topic Re: Meeting bonus spend while avoiding manufactured spend in Credit Cards

Meeting bonus spend while avoiding manufactured spend

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:15:09 GMT

I have two months to spend around $3,600 more on my CSP. There has been a lot of talk on the forum about Chase accounts being closed and speculation about why they were closed. Obviously, I would like to avoid this, so I am trying to avoid anything that might be seen as manufactured spend. I'm considering the different prepaid checking alternative accounts as a way of doing this and using them to pay college tuition. Is it acceptable to purchase reloads for Bluebird or Serve? If so, what reloads should I buy, is Bluebid or Serve better, and is there a limit to this? Finally, has anyone else used this system to make payments to places that only accept checks? I want to make sure that the bill pay from check feature works properly. If those won't work, how do you reccomend meeting spend?

Re: Meeting bonus spend while avoiding manufactured spend

CreditCuriosity — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:20:25 GMT

Searching for LTL to chime in...

What made it easier for me is I added my parents as AU's on the CSP... Correct me if I am wrong your parents are well off from others posts I have read from you aka inquiring about the paladium card, add them as AU's have them charge a months worth of stuff or less whatever and you have met you spending requirements.. Safest way in my opinion.

Re: Meeting bonus spend while avoiding manufactured spend

IWOL — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:19:59 GMT

There is no such thing as Bluebird or Serve "Reloads".

You can load both of those with debit cards at Walmart or up to $1000 month with a credit card online.

What you are taking about doing would be considered MS so you wouldnt be avoiding MS if you use BB or Serve.

Re: Meeting bonus spend while avoiding manufactured spend

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:20:30 GMT

Friends and family.. Do they have any large purchases coming up? I met my spend that way by going with them to pay for their item and them giving me the cash to pay the credit card.... it has to be someone you trust though.

Re: Meeting bonus spend while avoiding manufactured spend

mongstradamus — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:20:32 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I have two months to spend around $3,600 more on my CSP. There has been a lot of talk on the forum about Chase accounts being closed and speculation about why they were closed. Obviously, I would like to avoid this, so I am trying to avoid anything that might be seen as manufactured spend. I'm considering the different prepaid checking alternative accounts as a way of doing this and using them to pay college tuition. Is it acceptable to purchase reloads for Bluebird or Serve? If so, what reloads should I buy, is Bluebid or Serve better, and is there a limit to this? Finally, has anyone else used this system to make payments to places that only accept checks? I want to make sure that the bill pay from check feature works properly. If those won't work, how do you reccomend meeting spend?

Both BB and Serve can be deemed as MS but i find serve to be easier , you can do 1500 an month from home by online CC load. So you should be able to meet your min spend. Also remember you can put all kind of bills like cable, cell phone, home and auto insurance, and oil bill that should help you meet min spend an lot easier.

Re: Meeting bonus spend while avoiding manufactured spend

kdm31091 — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:22:10 GMT

If you are trying to be 100% "safe" I would avoid doing reloads to Serve/Redbird with a credit card, especially Chase. Also, others may disagree, but that's still essentially manufactured spending anyway.

What I would do is what the other poster suggested -- add an authorized user who will meet the spending if you can't find anything you need to purchase for that amount.

Re: Meeting bonus spend while avoiding manufactured spend

red259 — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:26:03 GMT

You can only load serve directly with CC. its capped out at 1 to 1.5k per month. Then you can have a check sent to pay your bills. You can also use evolvemoney and load with a debit card, but you can only pay each vendor once a month and no more than $500. I doubt a small amount like that over the course of two months will be an issue with Chase, but it depends on your credit profile. I would make sure to spend on other things as well and I certainly wouldn't do any larger amounts. You can also buy giftcards for stores/restuaurants that you will buy from in the future anyway. I usually let my bills build up into a backlog right before an app cycle so that then I have plenty of things to spend on. Keep in mind that while its not MS what I'm talking about a lender will not be able to tell, so dont go overboard with it. The caps kinda limit you from doing any real damage anyway.

Re: Meeting bonus spend while avoiding manufactured spend

ibmrad7 — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:26:24 GMT

If you pay rent then use William Paid (You do have to pay 2.9% fee)

Re: Meeting bonus spend while avoiding manufactured spend

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:26:26 GMT

@kdm31091 wrote:
If you are trying to be 100% "safe" I would avoid doing reloads to Serve/Redbird with a credit card, especially Chase. Also, others may disagree, but that's still essentially manufactured spending anyway.

What I would do is what the other poster suggested -- add an authorized user who will meet the spending if you can't find anything you need to purchase for that amount.

