Author: admin

What happens when retailer cancels your order with Amex Offer?

Posted on October 14, 2014October 14, 2014 by admin

When I redeemed a recent Amex Offer “Get $5 statement credit when you spend $15 or more at Walmart.com“, I had a little trouble. My initial plan goes like this:

Buy $15 Walmart E-Gift cards with my two American Express cards
Buy $30 Starbucks physical gift card with two $15 Walmart E-gift cards

In this way, I can get 33.3% discounted Starbucks gift card. (see detail here.) I placed the first order, but Walmart canceled my order about 10 minutes after I placed the order. When I submitted an order, I received an email of “Thank You for using your Synced Card!”from American Express in no time. Then, a few minutes later, I received the order confirmation email from Walmart. But, ten minutes later, I received another email for telling me that the order was canceled. The reason of cancellation is not clear. The email said,

Thank you for shopping with Walmart.com. Unfortunately, due to an error processing payment information, we have had to cancel the following order

For sure, I entered credit card number correctly because I received an email from American Express.

The email also said,

Since this order hasn’t shipped, your account was never charged. Any authorization hold placed on your account will automatically expire in accordance with the card issuer’s policy. Please contact your financial institution for more information

However, there is a pending transaction in the history of my credit card. So, I just waited until this pending transaction would disappear.

Although I received “Thank You for using your Synced Card!” email from AmEx, the offer of Walmart had been in MY OFFERS (a list of offers that is synced, but not yet redeemed), not in MY SAVINGS (a list of offers you redeemed).

When a pending transaction disappeared from the history, the offer of Walmart stayed in MY OFFERS. I placed another order of E-gift card, but the order was also canceled.

I waited another a few more days and then placed an order of physical gift card. This time, it went through. I didn’t receive an email from AmEx, but $5 statement credit was posted a few days later.

If the order is canceled after a statement credit is posted, it is probably a different story. As long as the transaction is still pending when retailers or you cancel an order, you won’t lose Amex Offer.

Changes took effect on Chime Card on Oct 8th

Posted on October 10, 2014November 20, 2014 by admin

As all cardholders of both of Chime and PayPal Business Debit (PPBD) card expected, Chime started charging 3% fee for loading Chime card with PPBD card. An email that Chime sent last month says:

“Some” debit card transfers may also incur a fee of up to 3% that will be assessed to yourChime Card account. This will not affect a majority of bank issued debit cards and we will exclude fees on debit cards from “major banks” including; Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, U.S. Bank, Comerica Bank, and USAA.

It turns out that PPBD is one of “Some” debit cards incurred a fee, but I wonder what are “Some” other cards they charge a fee.

PPBD is issued by The Bancorp Bank, which is also the issuer of Chime. And I have another card issued by the same bank, PayPal Prepaid MasterCard. I added this card to Chime account and found out that they don’t charge a fee.

Next, I added Mango Money card. And there is no fee. Mango is issued by First Bank & Trust. I believe this isn’t a major bank. I actually added money with two cards and made sure that they didn’t charge a fee.

Is there other card they charge a fee? I guess not (at least not so many.) It seems that purpose of this change is Chime needed to stop manufacture spending with PPBD and its own card. PPBD offers 1% cash back. Every load (add money to Chime with PPBD) is eligible for 1% cash back. If you set PayPal Extras MasterCard (credit card) as back up funding source of PPBD, you can also earn 1X reward points from credit card, which is equivalent to 0.83% cash back. That is why a fee is 3%. (I guess.)

You can link up to three debit cards. I removed PPBD and linked Walmart Money Card issued by Green Dot Bank. And there is no fee, either.

You won’t be able to use Chime for manufacture spending, but adding money with debit card online is still useful. Mango Money and PayPal Prepaid card have a savings account. I want to withdraw the interest earned every month because they offer lower APY to deposit exceeded $5000. (Read “Mango Money Card Reviews” and “PayPal Prepaid Reviews” for more details.) I don’t have to take the cards out of a drawer to unload the cards. It will be all done in a minute without leaving home.

