Plink: it works, but changes are coming

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I've mentioned a few times here on the blog a new retail marketing program called Plink, which works a little like the dining rewards programs operated by several airlines (and the Upromise cashback system). With dining programs, you can typically register up to 6 or so credit and debit cards, and then each time you make a purchase at a participating restaurant, you earn some number of airline miles or cash back.

Plink works slightly differently, in that you register a card by entering your online banking login information. Plink then identifies your eligible cards with that bank and you can select a single card (instead of 6 or more), where your eligible purchases will be recorded.

If you think this seems to have a lot of disadvantages over dining rewards programs, you'd be right. I'm writing about it because it also has a few advantages.

First of all, Plink has a wider array of retailers than just restaurants. Most importantly for me, it gives $2.50 worth of Plink points for each purchase of $25 or more at 7-11 store locations – including store locations coded as gas stations on Visa and MasterCard credit cards.

Now, ordinarily the temptation is to make purchases as close as possible to the eligibility threshold (in this case, $25) in order to maximize the rebate value of your rewards. However, since PayPal My Cash and Vanilla Reload Network reload cards have a flat reload fee of $3.95 per card, you're only reducing your cost per dollar of manufactured spend, not actually making money, through this technique so there's no advantage to splitting your purchases up.

Changing your registered card account is easy

Thanks to the Discover it and Chase Freedom "gas station" Quarter 3 bonus categories, I bought a lot of PayPal My Cash cards at 7-11 this quarter. And I can happily report that changing the card you have registered to your Plink account is easy and instantaneous. I had to register my Discover, Chase, and Bank of America accounts this quarter, and the change went through without a hitch. However, be sure that your points have posted from all your transactions so far before changing your linked credit card.

Problems with points posting 

As I indicated in the title of this post: Plink works, earned points post, and they can be redeemed for Amazon gift cards almost instantly (you have to wait for an e-mail from their gift card contractor).

However, I did run into one problem with my points posting: when I made two 7-11 purchases using a Bank of America credit card on the same day, apparently Plink was not able to differentiate the charges in my Bank of America account transaction history, and I only received Plink points for one of them. 

For that reason I've stopped making multiple 7-11 purchases with a Plink-linked card on the same day, and since then all my points have posted correctly.

Changes coming

Unfortunately, starting September 23, 2013 7-11 purchases will only earn 150 Plink points (worth $1.50 when you have earned enough points to make a redemption – 500 is the current minimum) on purchases over $20. This is a transparent attempt to pay out less to those who have been taking full advantage of the current payout rates. However, those 150 Plink points will still reduce your cost per dollar of manufactured spend to 0.49 cents, from 0.78 cents – better than a hole in the head. If you're able to liquidate PayPal My Cash cards using a 1% cash back PayPal Debit MasterCard, that will bring your CPD down to 0.27 cents.

PayPal knows what I'm doing...and doesn't care?

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As my readers know, back in August while I was still overseas, both my business and personal PayPal accounts were frozen. A few weeks later both accounts were restored.

In the intervening period, while my accounts were "limited," I filed a report with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, asking for my accounts to be reopened and/or for PayPal to return my account balance to my funding account. A few days ago, I received an e-mail from the CFPB, saying:

We wanted to let you know that the company responded to your complaint.

After creating an account and logging in, I was able to view PayPal's response to my complaint, which I found truly remarkable. For that reason, I want to share it here. 

The response opened with some standard boilerplate:

Explanation of closure 
Please understand that even though we always aim at processing all transactions immediately, we still have to take security measures to protect all our users.  
We offer you our sincerest apologies for any difficulties you may have encountered while using our services. We value you as a customer and want you to continue using our services for years to come. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns or if I can be of further assistance to you.

Fair enough. The second section started to get a little more specific:

 Relief
Your [sic] transferred $xxx.xx from your personal PayPal account to your business PayPal account and complain that the funds were unavailable and your account access was limited.  
At the onset it’s important to note that PayPal has taken the action you requested and restored your account access and the $xxx.xx payment amount was returned to your balance.  On August 16, 2013, you withdrew the $xxx.xx to your bank account ending in xxx7.

