Has anyone here managed to successfully carry out manufactured spending?
I’ve only done minor things like buying gift cards from grocery stores with my BCP card to earn 6% cashback in various categories, but I’m referring to genuine manufactured spending, creating points out of nothing, using methods like money machines. Has anyone actually achieved this? I understand some people might keep their strategies secret to avoid detection by credit card companies, but I’m interested in hearing about both successful and failed attempts.
People do manage to pull it off fairly regularly, but it’s not as profitable as it used to be. To make significant gains, you’d need to manage a large amount of debt, which comes with considerable risk. From what I’ve observed, the common method involves buying vanilla gift cards during 0% activation fee promotions, converting them to money orders, and then using those to pay off the debt. However, this often only yields about 2% in returns, which doesn’t seem worth the effort. The risk of account shutdown is minimal with Chase, but it still seems like a lot of hassle for the returns.
It appears that people engage in it frequently. It’s just not as profitable as it once was, not that it’s impossible. Making large sums of money requires you to “float” a sizable debt load, which carries a great deal of risk. As a spectator, I believe the “go to” method is to purchase vanillas during an event with no activation charge, convert them to money orders, and then settle the balance. You’re probably only drawing 2% at that moment. I just don’t think it’s worth it. Chase doesn’t even seem to care that there is no possibility of a shutdown. It simply appears to be a pain.