The rule of a maintenance fee of $5.00 hasn’t changed. It’s charged ONLY AFTER 180 consecutive days of no purchases, withdrawals, or deposits on your account. Chime offers are less frequently updated than before, but I found it still beneficial. So, I will keep the card, check and redeem Chime offers from time to time.

FRN Resumes 1X Rewards on American Express Gift Card

Posted on October 9, 2014October 9, 2014 by admin

Today, I found “American Express Gift Card” in Online Mall of Fuel Rewards Network (FRN). They stopped offering the deal last month along with other cash back portals like Befrugal and Topcashback. And these cash back portals and some others restarted the offer at the beginning of this month. FRN didn’t have an offer until yesterday, but they do today.

If you buy a $1000 AmEx GC, you will receive $1.00/gal discount which you can redeem at participating Shell gas stations, up to 20 gallons. Thus, FRN’s “1X rewards” is equivalent to 2% cash back. (click here to see more details of Fuel Rewards Network.)

Currently, the best rate of cash back portal is 1.5%. So, FRN is the best portal right now (at least for me and for those who drives a car.)

AmEx GC has a purchase fee; it is only $3.95 per card. You may find a promo code to waive the fee, but you’d better not use it because most likely you won’t receive a reward if you use it. (Neither will you when you purchase through other portals. see details here.)

I also found that Marriott Rewards offers 1 pt/$. I have never used this portal site. So, I don’t know how much its point is worth. And I don’t know if it is a good deal.

Anyway, these are all good signs. More and more portals resumed the American Express Gift Card offer. What’s next? Will they raise the rate of cash back or reward? Not long ago, the best offer was 4% cash back from Lucky Rewards and 2X rewards from FRN. I hope this rate will be back soon.

AmEx Gift Card Cash Back Portals are Back

Posted on October 2, 2014October 7, 2014 by admin

I noticed today while I was surfing the internet. I saw a banner ad of Topcashback. It said that they offer 1.5% cash back on American Express gift card purchases. I jumped to the site and made sure that the deal was back. I also checked the terms. It says “Please note that the use of a American Express® Gift Cards & Business Gift Cards promotional/coupon code not posted and approved by TopCashback, may affect your eligibility for cashback.” It is slightly different from the previous one. (between the times of cash back rate reduced and right before Topcashback stopped offering cash back on AmEx GC purchases. see details here.)

Either Cashbackholic.com or Cashbackmonitor.com hasn’t update the change, but BeFrugal also resumed the offer. Unlike the term at Topcashback, BeFrugal clearly says “Cash back not valid on any order with a coupon code applied.” So, you’d better not use any coupon or promo codes even if you purchase through Topcashback.

I checked other portals with some hopes of a better cash back rate. Here are the results.

Big Crumbs 1.5%
Simply Best Coupons 0.75%

These are all I could find for now. None of portals has coupon codes. Except for BeFrugal, the terms about coupon codes are vague. However, as long as BeFrugal says “no cash back if you use coupons,” I won’t use coupons. BeFrugal is my faviorite, and I trust the most.

Discover New 5% Cashback Bonus of Your Choice

Posted on September 25, 2014September 25, 2014 by admin

Today, I logged in my Discover account, and I felt something unfamiliar on the page. There are three lines in 5% Cashback Bonus section. One is “Gas Station”, which is 3rd quarter of rotating category. The other one is “Online Shopping and Department Store”, which is 4th quarter. And there is another one between these two. It was telling me to activate now. I clicked and got to know a new special offer.

5% cashback bonus on up to $1000 purchases in-store and online at a store of your choice from October through November

The time-frame overlaps with 4th quarter’s rotating category a little, but they are different offers. You need to choose one among the following stores, Applebee’s, Olive Garden, Bed Bath and Beyond, Shell, Lowes, and Walgreen.

Applebee’s and Olive Garden – I don’t often go. I’m definitely not going to spend $1000 there.
Bed Bath and Beyond – I don’t shop. They don’t sell other store’s gift cards
Shell – The gas station I primarily use. Although I drive a lot. I spend money a little (read Gasoline articles for details). And my local Shell don’t sell gift cards
Lowes and Walgreen – You can find their stores gift cards with around 10% discount. If you buy merchandises in these stores, getting discounted gift card can save more. However, they sell other stores gift cards. Especially, Walgreen has $500 ($20-$500 variable amount) Vanilla Visa gift cards, and the selection of gift cards is much better than Lowes.

