Did I or discover mess up?

[Anonymous]

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@Simply827 wrote:

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@taxi818 wrote:
I understood the 5% to be for any gas purchase. At pump or inside.

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There's a convenience store in my area (Wawa) that's always coded as gas, whether that particular location has a gas station or not.

5% on hoagies 

I should probably buy some gift cards.

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There's a chain of convenience stores here in MD (as well as surrounding states) called Royal Farms that's also coded as gas, regardless of whether or not a particular location has gasoline.

[yfan]

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@Fico2Go wrote:

I will have to start building a list of people who use GCs for reasons outside of MS.  In case I should take CCCs to meet judge judy. i've never onverted any of my purchases to cash so would love to hear the legal exlanation of what MS means.  And why such description of spending is so tabooed.

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The reason such spending is "tabooed" is because you are not actually spending the money now but saving it up for future use as cash; as such it is viewed as a cash advance for which you are not only avoiding the cash advance fees but earning rewards on top of it. Bonus categories are meant to stimulate spending in those categories. If you are buying cash-equivalents, and using them later (whoever is using it is immaterial), then you are in effect taking a bonus cashback for spending at a time when the bonus cashback in that category is no longer offered. Store specific gift cards are different because you are actually prepaying a given store, stimulating their business, not Visa's.

[09Lexie]

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@Fico2Go wrote:

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@Fico2Go wrote:

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I'm a little more shy than you.  Never more than $1100 transation per visit.  For me I don't do MSing with giftcards.  I buy giftcards for business purpose and for paying bills and other safety reasons.  I give them to my clients and I use them personally as needed.  

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As long as you are buying cash equivalents and getting rewards, the CCCs will view this as MS with giftcards!  Whether or not you personally turn them into cash.

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I will have to start building a list of people who use GCs for reasons outside of MS.  In case I should take CCCs to meet judge judy. i've never onverted any of my purchases to cash so would love to hear the legal exlanation of what MS means.  And why such description of spending is so tabooed.

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The meaning of MS has been discussed on myFICO ad nauseum. Using your cc for purchases that can be considered as cash equivalents, gaining or earning rewards and avoiding the cash advance fee. From the lenders point of view, the credit line extended was not intended for such purpose; hence the nerfing of ccs

this is a simplistic definition but I am confident the OP is aware of what MS means.

In this case, if the dollar amount of the bonus isn't caught and OP continues on with cashing out each month (amount the exceeds their limit) then he takes the risk of AA.

eta: yfan beat me to it

[subwaysandwich]

OP gonna get the ban from Discover soon lol

[Fico2Go]

It's interesting to read the different rationale on what ms means. And why people buy these gift cards and other cash equivalents.

Anyways discover is great. I don't see them banning me anytime soon.

[longtimelurker]

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@Fico2Go wrote:
It's interesting to read the different rationale on what ms means. And why people buy these gift cards and other cash equivalents.

Anyways discover is great. I don't see them banning me anytime soon.

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Said this recently, but I will say it again anyway!   It depends on the viewpoint:

1) Issuer: Buying cash equivalents is MS/perk abuse just bad bad bad.  (For reasons given above among other things)

2) "Proper" MS.   To really "do" MS it has to be repeatable and scalable, so this does involve transforming your purchases into cash to pay off the credit card.  Many other things can be viewed as timeshifting spending, much as some people trying to reach minimum spend for a bonus will prepay large bills such as insurance.   So you buy a card, retail or other, intending to really use it, or gift it, later.

But 1) is all that really matters from the risk viewpoint, if the issuer doesn't like what you are doing, they will take action. 

[joltdude]

Why are we discussing making judgements on people's morality, patronizing, and such. It's YMMV and this is no different than the judgements made in credit rebuild threads about paying in full, or settle, or waiting for it to fall off. Let the OP make their own educated decisions backed up on pros and cons, with explaining the possible reprocussions  and dont try to make it a morality call.