What's the best way to use MR points without traveling?

[kdm31091]

The card (and MR system) is really designed for travel redemption. It’s easy to get excited by the 4x dining, I know I was. But digging deeper, if you don’t travel, your options are really limited when it comes to redemption.

Best bet are the few gift cards they offer for 1cpp. Down the road I suggest looking into all of these factors before applying as it can save you from getting an account with a reward system that doesn’t fit your needs.

Not every product fits everyone.... you may be best off with cash back. No point in being pinned down to a few gift cards if you can just redeem cash on other products.

[mongstradamus]

To be honest people shouldn't be applying for MR or UR earning cards if they don't know how or what they will use their points on. If you are looking for cash-like redemptions then uber card is probably the better option for most.4% cashback on restaurants and 3% travel is a lot easier for people to manage for just cash back.

[Anonymous]

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@mongstradamus wrote:
To be honest people shouldn't be applying for MR or UR earning cards if they don't know how or what they will use their points on. If you are looking for cash-like redemptions then uber card is probably the better option for most.4% cashback on restaurants and 3% travel is a lot easier for people to manage for just cash back.

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Totally disagree. Does the Uber card come with a minimun of $700 of value?  Uber only comes with a $100 sign up bonus.  How many Restaurants would you have to dine at to make that up?  Even if you just sold all the gift cards you got you would come out way a head getting the PRG. 

[mongstradamus]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@mongstradamus wrote:
To be honest people shouldn't be applying for MR or UR earning cards if they don't know how or what they will use their points on. If you are looking for cash-like redemptions then uber card is probably the better option for most.4% cashback on restaurants and 3% travel is a lot easier for people to manage for just cash back.

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Totally disagree. Does the Uber card come with a minimun of $700 of value?  Uber only comes with a $100 sign up bonus.  How many Restaurants would you have to dine at to make that up?  Even if you just sold all the gift cards you got you would come out way a head getting the PRG. 

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700 value ? you aren't using it for travel partners so thats a pretty generous cash value you are giving MR. I would say ~530 dollar value with giftcard. If you aren't using it for travel then you aren't using the travel credit so its 280 dollar value ? If you are thinking of keeping card long term and not just chrun and burn. Then value of prg after year 1 isn't as good. you need to spend 6250 in groceries and restaurants just to break even. Some people can definately do it, but I think uber visa is just easier card for majority of people looking for cash value

[wasCB14]

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@jb1280 wrote:

If you have the Schwab Platinum Card, you have the ability to cash out your MR Points at $1.25 per MR Point.

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An excellent answer to the question in the subject line, though not necessarily of much use to OP as it entails an additional AF and it sounds like OP can't get much value from the various credits.

[kdm31091]

Also keep in mind the annual fee isn’t waived, so that is another 250 eating into your sign up bonus. I think if you’re getting less than 1cpp (basically not redeeming for travel), it’s not really worthwhile.

[Anonymous]

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@mongstradamus wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@mongstradamus wrote:
To be honest people shouldn't be applying for MR or UR earning cards if they don't know how or what they will use their points on. If you are looking for cash-like redemptions then uber card is probably the better option for most.4% cashback on restaurants and 3% travel is a lot easier for people to manage for just cash back.

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Totally disagree. Does the Uber card come with a minimun of $700 of value?  Uber only comes with a $100 sign up bonus.  How many Restaurants would you have to dine at to make that up?  Even if you just sold all the gift cards you got you would come out way a head getting the PRG. 

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700 value ? you aren't using it for travel partners so thats a pretty generous cash value you are giving MR. I would say ~530 dollar value with giftcard. If you aren't using it for travel then you aren't using the travel credit so its 280 dollar value ? If you are thinking of keeping card long term and not just chrun and burn. Then value of prg after year 1 isn't as good. you need to spend 6250 in groceries and restaurants just to break even. Some people can definately do it, but I think uber visa is just easier card for majority of people looking for cash value

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So use the card for sign up bonus and spend you end up with $550 of gift cards.  Everyone wears shoes so you could buy $550 dollars worth of shoes from Zappos.  Or use it for Home Depot or Crate and Barrel.  Or whatever.   You can get two airline gift cards in the first year.  I don't know how much the gift cards go on the resale market but I would assume you can get $150 from them.   I am assuming the person got the card when the annual fee was waived. Now since you have to pay $150 annual fee the first year the value would be less.  But still would be much more than a $100 credit from Uber card. 

But like I said the Citi Thank You Premier is better as all their gift cards are 1CPP and the whole annual fee is waived at the current time the AMEX PRG/GOLD the best you can do is have 50k points and $100 credit.  Which gives you a $150 the first year. You might be able to re-coup some of that with the Grub Hub credit depending on where you live.  

[Anonymous]

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@kdm31091 wrote:
Also keep in mind the annual fee isn’t waived, so that is another 250 eating into your sign up bonus. I think if you’re getting less than 1cpp (basically not redeeming for travel), it’s not really worthwhile.

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You can get a $100 credit and 50k sign up bonus with referral so it is a $150 fee.  But it depends on your situation.  I see people here sign up for cards with $100 sign up bonuses like the Uber card 

[iced]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So use the card for sign up bonus and spend you end up with $550 of gift cards.  Everyone wears shoes so you could buy $550 dollars worth of shoes from Zappos.  Or use it for Home Depot or Crate and Barrel.  Or whatever.   You can get two airline gift cards in the first year.  I don't know how much the gift cards go on the resale market but I would assume you can get $150 from them.   I am assuming the person got the card when the annual fee was waived. Now since you have to pay $150 annual fee the first year the value would be less.  But still would be much more than a $100 credit from Uber card. 

But like I said the Citi Thank You Premier is better as all their gift cards are 1CPP and the whole annual fee is waived at the current time the AMEX PRG/GOLD the best you can do is have 50k points and $100 credit.  Which gives you a $150 the first year. You might be able to re-coup some of that with the Grub Hub credit depending on where you live.  

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If the only real value a card provides to someone is a sign-up bonus, it's not a good card for that person; it's a bad card with a good bonus. A discussion of a card's value should not depend solely on the sign-up bonus or the "first year" as it's a single event that cannot be repeated - particularly in the case of American Express. Instead, any meaningful discussion about the value of the card itself should be taken over a longer period of time (I would suggest 5 years to start), where the bonus diminishes in value as it's averaged out, unless of course the person is a churner and only interested in short-term value.

It's not clear from the OP whether the intent is to pump and dump the card or to keep it long-term. If the OP's intent is to cash out the bonus and close the card out in a year, there's been several options presented (including yours) for how to convert those points into something salvageable. If the OP is also trying to feel out how to derive value from the card long-term, the point's been made that there's not a good path forward for a non-traveler. The UR/MR programs are really designed for travelers, and not falling into that category makes those programs an inefficient use of spend (again, unless churning).

[redpat]

The first year AF is a minus $70.  Amex pays you to have the card the year 1.

Who cares how someone uses their points, just care how you would use them.