So, I chose Walgreen and activated the offer.

I have three credit cards with rotating category, Chase freedom, Citi dividend, and Discover it. Go shopping at department stores with Chase freedom, at Bestbuy with Citi dividend, at Walgreen and online shopping with Discover it card. I will be really busy the following months.

Get $30 or $50 PayPal Credit by Using PayPal Business Debit MasterCard

Posted on September 25, 2014 by admin

Today, I received an email. It is about an offer for PayPal Business Debit MasterCard users. Every signature purchases made between now and November 15th:

Earn a $30 PayPal account credit for signature purchases totaling $3,000 or more
Earn a $50 PayPal account credit for signature purchases totaling $5,000 or more

Purchases have to be made with a signature, which is also necessary to earn a regular 1% cash back. Purchases with using PIN and cash withdrawals are not counted as a qualified purchase for this offer.

My regular spending

I exclusively use PayPal Business Debit MasterCard for reloading American Express Serve and Chime prepaid card. For AmEx Serve, the limit is $1000 per month. I have already loaded Serve this month. So, I will be able to load $1000 each in Oct and Nov, totaling $2000. For Chime prepaid card, I can load $100 per day until Oct 8th and $200 after Oct 8th. However, after Oct 8th, Chime will start charging a fee for loading the card with some debit cards. PayPal Business Debit MasterCard is probably one of the debit cards that Chime will charge a fee. If so, I’m not going to use PayPal debit card for loading Chime card. I have already loaded today. So, I can load Chime card with PayPal debit card for 15 times (days), totaling $1500. By the date the offer ends, the total of purchases made with my regular spending would be $3500. It qualifies for $30 credit!

Should I do extra work for $50 credit?

You can take either one of $30 or $50 credit, not both of them. And they are both 1% cash back. There is no bonus even if you spend more ($5000). So, it is not necessary to do extra spend to get $50 credit. However, I will have spent $3500 until the offer ends for sure, and it is only $1500 short for $50 credit. So I will probably use PayPal debit card somewhere else to get $50 credit. I should be careful with using the card as Credit, not Debit when I use at stores.

PayPal Prepaid MasterCard Reviews

Posted on September 20, 2014November 22, 2015 by admin

PayPal Prepaid MasterCard is a reloadable debit card issued by The Bancorp Bank. The benefits of the card are that you can add money from your PayPal account instantly and open a 5% APY savings account. Plus, it has a reward program.

PayPal Instant Transfer

You can move money from your PayPal account to a prepaid card in no time. Limited $300 per day and $2000 per month. If you need to load more, use PayPal Basic Transfer or other methods. Please note that money has to be in PayPal account for a transfer. Money won’t move from backup funding sources such as credit cards or debit cards.

Savings Account

Any cardholder can open savings account that offer 5% APY. There is no minimum balance to open or maintain a savings account. They offer 5% APY on $5000 or less in the account. For the portion that exceeds $5000, they still offer 0.5% APY. You can take money out from savings account to prepaid account six times per month. Transferring from prepaid to savings is unlimited.

How to Add Money

Here are all the ways to add money to PayPal Prepaid MasterCard.

Direct Deposit – Free
Bank Transfer – Free (your bank may charge a fee)
PayPal – Free (Instantly $300 per day, $2000 per month by PayPal Instant Transfer. Use PayPal Basic Transfer to add a larger amount. It takes 3 to 5 business days.)
Reload Pack – Up to $4.95 for a purchase fee
Reloads Center – $2 to $5 depending on retail locations

Fees

Monthly Fee – $4.95 (There is no option to avoid a monthly fee. They charge $4.95 on 11th of each month.)
ATM Withdrawal – $1.95 + ATM owner’s fee

Rewards

As I wrote this page, I don’t have any information about its Rewards Program. Before I applied the card, I learned at least there was a reward program, but there were no details in their website. I searched on the internet, but I couldn’t find the details, either. That is probably because most of writers of review sites don’t actually own the card, or they don’t use the card. Rewards are targeted offers. The issuer sends them based on your shopping habit. If you don’t use the card much, you don’t see any offers. I haven’t been using much, so there have been no offers so far. I will make some experiments and upload results on the other page. Here are the posts related to Rewards Program.

