5 UR Points on All Spend

[aussiebochur]

Frequent Miler has a great post so I shall just quote. This would seem to blow anything else out of the water. With Chase Ink Bold, Ink Classic and Ink Cash, thats 5x UR on $100,000.
But heed his warning, DO NOT ABUSE IT!

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.

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.
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.

[trying123]

Can u buy these cards online or only in store?

[sky121]

Can u buy these cards online or only in store?

You can buy the reloadable card online and in store but then use the refill cards from in store.

[Ergel]

Can u buy these cards online or only in store?

Did you read the post?

[bubkiz]

I believe that you can no longer buy Amex GC's in NJ.

[smurf]

I believe that you can no longer buy Amex GC's in NJ.

it's mentioned in the op

[Devorah]

Is this the same card from the earn $25 when you load $25?

[sky121]

Is this the same card from the earn $25 when you load $25?

Yes, I believe so.

[HelpMe]

This guy must live in fantasy land.

"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."

[PlatinumGuy]

I believe GC's aren't officially included in the bonus points mall. Either way, its a matter of time until they stop giving bonus points for that.

[yitzf]

back on topic...

I was in office depot last week and saw that poster (the one pictured) and I gave it a real hard look, but figured they must be advertizing two separate products bec. it sounded too good to be true. Also amex allowing you to reload their cards like a moneypak, just sounded too far fetched. Well i'm happy to learn that I was mistaken.

[aussiebochur]

Not quite as good as originally thought.
Officially, you can only load $2,500/month.

[HelpMe]

Not quite as good as originally thought.
Officially, you can only load $2,500/month.

This should keep most out of trouble.

[momo]

or you could get 2 cards

[HelpMe]

or you could get 2 cards

Max per SS# IIRC.

[gozalim]

this trick should also work for Amex SimplyCash (%5 office supplies)

[Dan]

You can buy the reloadable card online

Link?

My problems are:
-No return protection.
-No auto tracking of expenses in Quicken.
-No Office Depots in CLE.

[aussiebochur]

Link?

My problems are:
-No return protection.
-No auto tracking of expenses in Quicken.
-No Office Depots in CLE.

http://www.americanexpress.com/prepaid

You dont spend on anything that you wont return?

[MarkS]

http://www.americanexpress.com/prepaid

You dont spend on anything that you wont return?

+1.

Some items I always make sure to buy on my Amex for protection. But diapers/paper towels/tissues/toilet paper/utility bills etc can all be bought safely on this card without worrying about warranty/return protection!

[aussiebochur]

+1.

Some items I always make sure to buy on my Amex for protection. But diapers/paper towels/tissues/toilet paper/utility bills etc can all be bought safely on this card without worrying about warranty/return protection!

Btw, it does have purchase protection...