Walmart limits and thresholds

Because of the ongoing roll-out of CVS's "cash-only" policy for most prepaid reloadable products, you may be foreseeing more visits to Walmart in your future. Here's a quick reminder of some Walmart transaction limits you should be aware of before you go, to avoid any potentially embarrassing surprises at the register.

Bluebird loads

Just because Vanilla Reload Network reload cards (at CVS) are dead doesn't mean Bluebird is. You can still load up to $1,000 per calendar day, per account, at any Walmart register using a PIN-enabled debit card, up to $5,000 per calendar month.

You can split your load amount between multiple PIN-enabled debit cards. However, you can only use 3 debit cards per load transaction because of Walmart's 4-swipe-per-transaction limit (swiping the Bluebird card counts as one of your 4 swipes).

You're allowed unlimited load transactions, so this limit isn't a problem as long as you don't mind monopolizing your cashier for a few minutes.

Gobank loads

If Gobank never got around to shutting you down, you can still use PIN-enabled debit cards to load your account for free any any Walmart register, up to $1,100 per transaction and $2,500 per day, with no monthly limit (until you get shut down). If you never opened a Gobank account, now's as good a time as any to try it out!

You can read all my reports on Gobank here.

Money Orders

Walmart accepts PIN-enabled debit cards as a method of payment for MoneyGram money orders. You can purchase money orders for up to $1,000 at a cost which seems to vary slightly regionally, but is typically $0.70 per money order.

You can purchase as many money orders as you like in one transaction. However, you must still abide by the 4-swipe-per-transaction limit mentioned above. For example, using 4 PIN-enabled debit cards with $500 balances, you would be able to buy 2 money orders for $999.30 each (or one for $1,000 and one for $998.60. Mix and match to taste).

Bill Payments

While it's no longer possible to pay American Express credit cards through Walmart's partnership with CheckFreePay, you can still pay your Visa, MasterCard, and Discover cards at any Walmart Money (or Customer Service) Center. Check out my 5-part series for more information if you're unclear on this technique.

You can make bill payments in any amount up to at least $9,999.99, but you must still abide by the 4-swipe-per-transaction rule.

Additionally, when making large bill payments, you may encounter...

Additional Reporting Requirements

As a money transmitter, Walmart has to abide by certain internal corporate and federal anti-money-laundering regulations. The most important of these is that for transactions involving more than $2,500 in cash or cash equivalents, Walmart collects certain personal information, including (most sensitively) driver's license and Social Security numbers, among other bits of vital information.

While I obviously have nothing to hide about my activities (I write a blog about them!), I still prefer to avoid this time-consuming hassle so tend to make bill payments below the $2,500 threshold. That's a personal preference though, and you may find it more convenient to make larger bill payments instead. If so, you may need to...

Mix and match PIN-enabled debit cards

One of the oddest pieces of conventional "wisdom" bandied about the travel hacking community is the idea that the 4-swipe-per-transaction limit for some reason imposes a $2,000 limit on PIN-based transactions.

That's an artifact of the fact that many people seem to rely exclusively on $500 Visa cards — and it's ridiculous. I have lots of PIN-enabled debit cards that can have balances above $500, and by mixing and matching, I can do PIN-based Walmart transactions well above $2,000.

For example, my PayPal Business Debit MasterCard allows up to $3,000 in purchases each day. Together with 3 $500 PIN-enabled Visa debit cards, I could make a bill payment of up to $4,498.12 (because of the $1.88 bill pay fee). I have US Bank, Nationwide, and TD Go Visa Buxx cards, all of which have daily transaction limits above $500.

Conclusion

The rules of the travel hacking game are always changing, but the nature of the game is always the same: your job is to find the combinations of merchants and products, hotels and airlines, cards and accounts, that get you where you want to be as quickly and cheaply as possible, whether it's the Maldives, Disneyland, or retirement.

CVS has fussed around with the rules, but it can't change the nature of the game.