I disagree.

Re: Meeting bonus spend while avoiding manufactured spend

red259 — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:27:29 GMT

@mongstradamus wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I have two months to spend around $3,600 more on my CSP. There has been a lot of talk on the forum about Chase accounts being closed and speculation about why they were closed. Obviously, I would like to avoid this, so I am trying to avoid anything that might be seen as manufactured spend. I'm considering the different prepaid checking alternative accounts as a way of doing this and using them to pay college tuition. Is it acceptable to purchase reloads for Bluebird or Serve? If so, what reloads should I buy, is Bluebid or Serve better, and is there a limit to this? Finally, has anyone else used this system to make payments to places that only accept checks? I want to make sure that the bill pay from check feature works properly. If those won't work, how do you reccomend meeting spend?
Both BB and Serve can be deemed as MS but i find serve to be easier , you can do 1500 an month from home by online CC load. So you should be able to meet your min spend. Also remember you can put all kind of bills like cable, cell phone, home and auto insurance, and oil bill that should help you meet min spend an lot easier.

Only if you signup with certain types of phones. I think all the new phones allow for this. Otherwise your stuck at 1k per month.

Re: Meeting bonus spend while avoiding manufactured spend

ibmrad7 — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:28:11 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@kdm31091 wrote:
If you are trying to be 100% "safe" I would avoid doing reloads to Serve/Redbird with a credit card, especially Chase. Also, others may disagree, but that's still essentially manufactured spending anyway.

What I would do is what the other poster suggested -- add an authorized user who will meet the spending if you can't find anything you need to purchase for that amount.
I disagree.

+ 1. There is nothing Manufactured about Serve/Bluebird spending.

Re: Meeting bonus spend while avoiding manufactured spend

red259 — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:29:51 GMT

@ibmrad7 wrote:
If you pay rent then use William Paid (You do have to pay 2.9% fee)

Yea that would kill a lot of the value in the points earned. In the old days I used to buy 5k at a time of reloads. It made making initial spend a snap and I was able to pay my rent and all my bills that would not accept credit cards. Sadly that ship has sailed.

Re: Meeting bonus spend while avoiding manufactured spend

mongstradamus — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:29:57 GMT

@red259 wrote:
@mongstradamus wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I have two months to spend around $3,600 more on my CSP. There has been a lot of talk on the forum about Chase accounts being closed and speculation about why they were closed. Obviously, I would like to avoid this, so I am trying to avoid anything that might be seen as manufactured spend. I'm considering the different prepaid checking alternative accounts as a way of doing this and using them to pay college tuition. Is it acceptable to purchase reloads for Bluebird or Serve? If so, what reloads should I buy, is Bluebid or Serve better, and is there a limit to this? Finally, has anyone else used this system to make payments to places that only accept checks? I want to make sure that the bill pay from check feature works properly. If those won't work, how do you reccomend meeting spend?
Both BB and Serve can be deemed as MS but i find serve to be easier , you can do 1500 an month from home by online CC load. So you should be able to meet your min spend. Also remember you can put all kind of bills like cable, cell phone, home and auto insurance, and oil bill that should help you meet min spend an lot easier.
Only if you signup with certain types of phones. I think all the new phones allow for this. Otherwise your stuck at 1k per month.

yes i should preface saying if you have nfc enabled phone which most non apple phones are . I think only 6 and 6 plus are nfc out of the box.

Re: Meeting bonus spend while avoiding manufactured spend

red259 — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:31:08 GMT

@ibmrad7 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@kdm31091 wrote:
If you are trying to be 100% "safe" I would avoid doing reloads to Serve/Redbird with a credit card, especially Chase. Also, others may disagree, but that's still essentially manufactured spending anyway.

What I would do is what the other poster suggested -- add an authorized user who will meet the spending if you can't find anything you need to purchase for that amount.
I disagree.

+ 1. There is nothing Manufactured about Serve/Bluebird spending.

I wouldn't say nothing manufactured about it. It depends on how it is used, but I agree plenty of people use it for legitimate purposes.

Re: Meeting bonus spend while avoiding manufactured spend

mongstradamus — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:32:34 GMT

@red259 wrote:
@ibmrad7 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@kdm31091 wrote:
If you are trying to be 100% "safe" I would avoid doing reloads to Serve/Redbird with a credit card, especially Chase. Also, others may disagree, but that's still essentially manufactured spending anyway.

What I would do is what the other poster suggested -- add an authorized user who will meet the spending if you can't find anything you need to purchase for that amount.
I disagree.

