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Plink Shut Down, All Points Are Gone

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I received email that tells Plink shut down. Nothing lasts forever, but my concern (probably all Plink users’ concern) is what happens to points we had. I sent email about it, and I received the following message in a second.

Thank you for contacting Plink. We are sorry, but no more points can be redeemed.

Plink was officially closed on Sept 11, 2014. Unfortunately, no staff remains to answer emails.

Sincerely,
Team Plink

It seems that it is an automated email. I’m very disappointed. The last email and their current website say “Any further questions can be directed to support@plink.com. “, but they had no intention to give a costumer support. All they did was set up an automated answering email.

plink rewards programI was a new member of Plink. I had 4900 points when they shut down, and that was my lifetime points. I had never redeemed the points. I wanted to see what would happen when I earned more than 5000 points and how many points they needed for $50 or $100 gift cards. I was expecting that I could get some discount such as 4750 points for $50 gift card, but when my points reached 4900, $50 gift card stayed unlocked (not redeemable). So, at this time I learned there was no discount. It might have had, but it would have been less than 100 points ($1). It was not much worth, so I decided that I would redeem the point when my points got over 5000.

However, they haven’t posted points since August 15th. I made five transactions at Advance Auto Parts since then. It was worth 2000 points. Plus, Plink was even offering a promotion last month, which you could earn extra 25% bonus points for Advance Auto Parts purchases. Some transactions were made during this promotion.

As I said earlier, nothing lasts forever. But when things went bad, they could have done something such as sending a notice, instead of shutting down all of a sudden. What I’m angry about is that they were offering a promotion in the last minutes!

At least, it gives me a lesson. It is better to redeem off as soon as it gets available in case of a sudden closure. Starting with a similar program, ShopKick, you can redeem for a gift card in as little as $2 increment.

And Chime Card, (it is totally different reward program.) The new rule will be implemented on Oct 8th. They will probably start charging a fee to load Chime with PayPal debit card. I have been using the card without a problem, but new offers haven’t been added this week. What is going to happened to this program?

AmEx Gift Card Deals Dead

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fuel rewards network back to school promoToday, I received Fuel Rewards Network rewards a week earlier than expected. Currently, FRN has a back-to-school promotion. Through Sep 14th, you can earn double rewards on its shopping portal. I purchased $2000 AmEx GCs on Aug 14th. A base reward is 5¢/gal discount every $50 purchase, and this gets double. So, 2000/50*5*2=$4/gal discount was posted to my FRN account. Since you can redeem FRN reward for up to 20 gallon, $4/gal is worth $80, which is like 4% cash back. This was great. I wish I could earn another one during the promotion, but AmEx GC link had disappeared on FRN online mall at the same time as other shopping portals stopped Amex GC cash back offer. (See details here)

On Sep 2nd, I made AmEx GC purchase through “Simply Best Coupons”, which offers 1% cash back and a promo code to waive a purchase fee. Since then, Simply Best Coupons had been the best portal for AmEx GC purchase, but that has been gone, too. All you can find in the website is a promo code that waives a purchase fee.

Here are the today’s screenshots of Cashbackholic.com and Cashbackmonitor.com.

cashbackmonitor amex gccashbackholic amex gc

80 percent cash back on amex gcThere are much fewer portals, and most of them are not famous or reputable sites. The picture on the right is the page of AmEx GC at ExtraBux.com. This is obviously an error. 80% cash back is just impossible!

It seems that AmEx GC deal has been dead, and $99 I paid for Premium Shipping Plan just a few month ago will be wasted until the deal is back. It may not be going to be back forever, though.

I was using AmEx GCs for purchases where my credit cards doesn’t offer bonus cash back. For example, Costco. The only AmEx credit card I have is Blue Cash Preferred. Since Costco is not in “Grocery Stores” category but “Wholesale Clubs”category, there is no bonus. Cash back from Blue Cash Preferred is only 1%. And cash back at grocery stores is 1%, anyway because I have already spent $6000 at grocery stores this year.