Payback Rewards of PayPal Prepaid MasterCard 11/2014
My First Cash Back Rewards from PayPal Prepaid MasterCard 07/2015
PayPal Prepaid Payback Rewards for Sears and Kmart 09/2015
PayPal Prepaid MasterCard Rewards Dos and Don’ts 11/2015
10% PayPal Prepaid Payback Rewards for Rite-Aid purchase 11/2015

Summery

PayPal Prepaid MasterCard has a savings account which offer 5% APY. You can open and maintain savings account with no minimum balance. Unlike Mango Money Card, you don’t need to enroll direct deposit to earn higher APY. Adding money from your PayPal or bank account is free. $4.95 monthly fee is non-avoidable. If you keep $1200 or more in a savings account, interest offsets monthly fee, and you can start saving. Apply through this link to get $5 sign-up bonus.

Does Target Visa GC come with Free $5 Target GC?

Posted on September 18, 2014October 15, 2014 by admin

There is new Target Visa Gift Card available online. I have seen one many times at Target stores, but there had never been ones online. Denominations and fees are the same as existing ones. At first, I thought it is just a different design. But, it seems that new ones may have great bonus.

I clicked “Visa Entertainment Gift Card – $100 + $6 Fee” and scrolled down to see details of the card, and soon a short description attracted full of my attention.

“Includes: $5 Target Gift Card“

Does the package have $5 Target GC? They also sell $25 and $50, but there are no description of Target GC in their pages.

I also noticed that there is no the following warning message in the pages of new ones.

“Card cannot be purchased with a Target GiftCard. “

Does it mean I can pay with Target GCs?

Today, I bought three of $100 Visa Entertainment Gift Cards though ShopDiscover link. I used to buy a lot of Target Visa GCs (existing version) until Walmart stopped accepting these GCs (along with Vanilla and OneVanilla) for reloading BlueBird and Serve. ShopDiscover paid 5% cash back on all those orders. I hope this deal is still alive.

The reason I buy Target Visa GCs now is that Family Dollar recently started a service for reloading Serve card. And they accept Vanilla, OneVanilla, and Target Visa GCs for reloading Serve.

When I buy $100 Visa Entertainment Gift Card with PayPal Extras MasterCard:

A Purchase fee -$6.00
Cash back from ShopDiscover +$5.30
Credit Card Reward +212pts (worth $1.66 to $2.00)
(?) Free $5 Target Gift Card +$5.00 (?)

When the cards arrive everything will be clear, but when I go to Target store next time, I will look for the card and see if the package describes “Includes: $5 Target Gift Card.“

New Amex Offer at Walmart.com and Purchase of Gift Card

Posted on September 17, 2014September 17, 2014 by admin

There is new Amex Offer. “Get $5 statement credit when you spend $15 or more at Walmart.com.”It is only for online purchases and not valid on gift cards reloads and prepaid cards. I understand what exactly “gift cards reloads” means, but I’m not sure about “prepaid cards.” Since the terms doesn’t say “not valid on gift cards” but “not valid on prepaid cards,” I assumed that the purchase of regular gift cards is eligible for the offer.

I browsed gift cards at Walmart.com, and I find that only Starbucks gift cards are useful to me. However, there is no denomination of $15. They have $25 and $30 (3/$10 multi-pack). If I buy $25 Starbucks gift card and get $5 statement credit, it’s like a 20% discounted gift card. It is a lot of discount, but you can find better deals at gift card exchange sites. As you see in the picture, ABC gift cards are selling them with 24% discount.

