@Anonymous wrote:1) My initial premise of not really being risky relies on the premise that you're in fact paying off the bill every month, which is the predominant factor to the scores. Whether or not you let a score report, the bill is still being paid within the limits, so the hypothetical person paying off all but one card pre-statement is likely not a bigger risk than the person who pays in full.
2) There appear to be some confused versions of ethics here. Ethics are a system of moral principles or the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particularclass of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc. cite: dictionary.reference.com. Morals, of course, deal with what we as a society determine to be "right and wrong"
It is unethical to steal. It is not unethical to enter a contract, and to abide by the letter of that contract. If one side gives you something, you are not obligated, ethically or otherwise, give it back. This defines the difference between MS and stealing. In MS, they have a contract with you that involves the losely defined term "cash equivalents," yet they still give you the points for it. They can seize them back as a mistake of the contract, and it is not unethical to do so. You can also accept them as a gift, and it is also not unethical.
This conversation seems to be devaluing the greater understanding of ethics as doing what is right, and is devolving into a moral superiority contest, without the usually civility that I've come to expect on these forums. On that note, I vote for pepperoni with sausage and mushrooms.
The premise of paying in full applied to normal spend that a person encounters in their day to day life, is not a risk. Most people simply don't have the monthly spend rate to cause a problem. Where the PIF can pose a risk under the radar is when a MSer is churning a large number of gift cards, cycling them, paying down a large balance before the statement, so that it appears to be limited risk. When, in fact, the cycle of funds may end up getting them in a bind that they won't really have the cash to make the payments at some point. At that point, they may have an outstanding debt and no resources to pay. The music has stopped and there is no chair available.
As to the practice of MS using gift cards, the typical CC agreement excludes "cash equivalents" as a rewarded purchase. An MSer with resolve may be able to locate stores where the coding of the gift cards causes them to be rewarded. I suspect that the MSer who is making "a lot" of money doing MS is in a business where 1) they are spending a lot of time figuring out how to run the MS, and 2) eventually it is going to be shut down either by the store by changing coding, or by the CCC by recognizing the outsized rewards. So the MSer can have them. Regardless of any ethical questions, I don't think it is a sustainable income source. There is also the issue of disposing of all those cash cards, a treadmill I would not choose to jump onto.
@sean23 wrote:But you arent really "buying" gift cards. You are using gift cards to launder credit into cash to payback your credit card bill.
That's a bill, isn't it? 
@MarineVietVet wrote:This thread has gone off topic and is starting to go in circles with nothing new being added.
Speaking of circles, I like your sig.
So, who here pays before statement cut? 
@Anonymous wrote:
@MarineVietVet wrote:This thread has gone off topic and is starting to go in circles with nothing new being added.
Speaking of circles, I like your sig.
So, who here pays before statement cut?
I pay down to less than 10% before statement cuts for utilization.