Manufactured spend is here to stay

In case you missed last weekend's most riveting news, some CVS store locations, in some parts of the country, stopped allowing credit cards to be used as a means of payment for some prepaid reload cards, including the two that I happen to have been using most aggressively: Vanilla Reload Network and PayPal My Cash.

I was traveling and missed the opportunity to really stock up, buying just $6,000 in spare Vanilla Reload Network reload cards before my local stores stopped allowing credit cards to be used sometime on Monday morning.

Nonetheless, I find myself facing this change in the shape of the landscape with surprising equanimity. Sure, there are some specific techniques (like JH Preferred and Momentum prepaid Visa debit cards) that can no longer be easily loaded using Vanilla Reload Network reload cards and unloaded through bank cash advances or by purchasing money orders or making bill payments at Walmart.

On the other hand, using those products invited shutdowns, resulted in funds being frozen for weeks at a time, and required filing complaints with the FDIC in order to regain access to your money.

Surveying the landscape, I just don't see this affecting my overall volume of manufactured spend — although it will certainly affect its composition.

Here are four quick suggestions to reflect on as you decide how to best move forward.

If you are only loading Bluebird, just eat the extra dollar

A lot of folks just have one or two Bluebird accounts they've been loading at a cost of $3.95 per $500 Vanilla Reload Network reload card. If that's the extent of your manufactured spend, then you can still easily and simply fill up your Bluebird each month by buying $5,000 in OneVanilla prepaid debit cards, which can still be purchased at CVS using credit cards. Instead of $39.50, you'll pay $49.50, and you'll have to take 5 trips to Walmart each month in order to load $1,000 to your Bluebird card at the register each calendar day.

That's not nothing, but if you are manufacturing spend to meet a minimum spend requirement or with a specific, high-value redemption in mind, and especially if you make regular trips to Walmart anyway (guilty!), your value proposition simply may not change much.

When unloading OneVanilla card balances, just use any 4 digits of your choice as your OneVanilla card's PIN the first time you swipe it as a debit card (and yes, this really works: no need for a long comment thread. It just works).

If you are earning 5%, just eat the extra dollar

Those who are still earning 5 ThankYou points per dollar with the no-longer-available Citi ThankYou Preferred card offer may be used to netting 4.2% profit when buying Vanilla Reload Network reload cards. Now they'll net a 4% profit, and they don't deserve an ounce of our sympathy.

The same is true for those who are using the 5% cash back "old" American Express Blue card.

If you've been over-relying on CVS, take a peek outside the box

In many parts of the country, Vanilla Reload Network and PayPal My Cash cards can be purchased at gas stations and convenience stores, and at pharmacies besides CVS. If you've been relying on one source for all your manufactured spend, you may not realize how many other – potentially even more lucrative – options you have in your own backyard.

For example, earning 2 Flexpoints per dollar spent at gas stations, worth up to 2 cents each for paid flight redemptions, may be worth more than the 2% cash back or 1 mile per dollar you've been earning in your rut at CVS.

Consider – at your own pace – using American Express gift cards

By earning cash back when you purchase American Express gift cards online, you can eliminate the cost of the products you use to manufacture spend. There are risks (cash advance fees from Citi; cash back portals not tracking purchases correctly), and you won't earn bonus points in your credit card's bonused categories, like gas stations, drug stores, or grocery stores.

But you may find that you still come out ahead buying American Express gift cards with certain rewards-earning credit cards, and using those to buy easily-liquidated prepaid Visa debit cards, like the OneVanilla mentioned above.

Conclusion

Naturally, the best thing you can do to remain at the top of your game is to keep reading this blog! It's still possible to travel the world for next to nothing, and I'm still here to show you how.

Thanks for reading.

Should you be buying American Express gift cards?

[update 3/27/14: I've added a link to BeFrugal below, where you can earn 3% cash back on American Express gift cards, the best offer I'm currently aware of. Thanks to @rajiv1po on Twitter for alerting me to that deal.]

One opportunity that has really taken off in the last year or so has been American Express gift cards. These are prepaid, American Express-branded cards that can be purchased online and loaded with up to $3,000 each.

