[Article] Article: Goodbye vanilla reload, hello gift cards

is walmart considered a department store? my 5x citi thank you catergories are clothing, home improvement , home furnishing and department stores
 
nvm fuck this. mine is capped at 2500 points

"Earn 5 ThankYou Points per $1 spent on retail purchases at clothing, home improvement, home furnishing and department stores, up to 2,500 additional points, through 06/30/13!*"
 
GH0ST said:
Whatever the UK equivalent is then.

Basically the same store except they don't sell anything pointy.
Click to expand...

The UK equivalent of Walmart is........Walmart. Although they are still mostly badged as Asda.

We have even lower end though in European chains such as Lidl and Aldi where they don't even unload cases/pallets for display. You get tins of beans for like 5p or something apparently. I only ever shop at Harrod's food hall naturally although the 4 hour round trip to London for bread is a tad inconvenient.
 
APRIL said:
We have Aldi's around here... that low cost, odd ball grocery store, right?
Click to expand...

Yar, that's the one. Have it here too. Never been but Clark Howard says it can save you a bundle. If I had one in close proximity I'd give it a shot.
 
Thorn Bird said:
there is nothing illegal about all this. they know people do this...they expect to pay the people who really do use this system exactly like this...exactly how they've set it up.

what they, ahem, BANK on is that a MAJORITY of people who initiate this don't usually follow through, or keep up, or remember, or even give a shit. so they make money because people forget to cash in, or they forget to cash out, or they forget to cancel their free membership, or they don't care enough to stop or fight it.

you see...the same way that fly is "scamming" them (AKA taking advantage of a system)...THEY ARE SCAMMING EVERYONE...it costs them to pay people like fly...but they don't miss that because there are five or ten or 20 of us for every one REAL fly.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Although I fully expect Citi to eventually sever our business agreement. Out of all the big three (Chase, Barclay, and Citi), Citi generally puts up with this shit the least. Chase is the most lenient.
 
CletusJones said:
Sweet deal, that makes it easy to unload the GC. I go to the PO a few times a week already. The main problem is paying for the GC with a CC. How does that part happen?
Click to expand...

To reduce your workload, you've gotta get a good rewards card. In addition to my 5x citi card, I've also got a couple 2% cashback cards. The numbers still work, but its more work.

$1000 gift cards
$7.90 in fees for cards
$.70 for MO

$20 in cashback becomes $11.40

If you've got a 2% with a high credit limit, it would be a lot easier. You can easily buy $5k at a time, netting you ~$56. You may only be able to do that for a couple days though and then have to wait for your payment to post before starting again...
 
fly said:
Exactly. Although I fully expect Citi to eventually sever our business agreement. Out of all the big three (Chase, Barclay, and Citi), Citi generally puts up with this shit the least. Chase is the most lenient.
Click to expand...
I think the only thing that can potentially complicate things is how paranoid the bank that holds your checking account is.

The bank defines a retail (personal) account as having a certain average transaction volume per cycle. They look for drastic changes. You may want to consider spreading your deposits over a few accts and ramping up over time.

It would be easy to do with multiple rewards cards and bank accounts. $100+ per day potentially, yes?
 
fly said:
To reduce your workload, you've gotta get a good rewards card. In addition to my 5x citi card, I've also got a couple 2% cashback cards. The numbers still work, but its more work.

$1000 gift cards
$7.90 in fees for cards
$.70 for MO

$20 in cashback becomes $11.40

If you've got a 2% with a high credit limit, it would be a lot easier. You can easily buy $5k at a time, netting you ~$56. You may only be able to do that for a couple days though and then have to wait for your payment to post before starting again...
Click to expand...
I would be doing it with a 2% card, looks like I'm gonna have to work harder to get more open lines. :(
 
CletusJones said:
I think the only thing that can potentially complicate things is how paranoid the bank that holds your checking account is.

The bank defines a retail (personal) account as having a certain average transaction volume per cycle. They look for drastic changes. You may want to consider spreading your deposits over a few accts and ramping up over time.

It would be easy to do with multiple rewards cards and bank accounts. $100+ per day potentially, yes?
Click to expand...

The banks are required to report any deposits over $10k. I think I've read they 'generally' do it for $5k and above. If they think you're doing something weird, they can submit a Suspicious Activity Report to the Treasury. None of these matter to you unless you're money laundering.

edit: And doing things to avoid that reporting is called structuring. That really pisses off the Treasury, so don't do different values to keep under reporting limits.
 
Last edited:
fly said:
The banks are required to report any deposits over $10k. I think I've read they 'generally' do it for $5k and above. If they think you're doing something weird, they can submit a Suspicious Activity Report to the Treasury. None of these matter to you unless you're money laundering.

edit: And doing things to avoid that reporting is called structuring. That really pisses off the Treasury, so don't do different values to keep under reporting limits.
Click to expand...

I'm so hot for you right now.
 
fly said:
The banks are required to report any deposits over $10k. I think I've read they 'generally' do it for $5k and above. If they think you're doing something weird, they can submit a Suspicious Activity Report to the Treasury. None of these matter to you unless you're money laundering.

edit: And doing things to avoid that reporting is called structuring. That really pisses off the Treasury, so don't do different values to keep under reporting limits.
Click to expand...
As a longtime banking employee, I'm familiar with the regulations. I'm just saying that getting a sar filed on you isn't necessary a good thing. I get that it's not bad either, but I imagine avoiding one would be your best option. A sar can be filed for any reason and can be totally unsubstantiated.

Edit: the $5k thing is for monetary instrument sales only iirc, you're not buying $5k in official checks, traveler's checks, etc so you'll be OK.
 
Last edited:
CletusJones said:
As a longtime banking employee, I'm familiar with the regulations. I'm just saying that getting a sar filed on you isn't necessary a good thing. I get that it's not bad either, but I imagine avoiding one would be your best option. A sar can be filed for any reason and can be totally unsubstantiated.
Click to expand...

Which is why you shouldn't worry about it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back