AmEx GC purchased through the portals had given me around 2% to 4% discount. I can’t find a way to get 4% discount, but around 2% is easily obtained in the other ways. Here are some ways I came up with.

Apply “Citi Double Cash Card”

Earn 1% cash back when you purchase, and another 1% when you pay the bill. It is simply 2% cash back on all purchases. Since Citi Double Cash is not AmEx (Visa or MasterCard, not sure which one), I can’t use at Costco warehouses, but I can use it online to buy a Costco gift card and use it in warehouses.

Apply “Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express Card”

Another 2%-cash-back credit card. Since this card is AmEx, I can use it directly in Costco warehouses.

Load “AmEx for Target” with grocery-stores-bonus credit cards

I have never done this before, and it is not verified. According to Visa Supplier Locator, Target is categorized as Grocery Stores. Using Visa credit cards such as “US Bank Cash+” and “BankAmericard Cash Rewards” (both cards offer 2% cash back on grocery purchases) to load AmEx for Target may give you 2% cash back. As a rule of AmEx for Target, the maximum amount per load is $1000, and it is charged $3. If the transaction is eligible for 2% cash back, you will earn $20-$3=$17 each load. So, you get 1.7%-discounted AmEx prepaid card. This doesn’t work AmEx Blue Cash cards. That is because AmEx doesn’t consider Target as “Grocery Stores”, but “Superstores”. It is clearly stated in their website.

Currently, I don’t have any of these credit cards. Now that AmEx GCs deal is dead, I definitely need one of them, especially “Citi Double Cash Card” or “Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express Card”. After doing some more research, I will apply at least one of them.

Cashback Rate of ShopDiscover back to Normal Sears/Macy’s/Starbucks

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Today, I noticed that ShopDiscover cashback rate of Sears.com lowered from 10% to 5%. I checked other retailers, and as long as I remember the following retailers’ has been reduced by 5%.

  • Sears 10% ⇒ 5%
  • Kmart 10% ⇒ 5%
  • Lands End 10% ⇒ 5%
  • Moosejaw 15% ⇒ 10%
  • Macy’s 10% ⇒ 5%
  • Sport Authority 10% ⇒ 5%
  • Starbucks 10% ⇒ 5%

mothers day bonus shopdiscoverThey reduced, but actually the rates of these retailers got back to normal. The rates are the same as they were a month ago. (read previous post to see details) After all, it seems that it was ShopDiscover’s temporary and seasonal (maybe back-to-school?) bonus offer. Before, ShopDiscover shows bonus as pictured. And they might stop doing it for some reasons.

Despite the reduction, ShopDiscover is still one of the best cash back portals. No other portal sites beat ShopDiscover’s cashback redemption options. (See details here) And I think there is another seasonal bonus offer just around the corner.

Can’t Find Cash Back Portals for American Express Gift Card

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amex gc cash back comparisonRecently, the rate of cash back for the purchase of American Express Gift Cards got lower. (see details here) But now I found it worse than ever. In the last few months, the cash back rate for AmEx GCs were between 2% and 3%. Last night, before buying AmEx GC, I went to cashbackmonitor.com to see which portal offer the best rate. As you see, 2.1% from Befrugal was the best. I was hoping for a better rate, but there was no choice. The amount of the previous AmEx GC was nearly zero. And although 2.1% was not really great deal, but I could still save money with it.

However, there was a problem. I couldn’t find a page of AmEx GCs at Befrugal.com. Then I went to TopCashBack, that offers 2.0% (according to cashbackmonitor). Same here, there was no page or link at TopCashBack. I checked some other portals. I didn’t check all of them, but I could manage to find a few portals that offered cash back, Simply Best Coupons, Ebates, and Mr. Rebates. The rate was merely 1%. The only consolation was that Simply Best Coupons had a promo code to waive a purchase fee of $3.95.