American Express gift cards are not PIN-enabled as most Visa and MasterCard gift cards now available are. Instead, they can be used only as credit cards for in-person or online transactions. That means that many of the easiest methods of prepaid and gift card liquidation are not available. For example:

• Walmart money orders;
• Walmart bill payments;
• Evolve Money bill payments;
• in-person Bluebird and Gobank loads.

The only options for liquidation are those where it's possible to use an American Express credit card to begin with:

• Purchasing prepaid reload and gift cards;
• Loading Serve cards in-store at CVS or online;
• Amazon Payments;
• Kiva loans;
• etc.

In other words, American Express gift cards are not an option to increase the amount of spend you manufacture each month, since the cards themselves consume manufactured spending bandwidth you would otherwise be able to use on credit cards directly.

So why buy them?

Use cash back portals for fun and profit

The reason you might consider paying American Express an additional fee to route your manufactured spend through their gift cards is that these gift cards are eligible for airline miles and cash back through a number of shopping portals. Here are some currently available offers, although these do change regularly:

• Barclaycard Arrival RewardsBoost: 2 miles/$. Worth 2.22 cents towards travel redemptions;
• TopCashBack: 2% cash back;
• BigCrumbs: 1.2% cash back;
• Delta SkyMiles Shopping: 1 mile/$;
• Alaska Mileage Plan Shopping: 1 mile/$;
• [Update 3/27/14: BeFrugal: 3% cash back.]

As long as you don't make the purchase with a Citi-issued credit credit card, then in addition to the points you earn through whichever shopping portal you choose to use, you'll also earn your credit card's rewards currency.

Limits and warnings

Frequent Miler has done the lord's work compiling some frequently asked questions about American Express gift card purchases. Some highlights:

• Don't use Citi cards [or US Bank Club Carlson - update 3/28/14: see the comments for more datapoints] credit cards for your purchase, as they'll incur cash advance fees and won't earn rewards;
• Log into your American Express account to see the option to buy gift cards up to $3,000 in value (otherwise you're limited to $500 cards);
• Personal gift card orders are limited to $5,000;
• Business gift card orders are limited to $75,000;
• There are undisclosed time limits on orders as well.

As they say, read the whole thing.

My shopping portal ritual

Historically, I've had terrible luck getting my shopping portal purchases to track correctly. Here's my system for increasing the likelihood of receiving my portal bonuses (I use an Apple computer):

• Close all open Safari windows and tabs;
• Turn off private browsing;
• In the top left corner, click "Safari" and select "Reset Safari..."
• Make sure all the boxes are checked, and click "Reset;"
• Open the shopping portal and click through to desired merchant, making the purchase immediately;
• If I have to remove any items from my shopping cart, I start the process over from scratch.

It's certainly a little bit paranoid, but since I've started using this system all my portal purchases have tracked successfully.

My Experience with Barclaycard RewardsBoost

In the spirit of this month's manufactured spending competition, I decided I'd do my first experiments with American Express gift cards. The best available portal offer I found was for 2 Arrival miles per dollar, so I decided to click through the Barclaycard RewardsBoost portal. Now that my miles have posted, I can share the timeline of my purchase so my readers will know roughly what to expect if they do decide to pursue this opportunity.

• March 8: order placed for $2,0xx, including $9.95 shipping fee. Used promo code "SYNCGIFT" to waive purchase fee. Received order confirmation;
• March 8: pending charge appeared in my online banking;
• March 10: received e-mail from American Express saying my order had been approved;
• March 10: pending charge disappeared from online banking;
• March 14, 3:08 am: received e-mail from American Express saying my order had shipped;
• March 14, 9:39 am: delivery received from UPS;
• March 15: charge posted to my online banking and Arrival miles received for amount of transaction;
• March 26: RewardsBoost miles posted to my account and I received an e-mail notification from RewardsBoost. I received miles for the amount of the gift card, but not for the $9.95 shipping fee.

