth playing with.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  4. Be aware that Citi is known to treat these transaction as cash advance, so don’t use Citi card to fund

  6. Agree with Angelina. Great if you have a teenager. Not so great if you are committing fraud though 🙂

  7. I didn’t see any confirmation that the promo code worked. Hopefully once all the processing is complete I’ll see a card balance of $75.00.

  9. Does Chase also consider this to be a cash advance and charge a fee for using one of their credit cards ?

  12. Just hit my Chase British Airways Visa for $50 with this, and it reduced my available cash advance line by $50. At first, it only reduced my available credit by $50, but about 30 minutes later, it had also reduced my cash advance line. I presume this means I’ll get hit with a $10 fee plus 20% interest until it’s paid?

  13. @ Tomy S – according to the Fatwallet thread there has not been a hard pull for those in the past

    @redcat255 – If you read the Fatwallet thread it looks like some people initially see a cash advance, but the transaction is almost always eventually processed as a purchase, thus incurring no fees (and earning miles/points instead!). Per a Fatwallet commenter, I would recommend funding with a debit card for those just looking to get the $50 bonus, if you dont want to risk it.

  14. Samesies. This just hit my Chase SP as a cash advance. I just made a quick one-time payment of $500 to cover it. Anyone know if that will work?

  16. @Chas Was that just an authorization as a cash advance, or did it actually post and charge you a cash advance fee?

  18. Looks like others have had the cash advance authorization settle down as a purchase after a few days (see previous post by J Rice). I’m in the same boat, but I’m going to wait to make a payment until the transaction actually finalizes. Good luck, and I’ll let you know how it turns out for me.

    Also, I didn’t get charged any fees for setting up the card… Do those get deducted from my initial balance, or will I get hit for those later?

  20. So could I get a card for everyone in my family and get $50 for each card? Or is it $50 for one “parent” account that is setup.

  21. @Milezjunkie – I beleive it is one card per person (ie one per social security number) so yes one for each person in your family I imagine

  23. @ Grant Thomas
    The miles come from whatever mileage credit card you use to fund the Visa Buxx card

  24. This is weeks old. I did it a few weeks ago and took about week and half for the $50 to post.

  25. So right – if committing fraud you need to use a Barclays card where you get a better return on your LIBOR…oops…I meant labor. 🙂

    emmygofly said,

    “Agree with Angelina. Great if you have a teenager. Not so great if you are committing fraud though”

  26. I did the Visa Buxx deal last month and have not been charged a set up fee or card load fee. I used my Chase Freedom card, and it went through as a purchase. The $50 bonus posted a few days after I activated the Buxx card.

    Similarly, I did the AMEX Serve deal–load and spend $25, get a $25 bonus. Also used my Chase Freedom card to load it, and it posted as a purchase.

    No fees or credit inquiries for either. Easy money!

  27. @Collin

    Where did you see this: “After you Activate your card it will take 2-7 days for the $50 to show up.”?

  28. Just wanted to report back. My available cash advance line has still been decreased by $50, but the item has posted as a “Sale” on my Chase account, and there is no fee, and my cash advance balance is $0. Looks like it went through as a purchase after all.

  29. It sounds like this card works as a debit card. Wondering if I can pay my federal taxes with it and on incur the $3.95 debit card charge?

  30. As a data point. My Capital ONE points posed as “other services” and I have my 1000 points:
    NATIONWIDE BANK/GIFT
    $500.00
    Earn 1,000 Miles
    🙂

  32. $25 showing as a purchase on my Chase Sapphire Card. Can anyone confirm that this works as a debit card?

  33. Have it as a purchase on mine as well. I still only see the $500 balance in my nationwide account though, no bonus yet…

  34. I received my card after placing order about one week ago. When I called to activate it I confirmed that it had $25 on it. I then asked when or how I would receive the $50 credit. The CSR asked if I had a Nationwide account, of which I responded no. She said only nationwide customers would be credited the $50. Any suggestions?

  36. I just used my square account to withdraw the money from this card. $50 * (1 – 2.75%) = $48.62 – $25 initial load = $23.62 of free money 🙂

  38. Argh, used my Citibank Hilton Reserve card to fund, and oops…Cash Advance (fee $10). Wish I had seen the comments before doing so!

  39. @JapanMiles, actually my calculations in post 36 were for the Amex Serve Card. The Buxx card (still waiting for bonus to post), should be this:
    $100 * (1 – 2.75%) = $97.25 – $50 initial load = $47.25 of free money 🙂

  40. I got my card about two weeks ago. Met all requirements but still haven’t gotten the bonus $50. Looks like this didn’t work.

  42. Same problem as @hunter above. I got my card about two weeks ago. Met all requirements but still haven’t gotten the bonus $50 either..

  43. If you created your account before august 9, you should have the bonus by now, if not, call their customer service number and ask whats going on.

  44. I just got my bonus when I checked this morning – looks like it was deposited in my account on 8/27

  45. Finally got my card in the mail after applying about 10 days ago. Went to activate it and the $50 bonus was already on there! I think I’m going to make a purchase at a grocery store and get cash back and see how that goes. Shouldn’t be any fee to do that.

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