Then it started to get really weird:

Response
On [date], you created a Business PayPal account and on [date], you created a personal PayPal account.  Each time you created these accounts, you agreed to PayPal’s online User Agreement (“User Agreement”).
On August 6, 2013, you sent a payment of $xxx.xx from your personal PayPal account to your Business PayPal account.  This transaction triggered our transaction monitoring tools and we placed the payment on a temporary hold so we could conduct an internal security review to verify the legitimacy of the payment.... 
...The User Agreement permits PayPal to place a payment on hold when we “…believe there may be a high level of risk associated with you, your Account, or any or all of your transactions…”  User Agreement at Section 10.5.  In determining that a high level of risk existed with this payment, PayPal carefully considered a number of factors that when viewed together, indicated in PayPal’s reasonable determination that such a high risk existed.  The following risk factors were identified:
- Inconsistent login information.  At the time of this payment, the login to your account was from a different geographical location outside of the United States.  Your previous logins had consistently been from [New England].
- This payment was funded with a financial tool that had not previously been used on the account for any transactions.  Specifically,  you had only added funds to your PayPal account via MyCash.  This payment was funded with money from the bank account ending xxx7.
Based on historical data, inconsistent account activity creates a higher risk for chargebacks, claims and reversals. 
During this time, your accounts were limited because your transaction activity warranted review.  Specifically, you had been using your MyCash Card to add funds to your personal PayPal account.  You would then send personal payments to your business PayPal account and used these funds to purchase gift cards from CVS Pharmacy and US Bank.  Based on our experience, this type of activity is consistent with money laundering which is why your accounts were limited.  On August 22, 2013, after further review, your account access was restored.

What I find so interesting about this document, and why I think it's worth posting, is that it appears to me that PayPal knows exactly how I'm using my account: funding with PayPal My Cash cards, then unloading the card for 1% cash back at CVS and using Visa Buxx. And they don't seem to have a problem with it: they reopened my account after meticulously documenting all of my account activity.

Why would PayPal allow me to carry on? Because this activity is profitable for them. Remember, there's a logic behind the 1% cash back you earn with the PayPal Debit MasterCard: you only earn it on online purchases and those you sign for. That is to say, you earn 1% cash back on "credit" transactions, for which PayPal earns somewhere between 2.5% and 3.5% of the purchase amount. They're more than happy to kick back 1% to me since they're earning 2-3 times as much in merchant swipe fees.

I wrote up this technique in somewhat more detail in this post from back in June. 

 

Unleash your manufactured spend: Part 2

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Well, yesterday's post sure got a reaction out of my readers, both long-time and first-time, and I can't say I'm surprised: it was an "unblogged" technique that a lot of people have been using to manufacture spend for months, or longer, and they were understandably concerned about anything that might signal an end to that. I strongly recommend taking a look at the comments to that thread, since in addition to people scolding me there are some valuable observations by readers correcting details and making observations based on their own experiences.

I want to single out commenter Brandan who pointed out that "it says on the FlyerTalk post you linked to that it's possible to have Best Buy Chase as the payee for a Chase credit card (and reduce the bill pay fee to $1)" and commenter Jewsus for pointing out that he can pay his American Express credit card using the "next business day" service for $1.50, not $1.88 as I had posted (the 3 business day service costs $1). Thanks guys. I don't have every credit card and I haven't made payments to all the credit cards I do have, so there's a lot of information about specific issuers that I'm not going to be able to report firsthand.

Cost per Dollar (CPD) of manufactured spend: my analysis

Since this technique has a very high limit (up to $8,999 or $9,999, according to various reports) but a flat cost, the cost per dollar of manufactured spend you pay is going to vary depending on the size of your payments. For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to confine this analysis to four payment amounts, where applicable: $500, $1,000, $1,500, and $2,000. Hopefully this will illustrate the potential return of this technique, and you can repeat the calculations for your own preferred payment amounts. Here are my calculations, in increasing order of CPD.

