If you haven’t already heard, some people have found that CVS isn’t accepting credit card payments for vanilla reloads in some locations. For some reason this has caused a massive freak out on the message boards and blogs, people are worried that they will not be able to meet minimum spend requirements.
This should serve as an important lesson to not over extend yourself in case one or more of your favorite manufactured spending techniques stops working. It should also serve as a lesson that diversification is key, not only for your investments but also for manufactured spending.
Now that I am off my high horse I’m going to share four techniques that still work and that almost anybody can make use of.
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1. Bluebird and Visa gift cards
Just because you cannot get Vanilla Reloads anymore doesn’t mean you can’t still utilize your bluebird account still. You can fund your bluebird account with Visa gift cards (daily limit of $1,000). You have a lot more options on where you can purchase Visa gift cards as well, most people seem to gravitate to buying them from Staples or Office Depot to make use of the 5x Chase UR points earning capability (plus the ability to earn points with ShopKick, Plink & Visa Savings Edge) on the Chase Ink Bold & Chase Ink Plus cards.
The downside is that the activation fees on these cards is usually higher ($6.95 vs $3.95 for Vanilla Reloads) the upside is that they are more widely available in different settings. This means you can use it to hit rotating category bonuses or almost any category that rewards you heavily.
You need to go to a Walmart money center to be able to load the cards which does take a little more time than before. But if meeting a minimum spend requirement is your only goal, then this is a perfect option. Once you learn how to double and triple dip with other rewards programs (ShopKick, Plink & Visa Savings Edge) then you can easily make back the fees and earn straight profit on your credit card spend.
2. Reloadit cards + T-Mobile
This is probably my favorite method at the moment. T-Mobile has a new prepaid card which can be reloaded with reloadit cards (which you can purchase with credit cards). The best bit? If you reload more than $300 the reloadit activation fee of $3-$3.95 is refunded to your T-Mobile visa account the next day.
This is available to people who don’t have T-Mobile as their wireless provider, there is a $5 monthly fee but this is also refunded if you reload more than $500 per month.
Safeway used to be the easiest place to purchase reloadits with a credit card, but they have since changed and you can only purchase them in cash. That said there is still a boat load of places that accept credit card payments. The key to getting places to accept credit is to make sure you reload less than $500, anything above $500 will require manager approval.
3. Funding Bank accounts
This is probably one of the less known manufactured spending methods. It involves signing up for bank accounts that allow you to fund the initial opening amount with a credit card. Most banks limit this to $500 (e.g Chase) but some allow you to fund up to $1,000.
It’s not going to allow you to earn a million miles or points any time soon, but if you’re a bit short and need to hit a minimum spend requirement it’s perfect. The upside is a lot of these accounts come with a sign up bonus as well (e.g with Chase you can earn up to $600). Just make sure you don’t sign up for an account that requires a hard pull.
4. Amazon Payments
Chances are if you knew about Vanilla Reloads + Bluebird, then you knew about Amazon Payments but for those who don’t it’s basically a competitor to Paypal. You can send up to $1,000 per month fee free to anybody else with an Amazon Payments account. The trick is to make sure you send it to somebody you trust, so that you get the money back.