In July and August, I purchased four AmEx GCs with a promo code which is not posted on the portal site. As a result, all pending cash back ($175.50 in total) was cancelled. (see details here)

amex gc cash back portalsToday, I checked cashbackmonitor. As you see, all travel reward portals have gone, and there are only seven cash back portals. 1% is the highest, and promo code to waive a purchase fee can be found ONLY at Simply Best Coupons.

Is 1% cash back still worthwhile? It depends on face value of AmEx GC you buy. Say you buy $1000 AmEx GC with AmEx Blue Cash credit card. You can waive a purchase fee of $3.95 at Simply Best Coupons.

  • Purchase fee $0
  • Shipping -$8.95
  • 1% cash back from credit card +$10.09
  • 1% cash back from portal +$10.00
  • Total profit is $11.14

The profit is only 1.11% of $1000. This isn’t great. However, if you buy $5000 AmEx GC, total profit is $91.14. It’s 1.82% of $5000. Not bad. If you enroll in Premium Shipping Plan (see details here), shipping cost may be calculated less. So, you can manage to get close to 2% discount.

Just a few months ago, I had already enrolled in Premium Shipping Plan. I usually order 3 or 4 AmEx GCs per month. So, shipping cost is calculated less than $3 each order. After considering all of these calculations, I placed an order of $2000 AmEx GC. Simply Best Coupons already posted a pending cash back.

I hope Befrugal or TopCashBack offer cash back for AmEx GCs again, but for now Simply Best Coupons with a promo code is the best option for purchasing American Express Gift Cards. Click here to visit Simply Best Coupons and don’t forget to use promo code when you purchase AmEx GCs.

American Express Serve $25 Bonus offer & $10 Good Faith Credit

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serve get 25 back aug 15 sep 13I received two credits from Serve recently. One is $25, and the other is $10. As for $25, a short description says, “Thanks for Using Your Card.” And here is an email I received earlier. I needed to make 5 transactions of $10 or more to receive the credit. I started using my Serve card on Aug 27th. I believed that was the transaction#1. And I would need 4 more transactions, and I was thinking where to use. But two days later, somehow I already received the $25-credit. I check my transactions since Aug 16th. I made six bill pays and 2 regular purchases. One of them is the purchase of gift cards at Bed Bath and Beyond. The purchase was for Amex Offer “$5 back on $25 or more purchase.” I wasn’t sure if this transaction was eligible for another offer. So I didn’t count as one of five transactions for the new offer. However, the credit was posted, that means I didn’t have to do anything for the new offer. It seems that only regular bill pays meet the requirements to receive the credit.

serve credit 25 10

The other credit is $10 and was posted on Aug 27th. It is described as Good Faith Credit. I had no idea what this credit is for until I received this email today.

At American Express, we are committed to providing you with the best American Express Serve® Account experience possible. We recently fell short on this commitment and experienced an error related to an offer you added to your Serve card. We’d like to take this opportunity to tell you more about this error and how we’ve resolved it.

We offered you a one-time $10 statement credit when you used your enrolled Card to spend a total of $200 or more on American Express Gift Cards. Although you were able to enroll in this offer, your American Express Gift Card order was declined, and you were not able to receive the $10 credit.

To correct this error, we have issued a $10 statement credit to your American Express Serve Account. We would like to offer our sincere apology that you were unable to redeem the offer.

If you have any questions, please call us at 1‑800‑954‑0559 to speak to an American Express Serve Customer Care Professional.

We truly value your membership and will continue working to ensure you have a positive American Express Serve Account experience.

Thanks,

The American Express Serve Team

I remember this. There was Amex Offer, but you couldn’t redeem. I actually synced the offer and tried to make a purchase of AmEx GC. The transaction was declined because they don’t take prepaid or gift cards as payment. (see details here) No big deal, I didn’t care much about it, but American Express took it seriously and resolved generously. American Express issues lots of useful offers and takes good care of their customers.