Bank Debit Cards

This is the cheapest option for earning rewards, but is also inherently limited by the amount of money in your checking account. Further, Bank of America and Suntrust, the two banks which issue rewards-earning debit cards that pay rewards on PIN-based transactions, are understandably sensitive to so-called "perk abuse," and you risk having your checking account closed by your bank for "excessive" use of this technique.

Personally, I have made $1,000 Gobank deposits using my Bank of America Alaska Airlines debit card and the miles have posted normally, so I'm not worried about Walmart bill payments around that level. Your miles may vary. 

Since there's no fee for using your bank balance to fund a PIN transaction, your cost per dollar of manufactured spend is just $1.00 or $1.88 (or $1.50 – see above), divided by the size of your transaction (note that the Suntrust Delta Airlines debit card earns 1 Skymile per dollar, while the Bank of America Alaska Airlines debit card earns 1 Mileage Plan mile per 2 dollars): 

This is the same CPD calculation you should use for free Chase gift cards, if they're available in your state. 

Visa Buxx

The Nationwide and US Bank Visa Buxx cards have slightly different limits and fees: the Nationwide card allows 2 loads per month of up to $500 each, at a fee of $2, while the US Bank Buxx card allows 4 loads per month at a cost of $2.50 each. Both cards allow your balance at one time to be up to $1,000, but the Nationwide card has a 7-day rolling limit of $800 in purchases. For the purposes of this chart, I've pro-rated Nationwide's $4 load fee so $3.20 is "charged" to your Walmart bill payment when you make an $800 payment:

PayPal Debit MasterCard

The PayPal Debit MasterCard is loadable using PayPal Cash cards, which can still be purchased using a rewards-earning credit card at some – but far from all – vendors. In addition to its 1% cash back function when you sign for a purchase or use it online, the PayPal Debit MasterCard also functions as a PIN-based debit card. Your daily purchase limit may vary: mine is $3,000.

In this case, in addition to the bill pay transaction fee, you'll also pay $3.95 for each reload card, with up to $500 in value each:

MyVanilla Debit Cards

Loading a MyVanilla Debit card using a Vanilla Reload card costs the same as loading a PayPal Debit Mastercard. However, there's another $0.50 transaction fee charge on every purchase made with the card, slightly raising your cost per dollar of manufactured spend:

Gift Cards

There are a lot of different PIN-based debit gift cards on the market today, and the price per card can vary between $4.95 and $6.95. For the sake of these calculations I'll use $5.95 as a "typical" cost per $500 gift card. You should adjust the calculation depending on the cards you have available in your area:

Conclusion

There's a reason that I use "Cost per Dollar" analysis rather than "Cost per Mile/Point" analysis: I don't know what credit cards you carry, and I don't know how you value your miles and points.

I carry a ThankYou Preferred card that earns 5 ThankYou points per dollar at drug stores, and I can use those point to pay off my student loans for pennies on the dollar. That makes the ability to unload Vanilla Reload Network cards wildly valuable to me, even if I have to pay as much as 1 cent per dollar (earning "only" an 80% discount on my student loan payments). If on the other hand you're earning 1 Ultimate Rewards point per dollar spent at drug stores, you may be much less interested in liquidating Vanilla Reload Network cards at volume.

On the other hand, you may have an American Express Hilton HHonors Surpass card, and have some upcoming award trips planned where you'll be getting over half a cent per point in value. In that case, paying as much as 1.23 cents per dollar at a supermarket – 0.205 cents per point – means over a 50% discount on your hotel stay.

This series will continue tomorrow with some reflections on how this technique – and these blog posts – have affected my views on travel hacking, and I'll conclude on Thursday with my thoughts on how I'll personally be taking advantage of this technique in the future.

 

Now I've seen everything: PayPal accounts restored

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Somebody smarter than me is going to have to explain this one.

I reported earlier this week  that one of my favorite hacks had been abruptly shut down when PayPal closed both my business account (which had a linked 1% cash back debit MasterCard) and my personal account (which I was using to funnel PayPal Cash cards to my business account). By calling into PayPal I was able to withdraw my remaining funds to a linked checking account, and I moved on.

That is, until Thursday afternoon, when I received the most remarkable e-mail: 

And then just one minute later:

I immediately checked, and the first e-mail was sent to my personal account's linked address as well. Having been given this reprieve, what do I plan on doing with it? What do you think?