There were a couple weird things that are worth drawing your attention to. Usually when you make a purchase with a credit card, it appears as a "pending" charge, then clears as a "posted" transaction within a few days. In my case, the charge disappeared completely for several days, reappearing as a posted transaction almost a week later. If you are using a credit card with a preset spending limit, you should be sure to keep enough available credit on your account to allow the charge to post.

Most problems with the American Express gift card process seem to occur during the interval between an order being "received" and the order being "approved." No one knows exactly what goes on during that interval, but it causes many, many orders to be cancelled and there doesn't appear to be any way to generate consistently successful transactions.

For what it's worth, for a second transaction I made early today, I received the "order approved" e-mail just 3 hours after the "order received" e-mail: as we say in the business, your miles may vary!

Update: JH Preferred spending limits

Background: Alert: JH Preferred limitations and shutdown reports
Background: JH Preferred cash advances: your miles may vary
Background: Update: JH Preferred

As you can see from the above background reports, the JH Preferred card is one that I've looked into in some depth. It's also a card about which there isn't a lot of information publicly available online.

Over the course of this month I've been using my own JH Preferred card fairly aggressively in order to manufacture as much spend as possible for the #milemadness manufactured spending competition. And that's caused me to run into one additional limitation of the card, in addition to those mentioned in the posts above.

Limitations on PIN-based debit card transactions

Between March 1 and March 13, 2014, I loaded $10,000 in Vanilla Reload Network reload cards to my JH Preferred account, unloading the same amount using PIN-based debit transactions at Walmart.

Today, I loaded an additional $1,000 without any problem, but was unable to make any PIN-based purchases at Walmart. Immediately fearing the worst, I made a signature-based "credit" transaction that was approved.

I ended up successfully unloading the remainder of my balance using a (credit) Amazon Payments transaction.

I dug up my cardholder agreement and found neatly filed with it an "Important Notice Regarding Changes to your JH Preferred Prepaid Visa Card:"

"The maximum amount that can be spent on your Card per month is $10,000.00."

From my experience, it appears that limit is enforced on PIN-based debit transactions, but not on signature or online credit transactions.

Conclusion

While I consider the above information valuable in its own right, for those seeking to take maximum advantage of the JH Preferred card, I also want to suggest that when your JH Preferred card is declined for the first time, don't panic. You may not have been shut down; you may simply have run up against the $10,000 monthly PIN-based debit transaction limit.

The next question I intend to investigate and report back on: is the $10,000 purchase limit based on the calendar month or a rolling 28-, 30-, or 31- day period?

Update: Momentum shutdown

As my regular readers know, back in February I took a day trip down to Philadelphia in order to pick up a Momentum prepaid Visa. I had some initial difficulties activating the card, but then grew excited about the fact that Momentum could be loaded with Vanilla Reload Network reload cards, and unloaded using bank "cash advances" with a fee of just $1.

If you follow me on twitter, you know that a few days ago I was suddenly no longer able to log into my online Momentum account. At the time, I could still access the online phone system and find out my remaining balance of 3 bucks and change.

Today I decided to dig into the situation and figure out what's going on with my card, but found that the phone tree no longer recognized my card number.

Since I couldn't log into the website, and couldn't talk to a customer service representative, I filed a complaint with the FDIC about Bancorp, which is pretty much the only thing you can do at times like these.

My Transaction History

As I've done previously with my shutdown reports, I'm happy to share my own loading and unloading transaction history:

• February 15: purchase and $10 initial load;
• February 26: Square swipe for $9;
• February 27: $2,000 Vanilla Reload Network load;
• February 27: $1,995 cash advance;
• March 1: $2,000 Vanilla Reload Network load;
• March 1: $2,000 cash advance;
• March 3: $2,000 Vanilla Reload Network load;
• March 3: $2,000 cash advance.
• ~March 5: shutdown

Conclusion

What can I say? I redeemed 8,000 Ultimate Rewards points for an Amtrak Guest Rewards transfer which got me to Philadelphia and back. And I was able to liquidate $6,000 of Vanilla Reload Network reload cards at a cost of $3. So I probably broke roughly even on this experiment.

