@Anonymous wrote:
@DaveSignal wrote:
As for the topic of hitting the credit limit and paying the unbilled charges repeatedly throughout the month, this could be an issue if the bank percieves possible payment fraud (what if the check bounces or the payment is reversed by the issuing bank) or possible manufactured spend.
Yes, a few users doing MS have been told by Amex (and by Citi on the 5x TYP) to stay in the CL limit per month. I assume they view this as a reasonable compromise and easier than closing the cards, trying not to pay rewards on such purchases etc. But only a few have been called, so who knows.
Can you explain to me what "manufactured spend" means?
@destine2grow wrote:
Now I don't know what to do. I have a small CL and wanted to use my card for everything for the rewards (as it is my only rewards cc). I plan to app for new cc sometime during the first quarter next year I tried carrying a balance and paying more than the minimum (currently 0% until dec). I guess I can stop trying to pay the card off and use it to have one bill autopauwd with the cc and pay my bills via my debit card. I just wanted them to see why I need a CLI and I was capable of paying it off. Oh well.
Nah, run your entire life through it. Take the rewards, take the benefits both with the one lender and with every other lender who will see your spending habits through there and be more likely to extend an offer of credit to you to take a slice of that away from the current lender. There's no downside, as mentioned, it's common to be max or near max your card, pay it off, max it out again, and go on if necessary. That's a clear demonstration of needing a higher CL and the vast majority of lenders would agree with that, and a non-trivial number of consumers do that especially in your situation.
What's being discussed is making multiple payments in a month to keep utilization on a given card beneath some arbitrary line (10 or 30% or whatever) which really doesn't have much relevance as long as you're PIFing the card once a month anyway. The lender won't care as the one time payment the typical use case for likely 90% of their customers if not more, and what you're describing that I tossed out above covers the other 9% of people who's card limits don't support their spending habits, and the rest we're talking 1% or less.
Even by my theories where I try to avoid outlier behavior as much as possible, you're just fine with that strategy, I would suggest simply using more of the balance before paying to demonstrate to the lender what you're trying to do.
@Revelate wrote:
@destine2grow wrote:
Now I don't know what to do. I have a small CL and wanted to use my card for everything for the rewards (as it is my only rewards cc). I plan to app for new cc sometime during the first quarter next year I tried carrying a balance and paying more than the minimum (currently 0% until dec). I guess I can stop trying to pay the card off and use it to have one bill autopauwd with the cc and pay my bills via my debit card. I just wanted them to see why I need a CLI and I was capable of paying it off. Oh well.Nah, run your entire life through it. Take the rewards, take the benefits both with the one lender and with every other lender who will see your spending habits through there and be more likely to extend an offer of credit to you to take a slice of that away from the current lender. There's no downside, as mentioned, it's common to be max or near max your card, pay it off, max it out again, and go on if necessary. That's a clear demonstration of needing a higher CL and the vast majority of lenders would agree with that, and a non-trivial number of consumers do that especially in your situation.
What's being discussed is making multiple payments in a month to keep utilization on a given card beneath some arbitrary line (10 or 30% or whatever) which really doesn't have much relevance as long as you're PIFing the card once a month anyway. The lender won't care as the one time payment the typical use case for likely 90% of their customers if not more, and what you're describing that I tossed out above covers the other 9% of people who's card limits don't support their spending habits, and the rest we're talking 1% or less.
Even by my theories where I try to avoid outlier behavior as much as possible, you're just fine with that strategy, I would suggest simply using more of the balance before paying to demonstrate to the lender what you're trying to do.
Thanks Revelate for clarifying for me! I will continue with my strategy.
@Josh2942 wrote:
Basically that's when you are buying things for friends or family for example and they are paying you back and you do it so much that it's not your spending but someone else's is. Say you have a friend that needs a new engine that has the cash and you pay 3k for it on the card and he gives you the cash. You get rewards from someone else's spending. It's manufactured. I do it all the time tho. For my family. I put vacations, has, groceries everything on my sapphire card
Oh ok. Thanks for the clarification. I put my children on my cards as an AI, so I guess basically I'm doing that since it's really under my name. My husband is also an AU on all the cards and he exclusively uses it for his business charges and pays on it every few days.
So having a manufactured charge/pymt, is this a good thing or a bad thing? Or does it even matter since you're paying it all off every time anyhow?
@Anonymous wrote:
@Josh2942 wrote:
Basically that's when you are buying things for friends or family for example and they are paying you back and you do it so much that it's not your spending but someone else's is. Say you have a friend that needs a new engine that has the cash and you pay 3k for it on the card and he gives you the cash. You get rewards from someone else's spending. It's manufactured. I do it all the time tho. For my family. I put vacations, has, groceries everything on my sapphire cardNo, that is not it! Basic definition is the purchase of (near) cash-equivalents, such as Visa/MC/AMEX gift cards, to gain rewards on the credit card. The cash equivalents are then converted into cash and the proceeds used to pay off the credit card, and the cycle starts again. This involves tens of thousands of dollars purchase per month at the medium level.
Current moderator policy prohibits advocation of MS, so I won't say the pros and cons.
But what Josh2942 describes isn't real MS, but issuers wouldn't have a problem with it, as they are gaining from the transaction charges and so long as the bill gets paid, that;s fine.
ETA: the distinction is that the purchase has no purpose outside the rewards, and is liquidated at a small loss. Josh and his family/friends really use their purchases.
Oh ok. I guess I'm good with that then. 
Good to know that the issuers won't have a problem with the way I'm using mine then. They are getting the charges for each individual transaction and then getting payment in lump sums.
I was doing that with my new cards because I didn't want a balance to report and Chase kept changing my statement dates. I spent a good $5000 on my CSP the first month (booked my travel for the rest of the year) and paid in full. Once the first statement cuts, I'll know which date to expet going forward and will just make sure it's PIF by then.