But this time, I'm taking some simple steps to minimize my risk going forward:

    • I immediately applied for an additional 1% cash back debit MasterCard for my second, personal account. No more sending money back and forth between my PayPal accounts.
    • I'm going to empty my account exclusively with my debit MasterCard, primarily by buying Vanilla Reload Network reload cards at CVS. This will reduce my cost per dollar of manufactured spend to 0.57 cents (0.07 cents after taking Plink rewards into account).
    • And obviously, I'm going to empty my account as quickly as possible after loading it. 

    Besides the possibility of buying PayPal Cash cards at 7-11 store locations, what I'm most excited about is renewed access to Kiva. Now that I have a US Bank Cash+ card, I'll be happy to earn $100 in cash on the first day of every quarter, plus as many Flexpoints as I have short-term liquidity.

    Remember to check in on Monday and all next week, when I'll be describing a new technique that will radically accelerate the points-earning potential of even the most casual travel hacker, and giving detailed analyses of the possibilities unlocked by that new technique. You don't want to miss it.

    My PayPal shutdown story

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    One of my favorite travel hacking techniques, and one which I've written about repeatedly in the past, relies on a unique feature of the online payments processor PayPal: it's the only product I'm aware of that allows you to earn miles and points when loading your account (by purchasing a PayPal Cash reload card using a rewards-earning credit card), and also when unloading your account (by earning 1% cash back using a PayPal Debit MasterCard).

    Now that there are broad reports of Vanilla Reload Network reload cards no longer being sold via credit card at 7-11 store locations, this technique has become even more valuable. By purchasing PayPal Cash cards at a 7-11 location that posts as bonused "gas station" spend, you can earn double Chase Ultimate Rewards points or US Bank Flexpoints, then earn an additional 1% cash back by using a PayPal Debit MasterCard to load a Visa Buxx card or simply purchase Vanilla Reload Network reload cards at a CVS or other unbonused store location that continues to allow them to be sold. Using this simple technique, I've earned $189 in cash back just since March – and that's in addition to the miles and points I earn from purchasing the PayPal Cash cards.

    Unfortunately, the single most important ingredient in this technique is an open PayPal account...and I don't have one anymore. That's right, last week I was completely shut down by PayPal. I want to share some of the things I was doing that did or could have contributed to my shutdown, so you can avoid repeating my mistakes.

    1. I used PayPal overseas. This is a weird one, since PayPal has users all over the world. However, this is the very first thing I did that raised red flags with PayPal. They closely track where you typically log into your account from, and if they detect an unusual login they will freeze your account until you prove your identity.
    2. I logged into PayPal using Tor. Tor is a web service that allows you to surf the web anonymously.  Since Tor routes your internet traffic all over the world, it's a turbo-charged corollary of the point above: it looks very suspicious to PayPal.
    3. I had multiple PayPal accounts.  I've had a PayPal business account for years, since I use to do a fair amount of buying and selling on Ebay. Towards the beginning of this year, when I started using PayPal to travel hack, I decided to see if I could open a new account, which would allow me to double my rolling 30-day PayPal Cash load limit from $4,000 to $8,000. I was able to do so easily, and I "verified" the account by adding a bank account and providing my Social Security number. Once I'd done that, I loaded PayPal Cash cards to my new, personal account and send the money to my business account to be liquidated.
    4. I got greedy.  Sometimes, I didn't bother spending the money I'd loaded to my account through PayPal Cash – instead, I withdrew it immediately to my bank account. Now, there's a minor distinction here: I always spent the money I loaded directly to my business account; however when I sent money over from my new, personal account I assumed that the money had been cleared into the system so it was safe for immediate withdrawal.

    In retrospect these are all obvious mistakes with simple solutions: when overseas, use a VPN so you always appear to be located in the US; never login to PayPal while using Tor; stick to one PayPal account; and always spend your PayPal Cash loads – never withdraw them directly to your bank account.

    Daraius at Million Mile Secrets had a somewhat similar experience, which you can read about here, and the Points Guy got a warning from PayPal after loading and unloading funds using Green Dot MoneyPaks.