And I would (and will!) happily do it again for you, gentle readers.

Update: JH Preferred

Back on January 31, I shared some of my preliminary impressions of the JH Preferred prepaid Visa card. An Incomm product like MyVanilla Debit cards, the JH Preferred card was also "Vanilla-reloadable," but with no monthly fee and no transaction fee, which I argued made it the perfect candidate for Evolve Money liquidation. I also shared several posts from Flyertalk about account shutdowns after what seemed like pretty typical usage of the card.

On February 16, I related my experience unsuccessfully trying to get a $4,995 cash advance at my trustworthy local bank branch.

As I said in that post:

"I was ultimately able to liquidate my $5,000 JH Preferred balance by making 3 Walmart PIN-based debit transactions."

More information on load limits

Now that I'm entering my second calendar month with the card, I'm able to report some very interesting news: I loaded $1,000 in Vanilla Reload Network reload cards to my JH Preferred card on March 1, and was able to load an additional $1,000 each day thereafter. In other words, it appears that the $5,000 monthly load limit is based on the calendar month, not a rolling 30-day period.

Additionally, I was able to load $1,000 on March 6, 2014, even though that brought my total calendar month loads to $6,000. An additional load on March 7 was unsuccessful, so it's not clear whether the actual load limit is $6,000, or if there was some kind of technical error that allowed me to load an additional $1,000 this calendar month.

What is the shutdown risk?

I ask this not because I have an answer, but because I don't know. It certainly seems like the kind of activity I've had with the card – large loads and immediate unloads – is the kind of behavior that would attract shutdown risk. But my account is still open.

I've mentioned before that it's best not to take Flyertalk reports at face value, because there are certainly members there who have a vested interest in discouraging people from taking advantage of their preferred hacking techniques.

I'm not saying that's what happened here. But I am saying that – for now – it appears that JH Preferred cards have a slightly longer shelf life than I initially suggested.

I know my readers will share their own experiences in the comments.

How to follow my #milemadness

As I posted last week, for the month of March I'm participating in a good-natured competition with a number of miles and points bloggers to see who can manufacture the most spend. The competition privileges speed, since we’re competing within a specific time limit and with a limited “bankroll" of $5,000: every dollar we manufacture has to be liquidated before it can be spent again. Obviously that’s a slightly different game than the one we normally play, where floating money from month to month is one of the many perks of manufacturing spend. But it creates a level playing field where we can show off all our nimblest tricks for pushing as much money as possible through our most lucrative credit cards.

During the competition I’ll be posting here on the blog as usual, but I’ll post one additional update per week, when the competition's judge, Frequent Miler, has tallied up the previous week’s results, linking to his official tally and giving my commentary on the state of play.

However, if you’re interested in seeing my day-to-day progress, you should follow me on Twitter, where my handle is @FreequentFlyr. Each day on Twitter, in addition to my running commentary, I’ll also post a single tweet summarizing my day’s activities, in the following format:

If it's not obvious, "BOD Bankroll" refers to the amount of money left in my bankroll at the beginning of the day. Today’s was $5,000 since today is the first day of the competition. “Spend” of course refers to the amount of manufactured spend I put on my credit cards, including any fees I incurred. "EOD Bankroll" is the amount left in my bankroll at the end of the day after subtracting the day’s manufactured spend. “Unloaded” is the amount of spend I’ve liquidated, which will be available in my bankroll at the beginning of the next day. And “Tomorrow’s bankroll” is the total amount I’ll have available to spend the next day.

This isn’t an official score, which will be calculated by Frequent Miler at the end of each week and at the end of the competition. Rather, it’s a running, unofficial score so you can follow my progress more closely (if you want). Hopefully some of the other competitors will adopt a similar format so you can easily see the state of play on a daily basis.

Let the games begin!

Developing: Momentum prepaid Visa

I've long been curious about the Momentum Prepaid Visa, one of the many cards issued by The Bancorp Bank. There's virtually no information available about it online, and it has an unusually sparse and confusing Flyertalk thread.