American Express Blue Cash Preferred vs Everyday

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amex blue cash credit cardThe two credit cards from American Express, Blue Cash Preferred and Blue Cash Everyday, both offer bonus cash back on the purchase at grocery stores and gas stations. Preferred charges an annual fee of $75, and Everyday has no annual fee.

Benefits

Preferred

  • 6% cash back at grocery stores (up to $6000 per year in purchases, 1% after that)
  • 3% cash back at gas stations and selected department stores
  • 1% cash back on any other purchases

Everyday

  • 3% cash back at grocery stores (up to $6000 per year in purchases, 1% after that)
  • 2% cash back at gas stations and selected department stores
  • 1% cash back on any other purchases

The limits only apply on purchases at grocery stores. Cash back at gas stations and department stores are unlimited. Let’s say that you use two cards at grocery stores only. When you spend $2500 a year, cash back from two cards are:

  • Preferred $2500 x 0.06 – $75 (annual fee) = $75
  • Everyday $2500 x 0.03 = $75

So, if you spend more than $2500 a year (or $208.33 a month), you’d better choose Preferred over Everyday. After you have spent $6000 at grocery stores, you can still earn 1% cash back. You can track your spending on each category online account page. The picture is how statement looks like when grocery purchases has exceeded $6000. There are two lines for U.S. Supermarkets, and one is follow by “1%”.

amex blue cash reward statement

What to Do when reaching $6000 limit

Until next year, My AmEx Blue Cash Preferred offers only 1% cash back at grocery stores. You can use another card that offer cash back more than 1%. For example, 2% Bank of America Cash Rewards Visa, 2% US Bank Cash+ Visa, etc. Or you may apply for another AmEx Blue Cash card. But maybe you don’t want to have many credit cards, or don’t have credit score good enough to get approved of new credit cards. For those people, there is a way to continue to get bonus cash back at grocery stores with the same AmEx Blue Cash even after you have spent $6000 at grocery store. The key item is American Express Gift Card.

You can purchase AmEx GCs online, at their website www.americanexpress.com/gift-cards/. But you shouldn’t go to the site directly. You have to go through online shopping portal sites. A rate of cash back for the purchase of AmEx GCs varies from portal to portal. However, most of the time, either Befrugal or TopCashBack offers the highest rate between 2% and 3%. A purchase fee of AmEx GC is $3.95 regardless of value of gift card. There are some different shipping options and costs, but say you purchase $1000 AmEx GC with cheapest shipping option. A purchase Fee and shipping cost $3.95+$8.95=12.90. You have to spend $12.90 for $1000 cash equivalent item, but credit card reward’s 1% cash back covers most of it. So, cash back from the portal will remain! It means that you always get 2% to 3% discount every time you use AmEx GC.

Summery

American Express Blue Cash Preferred and Everyday are both great credit cards for grocery store purchases. To offset an annual fee of Preferred ($75), you need to spend $2500 annually at grocery store. (if you use the cards only at grocery stores) As a rough indication, if you spend less than $2500 a year, choose Everyday. If you spend more than $2500 a year, choose Preferred. In my opinion, $2500 is just a little amount. It is $208.33 per month. Even if you don’t buy foods at grocery stores, some grocery stores sell gift cards. You can buy merchant or Visa/MasterCard gift cards to get full 6% bonus cash back ($360) easily.

Chime Card Reviews

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chime cardChime Card is Reloadable Prepaid Debit Card that has a logo of Visa on it. Since it is a debit card, you can withdraw cash at ATM and get cash back with a purchase where available. But, the main feature of the card is that you can earn Instant Cash Back when you make qualifying purchases with the card.