    I still think this is a great strategy to bring down your cost per dollar of manufactured spend. However, it does take some care to make sure you don't trip over any of PayPal's red lines when it come to fraud and money laundering controls.

    Is the best card to buy Vanilla Reloads with...

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    [updated 8/25/13: reader Eric pointed out an error in my calculations below: buying $1,000 in Vanilla Reload cards with the PayPal Debit MasterCard will earn $10.08 in cash back, not $10.79 as I originally wrote. The post has been updated to reflect the slightly higher cost per dollar of manufactured spend.] 

    ...the PayPal Business Debit MasterCard?

    As readers know, I'm fairly obsessed with lowering my cost per dollar of manufactured spend. That's why I've long been intrigued by the PayPal Business Debit MasterCard. The card offers a unique value proposition: it's a 1% cash back card (on signature purchases), that can itself be loaded by credit card (using PayPal Cash reloads).

    PayPal Cash reloads are very similar to Vanilla Reload Network reload cards, and in fact are sold in many of the same places, like gas stations and drug stores.  However, they have different limitations: they can only be used to load a PayPal account, loads are limited to $500 per day and $4,000 per rolling 30-day period, and most importantly PayPal will immediately send a warning, then close your account, if you load your PayPal account with a PayPal Cash card and immediately withdraw the money to your linked bank account.

    Enter the Business Debit MasterCard. By using this card for online load to my Nationwide and US Bank Visa Buxx cards, I earn 1% cash back on $3,014 ($3,000 in loads, $14 in fees) each month, bringing my total cost for $3,024 in manufactured spend to $7.56, or 0.25 cents per dollar.

    That accounts for $3,000 of my monthly load allowance – but PayPal allows up to $4,000 in monthly loads. This has left me scratching my head about what to do with the last $1,000 in PayPal Cash loads, since May 1, when the Wells Fargo Prepaid card lost its usefulness .

    The solution was staring me in the face the whole time: buying $1,000 in Vanilla Reload Network reload cards, at a cost of $7.90 in fees, will yield $10.08 in cash back. The $2.18 in profit from that transaction reduces your total cost for the $1,000 in PayPal Cash reload cards to $5.72: a respectable 0.57 cents per dollar in manufactured spend. If you buy your PayPal Cash cards at a store in one of your cards' bonus categories, this can push your cost per point into the low tens of a cent.

    Before the comments erupt with sarcasm, let me be perfectly clear: this is not a technique for earning more miles and points, it's a technique for earning miles and points at a lower cost per point. If you're more interested in the number of points you earn, rather than the cost you pay per point, then you're better off simply buying a $0.70 Walmart money order with your remaining $1,000 in monthly PayPal Cash loads. This will raise your cost per dollar to 0.85 cents per point, but you'll be able to manufacture an additional $1,000 per month by purchasing your Vanilla Reloads with a points- or miles-earning credit card instead.

    The point is, using techniques like this, and others like it, you control the cost you pay per manufactured mile or point – and that's worth a lot to me.

    (N.B. You can also fund your $1,000 monthly free Amazon Payment with your PayPal Business Debit MasterCard and pocket $10, manufacturing $1,000 in spend AND earning $2.10.)

     

    New Vanilla Reload Opportunities

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    In the comments to one of last week's posts, reader A wrote:​

    I've been buying Paypal reloads at 7-11 with a CC. Now that 7-11 carries Vanilla Reloads I'll be running tests to see if the purchases code correctly for 2x.

    Having seen 7-11 on the list of "Reload Locations" on the Vanilla Reload Network site, I naturally checked my local stores about 6 months ago. Since they weren't carrying them, and I had easy access at CVS, I didn't think about it any more. However, the opportunity for double points at gas stations drove me back to my local 7-11, where sure enough, both Vanilla Reload Network reload cards and PayPal Cash cards were for sale by credit card.

    Now, I haven't seen a 7-11 location with actual gas pumps​ in a long time. However, Visa has a publicly available database of the "merchant codes" used by every merchant in the country. It's these codes that determine how a purchase transaction is coded by credit card companies for the purpose of awarding bonus points.