Getting the Card

The first reason there's so little information about the Momentum card is that it has an extremely limited geographic availability. You can only apply for the card at one of a fairly small number of Money Mart and Loan Mart check-cashing locations. You'll need to visit their store locator tool to see if there's a location near you or somewhere you'll be visiting soon.

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that back on February 15 I took an Amtrak Northeast Regional train down to Philadelphia to visit the Money Mart on Market Street there and apply for a card.

It cost $10 to purchase a temporary card, with an additional minimum deposit of $10, so a total of $20 in cash was required to walk away with a temporary card.

The "application form" is a trifold brochure that asks for some basic information, including your Social Security number, and asks you to choose between the "flat fee" and "pay as you go" plan. Here's a picture of a spare application I grabbed from the store:

On the back of the brochure is information about the card's fees and limits:

Selecting a Card

As you may be able to make out above, you can choose between two "plans:"

• the "flat fee" plan has a $10 per month "maintenance fee," but no charge for signature and PIN transactions;
• the "pay as you go" plan has no monthly fee, but charges $1 per signature and PIN transaction.

There are a few other irrelevant fee differences, but that's basically it: if you plan to make more than 10 transactions per month, select the "flat fee" plan, otherwise you're better off with the "pay as you go" plan.

Activating the Card

Once I had my temporary card, I just threw it in a drawer until my permanent card came about a week and a half later. Once that permanent card arrived, I naturally had to activate it.

The first thing to point out is that the application distinguishes between a blue, "flat fee," card and a green, "pay as you go" card. Since I applied for a "pay as you go" card, I was given a green temporary card. But when my permanent card arrived, it was blue!

Additionally, some folks on Flyertalk have reported receiving a permanent card, with their name printed, at the check-cashing store itself. So at the moment it doesn't appear that there's any rhyme or reason to the card's color scheme.

Finally, and this is just embarrassing, but I had completely forgotten that the clerk at Money Mart repeatedly told me that my default pin was the last four digits of my Social Security number.

So don't let this happen to you: your default pin is the last four digits of your Social Security number! You'll need to input that default pin to register your permanent card (you can then easily change it).

Loading Momentum

Momentum prepaid Visa cards are loadable using Vanilla Reload Network reload cards.

If you look at the "card fees and limits" above, you'll see the third line from the top reads:

"Maximum Daily Card Load – All others  $7,500"

I have no idea what that's supposed to refer to. However, in the terms and conditions that were sent along with the permanent card, there's a much clearer limit:

"The maximum number of times you can load your Card per day is five (5), so long as the Card balance does not exceed $10,000."

Once my permanent card had arrived and was activated, I was able to load $2,000 in Vanilla Reload Network reload cards without any issue in a period of about 5 minutes.

Unloading Momentum

Here's the part that I'm particularly excited about. According to the same terms and conditions included with the permanent card:

"The maximum cumulative amount that may be withdrawn through a participating bank (over-the-counter withdrawal) per day is the total available balance on the Card."

After loading my $2,000 to the card, I walked down to my trusty local bank and asked for a "cash advance" of $1,995. A "cash advance," as my readers know, is a very expensive method of taking cash out of a credit card. However, over-the-counter cash disbursements are processed identically by tellers, and I have yet to meet a bank teller who knows the phrase "cash disbursement," which is the term Visa uses for over-the-counter withdrawals from debit cards.

The "cash advance" processed successfully, and when it posted to my Momentum card a few hours later it incurred a fee of just $1.

Remaining Questions

I'm excited about my new toy, but there are a lot of questions I don't have the answers to yet:

• Is the daily load limit really $2,500?
• Is there a monthly load limit and, if so, is it a calendar month or rolling load limit?
• Is there really no limit on over-the-counter withdrawals?
• Does the "flat fee" plan waive the $1 over-the-counter withdrawal fee?

And of course, the biggest question of all: what is the shutdown risk of this card?

