The points & miles game is, to many of us, a series of fun and challenging puzzles. We first figure out how to earn the most points & miles for the least cost and effort, and then we figure out how to get the most value with those points and miles (see: The games we play). While I usually write about points & miles techniques, it’s not lost on me that many of the same techniques can be used to earn cash back.
One technique that works well for cash back is buying and liquidating Visa/Mastercard gift cards. It’s possible to earn a profit with these transactions, and you won’t receive 1099 tax forms. This post looks only at the buy side of the equation: how to earn the most profit with each gift card purchase. How to liquidate gift cards is not covered here. While some liquidation techniques are covered in our Manufactured Spending Complete Guide, most techniques vary by location. To learn how to liquidate gift cards, your best bet is to try to find others in your area who are willing to help.
It’s often possible to earn high cash back rates through limited credit card bonuses. For example, a number of credit cards offer very high rewards on grocery spend but only up to $6K spend per year (or up to $25K per year with the Amex Gold card). Similarly, a number of cards offer 5% back in various categories of spend, but only on up to $1500 or $2500 spend per quarter. This post is not about those limited deals.
| Manufacturing Spend Caution: Many, many things can go wrong when manufacturing spend. If you suddenly increase credit card spend, your accounts may get shut down. If you cycle your balance often (e.g. spend to your limit, pay the bill, repeat) within a billing cycle, your accounts may get shut down. If you repeatedly pay your credit card bill from an anonymous bill payment source, your accounts may get shut down. If you buy lots of gift cards you may lose money due to gift card fraud, theft, loss, or simply mishandling those gift cards (e.g. maybe you thought you already used a gift card and tossed it into your “used” bin). If you rely on only one method to liquidate gift cards, you may be stuck unable to pay your credit card bill when that method gets shut down. In other words, don’t try this at home unless you know what you’re doing, and you understand and accept the risks.. |
This post is about (mostly) uncapped cash back rewards opportunities when buying Visa or Mastercard gift cards. In a future post I’ll similarly look at the best uncapped points & miles options.
Here are the options I’ve identified that offer the biggest potential cash profits:
#3: Gift Card Mall + Ebates + Ebates Visa
($14.05 profit* per card)
Gift Card Mall offers $500 Visa gift cards online with a $5.95 fee per card and free USPS shipping on orders under $2,000 (inclusive of fees) or $10.95 per order (or more depending upon which shipping option you choose) for larger orders.
Even better, you can earn 1% cash back by clicking through the Ebates cash back portal to Gift Card Mall. By ordering 3 or fewer $500 gift cards at a time this way (with free shipping), your cost per card after the portal rebate is only 95 cents. That’s a mere 0.19% of the card’s $500 value.
Profit comes into play when you use a credit card that earns better than 0.19% in rewards (i.e. almost any rewards card out there). The best card for this purchase is probably the Ebates Cash Back Visa which earns 3% cash back on qualified purchases made through the Ebates portal.
By buying gift cards with no shipping fee at Gift Card Mall after clicking through the Ebates cash back portal, you’ll spend $5.95 in fees for each card, but you’ll get back $5 per card from the portal and $15 from the credit card.
Example Purchase: $500 Visa gift card with $5.95 fee
- Click through Ebates to Gift Card Mall for 1% cash back ($5)
- Pay with Ebates Visa for 3% back ($15)
Profit* per card: $20 – $5.95 = $14.05 (not counting the cost to liquidate cards)
Limits: $1,686 profit* per month per person (portal rebates are limited to $60K spend per month: 120 $500 cards).
Credit card fees: None
* “Profit” does not account for cost to liquidate cards
#2 Gift Card Mall + Ebates MR + Ebates Visa + Schwab Platinum
($19.05 profit* per card)
Now that you can earn Membership Rewards points instead of cash back from Ebates, there’s another play here. The Amex Platinum Card from Schwab lets you cash out points at 1.25 cents each.
Example Purchase: $500 Visa gift card with $5.95 fee
- Click through Ebates (Membership Rewards version) to Gift Card Mall for 1X Membership Rewards
(500 Membership Rewards) - Pay with Ebates Visa for 3X Membership Rewards (1500 Membership Rewards)
- Via Schwab Platinum, cash out 2000 Membership Rewards points for $25
Profit* per card: $25 – $5.95 = $19.05
Limits: $2,286 profit* per month per person (portal rebates are limited to $60K spend per month: 120 $500 cards).
Credit card fees: $550 per year
* “Profit” does not account for cost to liquidate cards
#1 Gas Stations + Ducks Unlimited
($19.35 profit* per card)
If you’re lucky enough to find a gas station (or a numerically named convenience store) that sells Visa or Mastercard gift cards loadable up to $500 each, and that’s willing to let you pay with a credit card, you’re in luck. Many credit cards that offer bonuses for gas purchases are limited to “pay at the pump” transactions. Fortunately, the Ducks Unlimited Visa card does not have that restriction. With the Ducks card, you get 5% back on all gas station purchases.
Most Visa or Mastercard gift cards loadable to $500 include a $5.95 fee. With the Ducks card, you’ll get 5% back on the full $505.95 charge.
Example Purchase: $500 Visa or Mastercard gift card with $5.95 fee
- Pay with Ducks Visa for 5% back (5% of $505.95 = $25.30)
Profit* per card: $25.30 – $5.95 = $19.35
Pump up the profit: It may be possible to increase profits with a card linked offer for your local gas station convenience store.