Chime Offer

There are two types of rewards you can earn with Chime card, Earned Credit and Store Credit. Earned Credit is just like Amex Offer. Spend a certain amount at certain store and you will get certain amount credit. This type of offers looks like a left picture. One thing that is different from Amex Offer is you don’t need to sync with offers. As long as you use the card for a purchase that costs more than a requirement, you will get the credit. Store Credit has no minimum requirement and looks like a right picture. No matter how much you spend you will earn the credit. If you spend less than the amount they offer, you will receive the same amount of credit as you spend. The remaining balance of credit is kept for the next purchase.

chime offer earn creditchime offer store credit

How to Add Money

There are three ways to add money to Chime card.

  • Debit Card – $100 $200 per day
  • Bank Transfer – $200 per day
  • Direct Deposit

None of them is charged a fee. Some debit cards are charged up to 3% as a reload fee. Click here to see more details about charges. If you have a reward/point earning debit card, use it. You can do it online or with a mobile app. Money is available in no time. For example, PayPal Business Debit MasterCard offers 1% cash back for every purchase. Transferring money to Chime account is treated as a purchase in PayPal statement. So, you can earn 1% cash back every time you add money to the card.

A limit of $100 per day seems a little, but all Chime offers are mostly less than $50 (e.g., spend $35, get $5). And I have never seen an offer more than $100. When you find a good offer and don’t have enough money in the card. No problem. You can use the internet or smartphone to add money in a minute.

Fees

They charge a fee for the following transactions

  • Domestic Cash Withdrawal Fee: $2.50 per transaction
  • ATM Balance Inquiry Fee: $0.50 per transaction
  • Account Maintenance Fee: $5.00 per month ONLY AFTER 180 consecutive days of no purchases, withdrawals, or deposits on your account.
  • International Transaction Fee: 3% of the total purchase amount
  • International Cash Withdrawal Fee*: $2.50 + 3% of the total withdrawal amount
  • Check Refund Fee: $5.00 per check issued
  • Express Card Replacement Fee: $25.00 per card issued

As long as you use the card for redeeming Chime offers, you won’t get charged any fees. $5 for maintenance fee is avoidable. Any transaction you made waives the fee for 180 days. It is hard to get charged!

What Else?

On the back of the card, at the bottom, it says:

This card is issued by The Bancorp Bank pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A Inc.

It reminds me of something. The Bancorp Bank also issues Visa gift cards. Vanilla, OneVanilla, and Target Visa gift cards are all issued by the same bank. Since Walmart updated POS system, these gift cards can’t be used for reloading American Express BlueBird, Serve, or other reloadable prepaid cards (see details here.) Apparently, the problem is that these gift cards can’t be registered (or attached your name and billing address) because of their feature. However, Chime card is personalized. Your name and address are surely attached to the card so you can make online orders. And your name is also on the card. There is nothing shady to use the card for reloading BlueBird/Serve at Walmart.

So, I went to Walmart Kiosk and added $100 to my Serve card with Chime card. The transaction went through, and here is how it looks like in Chime history.

walmart swipe reload with chime card

This is great! When I add money to Chime with PayPal debit card, I got 1% cash back from PayPal. But you can bring money back to PayPal through Serve and Bank account. You can load Serve or Bluebird with PayPal debit card directly, in the same way, at Walmart, but this transaction is a PIN-used purchase which PayPal doesn’t offer 1% cash back.

I also shopped at grocery stores. I used self-checkout cashiers and got $50 (Pathmark) and $80 (Stop and Shop) cash back. ($50 and $80 are the maximum amounts for cash back allowed by self-checkout cashiers)

Aside from Chime Offer, the card can also be used for manufactured spending if you have a point/reward earning debit card. I wrote “there is nothing shady” earlier, but I think you should do these kinds of things moderately. Check all Chime Offers every week and redeem them from time to time, and reload BlueBird/Serve between these transactions.The history of Chime card shouldn’t be only Walmart and Debit Card Transfer.

