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Twin Cities Manufactured Spend Implosion
15 Aug. 2018
Twin Cities Manufactured Spend Implosion
Meltdown This past weekend, some big news hit in the Twin Cities points and miles community.  A friendly Walmart (Store 1), known for allowing more than just 4 debit (gift) card swipes and $2,000 in money orders.  Besides the friendly service and manufactured spend options the store provided, it was the closest liquidation option to
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What I did With My Marriott / SPG Points
8 Aug. 2018
What I did With My Marriott / SPG Points
Intro By now it’s no secret that big changes to Marriott’s merger with SPG are underway and others in the process of being finalized.  Initially those changes were set to take place on August 4th, but that date has since been pushed back to August 18th.  I assume that the dates are now set in
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Fallout From A Bank Shutdown
7 Aug. 2018
Fallout From A Bank Shutdown
Shutdown I recently wrote a post about a bank shutdown linked to manufactured spending (MS).  It was my first checking deposit related bank shutdown from MS, but probably not the last.  The TCF Bank checking account in question was set to be closed on July 31.  I preemptively closed the account the day before, so
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Manufactured Spend Backup Plans
29 Jul. 2018
Manufactured Spend Backup Plans
Increasing Spend, Increasing Risk Over the past 30 days or so, plenty of SPG Amex cardholders have rushed to increase the spend on their cards in order to capitalize on the current 3:1 SPG to Marriott differential.  On August 18th, SPG points loose 33% of their value.  One reader emailed me a few days ago
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Visa Gift Card Deal at Office Max/Depot starting today
29 Jul. 2018
Visa Gift Card Deal at Office Max/Depot starting today
Kind of a Big Deal A reminder there’s free points at Office Max/Depot today with a possible negative cost Visa gift card (VGC) promotion. The promotion is pretty standard:  get $10 off (instantly at checkout) $300 (or more) worth of Visa Everywhere branded (debit) gift cards purchased.  It’s not as good as the previous $15
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Talking Manufactured Spend At Walmart
19 Jul. 2018
Talking Manufactured Spend At Walmart
No Stone Unturned Periodically, and when I have free time (which isn’t often), I’ll drive to various Walmarts around the city.  These tours have a specific purpose:  to see what the manufactured spending (MS) vibe is like in each store.  Some stores are on a regular rotation for me, while others haven’t been visited in
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Manufactured Spend Musical Chairs
16 Jul. 2018
Manufactured Spend Musical Chairs
Duck, Duck, Goose It’s not a news flash that the options available for manufactured spend (MS) vary dramatically around the country.  Certain areas are better, and sometimes substantially better, than other locales depending on the deal and/or liquidation methods.  Beyond having more MS friendly stores, some states also have laws that allow t...
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Scary 5 Minute Call With Chase
12 Jul. 2018
Scary 5 Minute Call With Chase
Shutdown? Last night I had a pretty terrifying phone call with Chase.  Towards the end of manufactured spending liquidation run, I stopped into a Walgreens to pick up a Vanilla gift card.  Walgreens, gas stations, and Lyft all code as 5x for the Freedom bonus categories this quarter.  Although Walgreens was not part of the
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