    ​And sure enough, my local 7-11 store locations are entered into that database as:

    GAS STATIONS/FUEL/SUPPLIES-5541

    This means that credit cards which bonus gas station purchases will almost certainly award bonus points for Vanilla Reload purchases at these locations, at least for Visa cards, which use Visa's supplier code database. 

    My credit card statement hasn't closed yet, so I ​cannot guarantee bonus points will be awarded. ​However, I'm very confident that they will, since I used a Visa card, which means a new front has been opened in the use of the Perpetual Points Machine I outlined here.

    ​I'll discuss the implications of this discovery in the coming days. For now, a good place to start is Frequent Miler's chart of credit cards which bonus gas station spending. That chart is somewhat out of date, but still useful for getting a general picture of credit cards which will make this development such a lucrative opportunity.

    Changes to Gobank debit card loads

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    Changes to Gobank debit card loads

    Back on May ​10, Gobank send an e-mail out to users with updates to the Deposit Account Agreement that governs Gobank checking accounts. In this Flyertalk thread, members were concerned that the e-mail included this section:

    Deposit Options
    Using a debit card to deposit money into your account will only be an option when making your initial deposit. Ongoing deposit options now include Mobile Deposit, Direct Deposit, bank transfer and cash.

    ​Soon after, it was noticed that the Gobank website no longer allows online debit card loads. Instead, the "Move money from another bank" tab only shows you your Gobank routing and account numbers, which you can use to deposit money electronically from another checking account.

    However, the Gobank smartphone application has not yet been updated​ and still allows online debit card loads to your Gobank account, for example with a rewards-earning debit card like the PayPal Debit MasterCard. At least one of my readers has reported success in doing so since the website was updated.

    Note that this opportunity will probably go away on or around May 30, if not sooner, so if you already have a Gobank account and you haven't loaded $1,000 yet using online debit card loads, now would be a great time to do so!​

    Remember, you'll always find the latest news about developments with Gobank here on the Free-quent Flyer blog.​

    US Bank Visa Buxx

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    One product that I didn't discuss in my first post about true PIN-based debit cards was the US Bank Visa Buxx card.  While I knew the card was similar to the Nationwide Visa Buxx card discussed in that post, I was hesitant to ​post about it because I didn't have one myself.  I'm happy to now be able to report that the US Bank version of the Visa Buxx product works as a true PIN-based debit card, and anyone can get one.

    Getting the Card

    The US Bank Visa Buxx card, like the Nationwide Visa Buxx card, requires you to register as a "parent" creating a card account for a "teen."  However, unlike Nationwide, which allows you to use the same information for both the "parent" and the "teen," US Bank requires at least ​a different Social Security number for the teen than the parent.

    I'm now able to report that US Bank does NOT verify the information entered for the "teen" on their product.​

    Activating the Card

    To activate the card you'll need the Social Security number you entered for the teen during the application.  Once the card is activated you'll have two different logins to the US Bank Visa Buxx website: the "parent" login which allows you to load the card, and the "teen" login which only allows you to view the transaction history.​

    Loading the Card

    You can load potentially up to $517.50 per load (the website states $517.50, but the cardholder agreement states $500, so it's ambiguous what the actual limit is), using any Visa or MasterCard credit or debit card, at a cost of $2.50.  According to the cardholder agreement you can load up to $2000 per 30 days, although I have not been able to confirm that limit.

    Unloading the Card

    I'm now able to confirm that the US Bank Visa Buxx card can be used to reload Gobank and Bluebird at any Walmart register using the PIN you set up during the phone activation process.​

    According to the cardholder agreement, you can withdraw up to $200 per ATM transaction and up to 3 ATM withdrawals per 24-hour period.

    Conclusion

    The US Bank Visa Buxx is a great addition to any points and miles earning strategy.  It can be used to reduce your cost per point by loading it using the Paypal Debit MasterCard, or used to manufacture spending at .48 cents per dollar.​

    ​

    [Expiring] Advanced techniques for manufacturing spend

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    Update 3/6/2013: ​as first reported in this thread, beginning May 1, 2013 the Wells Fargo Prepaid card will only be loadable using Wells Fargo credit and debit cards, preventing the hack described in this post:

    wells fargo load change.png

    Original post:​

    The first thing every reader should do once they take a serious interest in travel hacking is make sure every possible purchase is charged to a points- or mile-earning credit card.