Bancorp issues a lot of prepaid debit cards, and they're all vulnerable to shutdown sooner or later. However, there's no question that some cards are more vulnerable than others, so it's not a foregone conclusion that the Momentum card isn't worth your time.

That's going to become clearer in the coming weeks and months. How will you find out? From your humble blogger, of course.

Have a great weekend.

Is it time to reconsider Hilton HHonors?

[update 2/18/14: I updated the charts below to show the effect of the depreciating 5th night free for stays of 6 – 10 nights in length.]

I applied for the no-annual-fee American Express Hilton HHonors card in January of last year, in order to take advantage of its then-lucrative 6 HHonors points per dollar spent at drug stores. Of course that was rapidly followed by both the 2013 Hilton devaluation and an end to bonus points at drug stores in May, 2013.

Since my experiment buying PayPal My Cash cards for bonus points at 7-11 ended in failure, I shelved my HHonors card except for periodically taking advantage of promotions like Small Business Saturday and Amex Sync offers.

Now that I have another local gas station willing to play nice, I need to decide whether it's worth getting the card back out and potentially even upgrading to a Surpass card that would earn 6, instead of 5, HHonors points per dollar there.

Back in December I tried out a new approach to valuing manufactured spend, by calculating the value you would need to get from a night's stay to make it worth manufacturing spend on a chain's co-branded credit card, rather than a 2.22% cash back Barclaycard Arrival. The advantage of this approach is that it gives you a straightforward calculus (do I value this hotel night at more or less than the break-even point?), without needing to take into account the actual cost of an identical, paid hotel stay.

Here's that same analysis applied to the American Express Hilton HHonors Surpass card, assuming that your spend is manufactured exclusively at merchants that give 6 HHonors points per dollar.

Note two things about these charts: first, I've assumed that you'll be redeeming your HHonors points during the "high" period at Category 4 – 10 properties. If you redeem at the lower end of the award bands, the points required and consequent required value per night will be lower. Second, I haven't taken into account the additional HHonors points you would earn on paid stays. That's a real shortcoming, but I can't think of an elegant way to capture it. You should feel free to adjust these rates based on your HHonors earning rate on paid stays.

Finally, remember that you receive HHonors Diamond elite status in any calendar year you spend $40,000 or more on the Surpass card, and you keep that status through the following membership year (i.e. in March 2 years in the future).

Here's are the points and bonused spend required for 1 and 5 night stays at each category of Hilton property:

View fullsize

And here's the value you'd need to get per night in order to justify manufacturing spend on the American Express Hilton HHonors Surpass card:

View fullsize

So is it worth manufacturing spend on the Surpass card? The sweet spot here appears to be category 5-6 properties, where you can get a night for less than $200, including tax, and possibly category 7 properties on stays which are multiples of exactly 5 nights.

Of course if you're intent on visiting a resort property like the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island, where your only options are to pay a cash rate or redeem points, you'll save easily $1,000 per night on a 5 night stay by redeeming manufactured HHonors points instead.

The sun also sets on US Bank Visa Buxx

When I started this blog, the Wells Fargo Prepaid Card still allowed users to load up to $2,500 onto the card for a flat fee of $5. The card still exists, but as of May 1, 2013, has only been loadable using Wells Fargo-issued credit and debit cards, which I believe don't earn rewards on load transactions.

Meanwhile, the Nationwide and US Bank Visa Buxx cards have kept plugging along, allowing $1,000 and $2,000 in loads monthly using any Visa or MasterCard credit or debit card (although Citi-issued credit cards are notoriously at risk of cash advance fees).

Today I saw the news that US Bank is no longer allowing new online applications for their Visa Buxx card. I'm still able to log into my existing account, and haven't seen any indication that they'll be canceling existing card accounts, although at this point I'd say it's a near certainty that they'll be restricting loads to US Bank-issued credit and debit cards sometime in the next 12 months (check back February, 2015!).

I hope that all my readers have already signed up for a least one card account, so they won't be immediately affected by this change. And as always, remember the first two laws of travel hacking:

1. Every deal dies eventually;
2. There will always be more deals.