+ 1. There is nothing Manufactured about Serve/Bluebird spending.
I wouldn't say nothing manufactured about it. It depends on how it is used, but I agree plenty of people use it for legitimate purposes.

its debatable if its ms or not because if you load with certain CC it will be charged as cash advance. To me that makes it semi-ms

Re: Meeting bonus spend while avoiding manufactured spend

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:33:17 GMT

@red259 wrote:
@ibmrad7 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@kdm31091 wrote:
If you are trying to be 100% "safe" I would avoid doing reloads to Serve/Redbird with a credit card, especially Chase. Also, others may disagree, but that's still essentially manufactured spending anyway.

What I would do is what the other poster suggested -- add an authorized user who will meet the spending if you can't find anything you need to purchase for that amount.
I disagree.

+ 1. There is nothing Manufactured about Serve/Bluebird spending.
I wouldn't say nothing manufactured about it. It depends on how it is used, but I agree plenty of people use it for legitimate purposes.

Whether or not it is really manufactured spending, would Chase have an issue with it?

Re: Meeting bonus spend while avoiding manufactured spend

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:35:26 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@red259 wrote:
@ibmrad7 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@kdm31091 wrote:
If you are trying to be 100% "safe" I would avoid doing reloads to Serve/Redbird with a credit card, especially Chase. Also, others may disagree, but that's still essentially manufactured spending anyway.

What I would do is what the other poster suggested -- add an authorized user who will meet the spending if you can't find anything you need to purchase for that amount.
I disagree.

+ 1. There is nothing Manufactured about Serve/Bluebird spending.
I wouldn't say nothing manufactured about it. It depends on how it is used, but I agree plenty of people use it for legitimate purposes.
Whether or not it is really manufactured spending, would Chase have an issue with it?

That is for Chase to decide....We can't give you a "Yay" or "Nay" to that question.

Re: Meeting bonus spend while avoiding manufactured spend

IWOL — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:36:38 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@red259 wrote:
@ibmrad7 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@kdm31091 wrote:
If you are trying to be 100% "safe" I would avoid doing reloads to Serve/Redbird with a credit card, especially Chase. Also, others may disagree, but that's still essentially manufactured spending anyway.

What I would do is what the other poster suggested -- add an authorized user who will meet the spending if you can't find anything you need to purchase for that amount.
I disagree.

+ 1. There is nothing Manufactured about Serve/Bluebird spending.
I wouldn't say nothing manufactured about it. It depends on how it is used, but I agree plenty of people use it for legitimate purposes.
Whether or not it is really manufactured spending, would Chase have an issue with it?

Nobody can answer that definitively. There have been reports of shutdowns but they seem to scarce and far more reports of people using these tools heavily without any problems.

Re: Meeting bonus spend while avoiding manufactured spend

red259 — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:44:58 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@red259 wrote:
@ibmrad7 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@kdm31091 wrote:
If you are trying to be 100% "safe" I would avoid doing reloads to Serve/Redbird with a credit card, especially Chase. Also, others may disagree, but that's still essentially manufactured spending anyway.

What I would do is what the other poster suggested -- add an authorized user who will meet the spending if you can't find anything you need to purchase for that amount.
I disagree.

+ 1. There is nothing Manufactured about Serve/Bluebird spending.
I wouldn't say nothing manufactured about it. It depends on how it is used, but I agree plenty of people use it for legitimate purposes.
Whether or not it is really manufactured spending, would Chase have an issue with it?

Doubtful. I use serve every month with my CSP or at least I used to. Because of the caps of 1k to 1.5k per month I can't see why chase would bother someone about it. At least on a card with a higher limit and being that your limit must be at least 5k it should be fine. I will say I use the card for a lot of other expenses as well though and its a relatively small portion of my credit line going to serve.

Re: Meeting bonus spend while avoiding manufactured spend

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 21:11:24 GMT

@ibmrad7 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@kdm31091 wrote:
If you are trying to be 100% "safe" I would avoid doing reloads to Serve/Redbird with a credit card, especially Chase. Also, others may disagree, but that's still essentially manufactured spending anyway.

What I would do is what the other poster suggested -- add an authorized user who will meet the spending if you can't find anything you need to purchase for that amount.
I disagree.

+ 1. There is nothing Manufactured about Serve/Bluebird spending.

Test 1: If your card had no rewards, would you do this?

It is a transaction made purely for rewards (otherwise you just pay by check/ACH), so yes, it is manufactured spending. (And as absolutely conclusive proof, it has its own thread in the MS section of FT!(