To maximize the benefit of this offer, I need to one extra step. My plan goes like this:

Buy $15 Walmart GCs -> Redeem Walmart GCs for Starbucks GCs

After adding some gift cards to a cart and pretending to check them out at Walmart.com, I found that Walmart probably allowed to use GCs for purchase of other gift cards except for Visa, MasterCard, and American Express GCs. It seems that they even allow to purchase Walmart GCs with Walmart GCs. And you can choose any amount of Walmart GCs between $10 and $1000 in one cent increment. (e-gift cards are between $5 and $200.) So, when you buy $15 Walmart GC with Amex Offer, you get 33.33% off deal.

I have two AmEx cards that can sync with Amex Offers, Blue Cash Preferred and Serve. Buying $15 Walmart GCs with each card and then redeeming them for $30 Starbucks GC will be perfect to get the full of the benefit of this offer.

Walmart Cancel My Order

I chose e-gift card to save time and checked out one $15 Walmart GC with Blue Cash Preferred. Almost at the same time as check-out, I received an order confirmation email from Walmart and “Thank You for using your Enrolled Card” email from AmEx. Then when I tried to buy another $15 Walmart GC, a problem happened. Walmart sent another email that told me the order was cancelled because my payment couldn’t be verified.

I don’t know what caused the error, but I’m sure I enter the right credit card information because I received confirmation emails from both Walmart and AmEx. My question is what happened to my Amex Offer now. It can be redeemed only once on each card. I have never experienced this type of thing before. I’d better wait till the pending transaction will be cleared.

Moosejaw Rewards and Coupons

Posted on September 14, 2014September 14, 2014 by admin

Moosejaw was founded in 1992 in Keego Harbor, Michigan. They sell outdoor clothes and gears. Since there are no local stores in the area I live (NY), I shop online. I have been a customer for more than three years and made many purchases. The reason I keep coming back and shop is its great loyalty rewards program, Moosejaw Rewards.

Basic

Earn 10 points for every dollar on regular priced items
Earn 5 points for every dollar on discounted priced items
Purchase of gift cards is not eligible for the reward

You can earn 10 points for every dollar you spend, (except for gift cards and 5 points for sales items). 1 points is worth 1 cent. Reward points can be redeemed at “rewards.moosejaw.com”. Probably, there are a little fewer items for rewards redemption than a regular online store, but they have many items from major brand. I believe you can find what you want in Moosejaw Rewards.

VIP Status

Earn 5000 points in calendar year, 25% bonus on every purchase (Aconcagua)
Earn 10000 points in calendar year, 50% bonus on every purchase (Denali)
Earn 15000 points in calendar year, 75% bonus on every purchase (K2)
Earn 20000 points in calendar year, 100% bonus on every purchase (Everest)

If you spend $500 today, you don’t only earn 5000 points, but also obtain the first VIP status, “Aconcagua.” From your next purchase, you will earn 12.5 points for every dollar. In Moosejaw Rewards, VIP program is called “High Altitude Bonus”, and there are four VIP statuses. The highest ~~mountain~~ VIP status is “Everest.” 100% bonus means you will earn 20 point for every dollar you spend. Again, 1 point=1 cent, thus you get 20% back! VIP status you earn will be valid until the end of the next year.

How to Earn VIP Status Efficiently

A great offer which Moosejaw gives is not only the rewards program but also many useful coupons. One of coupons I use every time it’s available is “3XREWARD.”(it is available several times throughout the year) Literally, you can earn 3x reward points. Say, you are in VIP status “Aconcague” and make a purchase of $500. You earn 5000*3 and 25% bonus of 1250, 16250 points in total. Even if this is the first purchase of the year, you will earn VIP status of “K2″ with only one transaction!

High Rate of Cash Back from Portals

Moosejaw pays good cash back to shopping portals. The best rate is ShopDiscover 10%. During ShopDiscover’s promotion, the rate goes up 15%! If you don’t have Discover credit cards and can’t access to ShopDiscover, visit ActiveJunky.com. It is a free-to-join shopping portal and offers between 7% to 9% cash back.

With All Combined….

I’m in VIP status of “Everest”. When I shop with a coupon “3XREWARD” through shopping portal, ShopDiscover:

Earn 30% back in point with a coupon
Earn 10% back in point for High Altitude Bonus (100% bonus of a base point)
Earn 10% cash back from ShopDiscover
Earn 1% cash back from credit card reward

It is more than 50% off deal!