5% Cash Back during BBVA NBA Finals – Tips and Discussion [6/1-6/15]

From June 1 through June 15th, the BBVA BNA credit card will offer 5% cash back on up to $5,000 in purchases. You can read more background on this in our previous post. Here we’ll discuss the best ways to rack up spend for the promotion.

What Does NOT Work?

Link (pdf)

Purchases made at superstores and wholesale clubs, through a third-party payment account or on an online marketplace (with multiple retailers) will not earn additional bonus points.

• Readers note that Costco and Sam’s Club purchases do not earn 5%, as per the above terms. Presumably, BJ’s won’t earn either.
• A few separate data point indicate that tax payments on pay1040.com did not work. Strangely, it worked for me and many others, so it’s YMMV apparently. I’m a bit skeptical about this and wonder if there was some other reasons why the 5% didn’t post (e.g. the payment was made last minute or something like that) and then the rep didn’t agree to apply it manually claiming tax payments don’t work. Even CFPBing didn’t help one reader who used pay1040.com.

What Does Work?

As far as I know, everything else works. Since the $5k cap went into effect, they probably just let everything go through at 5%.

• Plastiq had been YMMV in previous promos, but as far as I can tell, during the most recent February promo (when the $5k cap was instituted) it worked for everyone.
• Venmo worked in the past.
• It’s reported that the terms exclude “superstores and wholesale clubs” so there’s a chance Walmart and Target won’t earn 5%. I can say target.com worked for me in the past (with and without Paypal), and I haven’t read anyone complaining about Walmart or Target not working, so I’m guessing it works.

Things can always change, and it may not be worth risking paying, for example, a 3% fee to get 5% back, but if you have something to pay anyway, it’s worth putting in on the BBVA card.

Spending Tips

Here are some ideas to max out the $5,000 in spend:

• Buy Visa gift cards at CVS or Simon Mall. Net around 4% after the fees if you have an easy liquidation method. (You may also be interested in some of these gift card deals at Simon.)
• Pay your federal tax bill for a 1.87% convenience fee or via Plastiq for a 2.5% fee (see above for discussion about whether these will earn 5%). Also, some state taxes will allow credit card payments for a fee or you can use Plastiq for that too. Net between 2.5% and 3.2% after the fee.
• Pay out your bills for the year. Insurance, utilities, and tuition if they allow using an Amex. Net an extra 3% on what you’d get had you paid the bill with a 2% card.
• Use Plastiq to pay any bill which you can’t typically be paid with credit for a 2.5% convenience fee. Examples include things like mortgage, rent, loans, and some insurances or utilities which don’t take credit card. Net ~2.5%.
• Stock up on merchant gift cards that you can use. Whether buying gift cards to your local grocery or buying discounted gift cards on the second-hand exchanges, you can lock in the 5% rate for your future purchases.
• If you have any Amex Offers on the card, wait until June 1 to use them and get an extra 4% cash back.
• BBVA cards are eligible for some targeted card-link offers. Check your offers to see if you got anything good. Since the card is earning 5% to start with, an extra 5% or 10% could make for a terrific deal.
• Give any charity donations you had in mind. Most will accept Amex.
• Add your own ideas in the comments.

In previous promotions, the following things worked for me to get 5x: Plastiq, federal tax payment (pay1040), Geico, Raise, Cardpool, target.com (with and without Paypal), and a Rite Aid store purchase.

If you are making online purchases, be sure to leave plenty of time for the charge to go through and post since some online retailers only post the charge when the item ships.

Final Word

Please help this post by adding data points on what works and especially what doesn’t (if there’s anything we missed). We’re especially interested in hearing negative data points from the most recent February offer period since this term will probably work the same as that one.

The big advantage of the Finals 5% promo over the All-Star one is this one runs for two weeks which makes it easier to do a whole $5k and easier to make sure we don’t bump into last-day issues.

If you are interested in combing through comments, you can check here for previous posts.