    Once you've established that base level of spending, you can consider more advanced techniques like using Kiva or Amazon Payments to "manufacture" points-earning purchases.​

    Today I'll explain one of the most advanced methods for manufacturing spend, with a twist that makes it even more lucrative.  Here's what you'll need:

    ​It's possible to load your Bluebird account directly with Vanilla Reload Network Prepaid Reload cards.  These cards can be purchases in denominations of up to $500, with a flat fee of $3.95.  Since you can use the money immediately to pay off your credit card, or any other bill, this allows you to manufacture spend at a cost of $0.0078 (.78 cents) per dollar in manufactured spending (3.95/503.95).  This is a great value, especially if you're using a card that earns bonus points on purchases at drug stores like CVS, where Prepaid Reload cards are often sold.

    However, by taking a slightly more circuitous route, you can drive down your cost per point even further.  The Wells Fargo Prepaid card allows you to load up to $2500 per load at a cost of $5, and a total of $4500 per rolling 30-day period (one $2500 load and one $2000 load).

    Here's where the advanced technique comes into play.  Normally you can only earn rewards from the initial charge to a rewards-earning credit card.  However, a PayPal account and linked PayPal debit MasterCard allow you to earn rewards for both loading and unloading the card.  Here's how: many stores that sell Vanilla Reload Network Prepaid Reload cards also sell similar, PayPal-branded reload cards, known as "My Cash" cards.  You can earn your normal credit card rewards by purchasing these cards, which have the same cost structure as Prepaid Reload cards ($3.95 for loads up to $500).  However, once the money is loaded into your PayPal account, you can then use your linked PayPal debit MasterCard to load your Wells Fargo Prepaid card and earn 1% cash back on each transaction.

    Once the money is loaded to your Wells Fargo Prepaid card, you can load the funds onto your Bluebird card as a debit transaction at any Walmart and use the funds to pay off your credit card.  Note that the Wells Fargo card has a transaction limit of $600, and the Bluebird allows debit loads up to $1000 per day, so you'll need to make two $500 loads per day.  

    Let's compare the beginner and advanced techniques:

    Beginner technique: Prepaid Reload card to Bluebird

    • Buy a $500 Prepaid Reload card at a cost of $3.95;
    • Load $500 Prepaid Reload to Bluebird;
    • Pay bills with Bluebird's bill pay service, or withdraw to a bank account;
    • Total spend generated: $503.95.  Total cost: $3.95.  Cost per dollar: $0.0078.

    Advanced technique: PayPal My Cash to PayPal to Wells Fargo to Bluebird

    • Buy four $500 PayPal My Cash cards at a cost of $15.80;
    • Load four $500 My Cash cards to PayPal;
    • ​Load $2,000 to Wells Fargo Prepaid at a cost of $5, earning $20.05 cash back;
    • Load $2,000 to Bluebird for free at Walmart (in four transactions on two separate days);​
    • Pay bills with Bluebird's bill pay service, or withdraw to a bank account.​
    • Total spend generated: ​$2015.80.  Total cost: $0.75 ($20.80 in fees minus $20.05 cash back).  Cost per dollar: $0.0003 (.03 cents per dollar in manufactured spend).

    ​If you're interested in trying this technique, keep the following in mind:

    • PayPal allows up to $500 per day in My Cash loads, and up to $4,000 per calendar month;
    • Wells Fargo allows up to $2500 in loads within 24 hours, $3500 within 15 days, and $4500 within 30 days.  Thus to maximize this card you should load $2000 per load, 16 days apart, at a cost of $5 per load; ​
    • If you have money in your Wells Fargo Prepaid account on your monthly statement date, Wells Fargo will charge a $3 monthly fee, which will raise your cost per point (in the above example, it would raise it to .18 cents per dollar in spend).  If your account is empty, most reports are that the fee is not charged.​

    Happy hacking!​

    ​