Limits: Some gas station convenience stores have limits on how much you can spend at once on gift cards
Credit card fees: None
Alternate approach: The Amex Business Gold Card offers up to 4X at US gas stations. When paired with the Schwab Platinum, this combination earns 5% cash back at US gas stations on up to $150K in purchases per year.
* “Profit” does not account for cost to liquidate cards
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I always wondered why people don’t talk about Blue Cash Preferred. 6% cashback on grocery (no big box stores), and vgc are easy to find, and frequently run promos at these stores. I have been buying and liquidating these at a decent profit when they do promos, but you cant do that at scale. It could be that people dont like the annual fee and the fact that its “just” cashback points. I find that this card covers its annual fee much easier overall than Amex Gold. I do like the gas station angle, one could stack it with a “gas rewards” program. I know that Wex fleet cards show fully itemized receipts on each transaction, but this is probably not something to worry about on personal cards.
Great article. 1 more way to squeeze another quarter out of each card. After liquidating, I deposit the cash in a high yield savings. It earns interest before the cash back credit card payment is due. 45 days of interest in a 2% account adds just a little extra
Good article. Do you have reliable ways to liquidate Visa debit cards?
Bought VGC at GCM with Ebates card. It tracks and posts the reward at 1x, not at the 3x as believed. Be aware.
Won’t the 3X show up on your credit card statement once the billing cycle closes, then be transferred to your MR earning ebates account as MR points, not cash back?
It tracks at 3X for me unless this is a new change.
Can any confirm if you use the ebates Visa If your are indeed getting the 1% cashback from ebates + 3% from ebates Visa credit card?
What about using Alliant @ 2.5% ?
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I often wonder if I am on the right track with the miles/points game. Thank you for opening my eyes to the possibilities!
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Are GCMall GCs embossed with our names? I am not successful at WMs or Krogers without names on card…almost seen as a fraudster. Don’t like that feeling…
yes they are embossed with your name. Most WMs will take them for MOs, but I’ve run across a couple that wouldn’t (saying it needs to be linked to a personal bank account and it’s easy to tell these aren’t). But most of the WMs are not that sophisticated and are just looking for an embossed name.
what Chase CIP, isn’t it earning 3x from GCM? With cashback, that might be better than 3x ebates.
Isn’t Ducks Unlimited mentioned with gas station in same sentence a double negative?
7-11 still charges $4.95 for gift card, there is currently a promo for $1 off when you buy OVGC. So the math for Du will be $20.30 profit.
Nice
promo is good until April 9
They say the best [insert profession here ie. architect, engineer etc} come from other fields – primarily because they were not trained by others from their same profession and they bring their own perspectives and ideas. I figured out MSing on my own about 10 years ago – I didn’t know this was a thing until I stumbled on to these blogs about 4 years ago. The method I figured out is different (and easier) than what everyone else is doing. I also like to say – “If everyone is thinking the same thing, then nobody is really thinking at all.”
My recommendation to everyone is to think outside the box – don’t just follow what everyone else is doing like sheeple! There are other ways and more profitable ways to MS. I make between $34.40 and $53.50 per $500 vgc (before liquidation). Average is about $40 for each – uncapped. I use a few different methods to liquidate and they are less time consuming than the WM MO route and similar in cost. I do use the WM MO method as well when convenient but do not rely on it. I do about $10k per week in volume and it takes me about 20-30 minutes. I have also been racking up hundreds of thousands of miles/points each year without doing any MS and very little CC churning – since the 1990’s.
My point is to not rely on others to spoon feed you. Think on your own. It’s ok to use the info given here on these blogs for your benefit and gain, but don’t act like it’s the end of the world when they dry up or get you banned or shut down.
Your post definitely got my hamster wheel spinning.
You also got me wondering. I just went to your website and would love to find out more about this.
@Mike@ms4profit If your point is that people should not cry when methods that they likely found on some blog somewhere in their past now dry up (for whatever reason) should not now cry about blogs distributing the information– I 100% agree with you, but as for the rest of your post; is your point that
people who rely on MO’s/Bluebird/Serve and the like and read blogs like this are:
1) lazy
2) stupid
3) require spoon feeding
4) not as smart as you
??
I don’t know, I thought the purpose of a blog was to communicate and share. Talking about other methods that are not shared really serves no useful purpose whatsever unless it is to stroke your own ego.
. I think he’s just pimping his website or mastermind here.
anybody here ever heard of this guy before? Obvious to me with that name selection that he is trying to promote his website. I assume he charges a fee to learn his wonderful MS secrets?
Yup. And Earl Lee seems to be his bitch.
Can you email me ways to liquidate Visa debit cards ?
Interesting post. With respect to the third option (gas stations + Ducks Unlimited), I haven’t ever had a problem finding gas stations to sell $500 Vanilla VGCs, and until recently could easily liquidate these cards. About a month ago, though, these cards stopped working for me across the board to buy MOs. Quite frustrating, especially in light of all the drug store/gas station category/rotating bonuses (e.g., Dividend, Freedom etc.)
Interesting. I haven’t had any trouble buying MOs with the Vanillas as recently as this week (not at WM obviously). Curious as to where you’ve had trouble when you say “across the board”.
The “across the board phrase” may have been misleading, but in the past I’ve been able to buy MOs with Vanillas at various gas stations and at Kroger grocery stores, but recently these options stopped working. Perhaps I need to find different places that sell MOs with debit cards.