Summery

Chime Offer is very good for money savings. You can see new offers every week. Each offer has a limited number, but it doesn’t fly away so quickly at least for now. As long as you use the card for redeeming Chime Offers, you won’t get charged any fee if you make any transaction within 180 days. If you add money to the card with point/reward earning debit cards, you can boost up the earning by reloading BlueBird/Serve or get cash back at registers.

You can only apply the card online. Please click here to get started.

FRN Offer Equivalent to 4% Cash Back on AmEx GC

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frn bonus rewardFuel Rewards Network (FRN) currently offer a promotion. You can earn extra 5¢/gal discount for every $50 purchase made through FRN shopping portal. The promotion ends on Sep 14th. The portal regularly offers 5¢/gal for every $50 purchase, and now it’s double! 10¢/gal. Please note that the rewards won’t double on bonus reward. Some retailers originally offer 2x, 3x… reward, but you can’t earn 4x, 6x…. on this promotion. It is just that you can earn EXTRA 5¢/gal for every $50 purchase.

Deal is back now! If you buy a $500 American Express gift card, you earn $1/gal discount. In July, reward on AmEx GC purchases went down from 2x to 1x (10¢ to 5¢/gal). The same thing happened to all other shopping portals. As of Aug 13th, best portal and rate for AmEx GC is 2.7% cash back at Befrugal.com. FRN reward is redeemable up to 20 gallons. So, during this promotion, FRN reward for AmEx GC is equivalent to 4% cashback. It is currently the best rate of all portals.

After July, most portals stop paying cash back for AmEx GC purchase if you use any promo code. There is always a promo code available to waive $3.95 purchase fee. But if you use the code, there is no reward or cash back at all. I bought four AmEx GCs in July and used the promo code on every purchase. Several pending cash back appeared in my account of a portal site, but soon they got all cancelled. (click here to see details)  So, never use any code otherwise you got no reward.

I purchased $2000 AmEx GC through FRN today, and it will give me $4/gal discount. From my experience, the reward will be posted and available in approximately 30 days. It’s too bad that I can’t confirm the reward during the promotion, but as long as you read the terms and conditions, and do nothing against them, and you will earn a reward.

Use Coupon No Cash Back from BeFrugal on AmEx Gift Cards

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Today, I logged in my BeFrugal account and noticed that my Total Balance got significantly lower than yesterday. I checked Cash Back Activity and found out that all pending cash back on AmEx gift cards looked cancelled. I made three orders in July, and one of orders was actually cancelled by American Express. Because I tried to use AmEx Serve for the purchase of the gift card. BeFrugal shows this transaction like this (picture below).

cash back on amex gc cancelled

But today, I got the same one on the other two orders, which weren’t cancelled. The orders had completed. I received the cards and used up already. I remembered that BeFrugal described the following in terms of AmEx GC.

If you choose to apply a coupon or deal that is not posted on BeFrugal.com, we are unable to guarantee that you will receive cash back on your purchase.

I used a coupon code to waive a purchase fee on all orders. Although I read terms, I assumed that I would earn cash back because other retailers paid before even when I used a coupon that was not on BeFrugal. And today, the terms have updated like this

Cash back not valid on any order with a coupon code applied

is befrugal going to cancel this order tooI made an order a few days ago in August. Cash Back is pending now, and I don’t see the sign of cancel. But I guess  it will be cancelled later. Now that terms is very clear, I won’t use the code that waives a purchase fee of only $3.95. Pay a purchase fee and I will earn cash back which is guaranteed by BeFrugal. This is still a good deal, and I feel comfortable because there is no need to worry about cancellation of cash back.

I wish BeFrugal updated terms eariler, but I can’t blame them. Last month, they said “we are unable to guarantee that you will receive cash back” and they had to cancel my cash back. Nothing is wrong with them. It is all my fault. Befrugal describes terms on every merchants in a detailed way. This is why I continue to use Befrugal, and it is my favorite free online shopping portal!