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The U.S. Treasury used to run a promotion on the online sale of dollar coins to encourage the usage of them in circulation. They accepted credit cards for the

by ww520 4y ago

The U.S. Treasury used to run a promotion on the online sale of dollar coins to encourage the usage of them in circulation. They accepted credit cards for the online purchases and shipped the coins free of charge. People just bought them with credit cards that gave rebates, points, or miles, and then deposited the coins in banks to get back the cash.

no_wizard 4y ago
I have heard of this before. I even met someone who claimed they they would do this with their high cash back cards and claimed to reap thousands in rewards with unlimited cash back. Even said they would open new cards to do this with they high dollar promo periods and high credit limits and would just do this while the promotion was active. Claimed to have made thousands on it, maybe even 10s of thousands I always wondered if your credit scorn would be all jacked because it would report this high to zero usage
- arcanemachiner 4y ago
  > I always wondered if your credit scorn would be all jacked because it would report this high to zero usage I shall add this to my list of unverifiable FICO score rumors.
- userbinator 4y ago
  It's called "manufactured spending".
- matgessel 4y ago
  > temporary impact on your credit score. Applying for multiple credit cards at once will reduce your score for a few months; if you will be applying for a mortgage, car loan, job, apartment, or other situation that requires a check of your credit, it is a good idea to stop all churning activity as far in advance as possible. Most conservative estimates recommend at least 2 years as "hard pulls" from credit card inquiries will fall off your credit report in 2 years. > your homeowners insurance rate can be impacted by your churning activity, even though your credit score remains high. Your insurer regular does a soft pull on your credit, and they may increase your rate if there are a lot of new credit lines, even though your overall credit score and utilization may remain in good standing. https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/wiki/index https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/wiki/index
sgerenser 4y ago
I did this while it lasted. Just enough to reach minimum spend tiers for credit card promotions, though (e.g. spend $5000 in the first 3 months and earn XX,000 miles). There were definitely people doing it on a much larger scale on forums like FatWallet (RIP). And if you had good credit and lots of credit cards already, having one or two cards occasionally nearly maxed out didn’t really hurt your credit score much.
PragmaticPulp 4y ago
The wildest parts of those forum threads were the people whose coin shipments were lost or delivered to the wrong address. Intense panic after they realized they might have lost thousands of dollars in the process of chasing a tiny cash back or reward bonus. It was also fascinating to watch it all break down in the end, as banks stopped accepting bulk deposits of the coins. A lot of panicked people trying to find some way to get their thousands of dollars of coins back into their checking accounts after every bank in town turned them away. IIRC, some credit card companies also stopped paying rewards on those purchases or closing accounts due to the obvious manufactured spending, making all of the risk and work pointless.

by ww520 4y ago

no_wizard 4y ago

I have heard of this before. I even met someone who claimed they they would do this with their high cash back cards and claimed to reap thousands in rewards with unlimited cash back. Even said they would open new cards to do this with they high dollar promo periods and high credit limits and would just do this while the promotion was active. Claimed to have made thousands on it, maybe even 10s of thousands I always wondered if your credit scorn would be all jacked because it would report this high to zero usage

arcanemachiner 4y ago
> I always wondered if your credit scorn would be all jacked because it would report this high to zero usage I shall add this to my list of unverifiable FICO score rumors.
userbinator 4y ago
It's called "manufactured spending".
matgessel 4y ago
> temporary impact on your credit score. Applying for multiple credit cards at once will reduce your score for a few months; if you will be applying for a mortgage, car loan, job, apartment, or other situation that requires a check of your credit, it is a good idea to stop all churning activity as far in advance as possible. Most conservative estimates recommend at least 2 years as "hard pulls" from credit card inquiries will fall off your credit report in 2 years. > your homeowners insurance rate can be impacted by your churning activity, even though your credit score remains high. Your insurer regular does a soft pull on your credit, and they may increase your rate if there are a lot of new credit lines, even though your overall credit score and utilization may remain in good standing. https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/wiki/index https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/wiki/index

sgerenser 4y ago

I did this while it lasted. Just enough to reach minimum spend tiers for credit card promotions, though (e.g. spend $5000 in the first 3 months and earn XX,000 miles). There were definitely people doing it on a much larger scale on forums like FatWallet (RIP). And if you had good credit and lots of credit cards already, having one or two cards occasionally nearly maxed out didn’t really hurt your credit score much.

PragmaticPulp 4y ago

The wildest parts of those forum threads were the people whose coin shipments were lost or delivered to the wrong address. Intense panic after they realized they might have lost thousands of dollars in the process of chasing a tiny cash back or reward bonus. It was also fascinating to watch it all break down in the end, as banks stopped accepting bulk deposits of the coins. A lot of panicked people trying to find some way to get their thousands of dollars of coins back into their checking accounts after every bank in town turned them away. IIRC, some credit card companies also stopped paying rewards on those purchases or closing accounts due to the obvious manufactured spending, making all of the risk and work pointless.