Credit Card and Bank Account Bonus Churning, and Interest Income Maximization

Square is a company that offers card processing services targeted at small business owners. They currently provide a free magnetic strip reader that you can connect to your smartphone's audio jack which allows payment processing (2.75% fee applies). You can also key in the payments manually via the virtual terminal on a web browser by logging into your account (3.5% + $0.15 fee applies). The MS opportunity arises for each account when you sign-up (one per SSN), in which you earn $1,000 in fee-free processing. You can refer additional individuals for an extra $1,000 to both  you and your referee's account for a total of $2,000 extra processing. With the recent death of Venmo as a means to liquidate American Express gift cards, I was forced to use Square to liquidate my AGC. I had to expend both mine and another person's SSN to liquidate my $3,000 AGC. I would advise anyone who needs to satisfy minimum spending requirements to save this MSing route for American Expres...

From the stickied post at the top of this blog, you can earn a 5% APY from Insight Visa Prepaid Card (on the first $5,000 balance, up to 4 cards per SSN) and Northpointe Bank Ultimate Checking (on the first $10,000 balance). With both accounts, you can earn a 5% risk-free return on up to $40,000 of principal. This return beats the pants off of any bond fund in terms of risk-adjusted returns. If you want to take it up even further, you can open 10 Netspend accounts using the same SSN with a 5% APY on the first $1,000 balance for $10,000 (a person from  doctorofcredit 's comment section reported his total accounts). Account management would not be an issue for individuals in this business as it is assumed that s/he is very organized. I would personally do this with Mint to keep track of balances effortlessly. Here is a summary +----------------------+-----------+----------+---------+----------+ | Account               | Interest ...

Insight is a prepaid visa card that allows you to use it as an ordinary debit card. It comes with a FDIC-insured savings account from Republic Bank of Chicago, up to a maximum balance of $5,000 (earned interest is allowed past the limit). The sole reason to open this prepaid card is for the 5% APY on the savings account, which is compounded daily and paid quarterly . What you'll have to do is load the prepaid card via direct deposit (I'd use Popmoney ideally to avoid dealing with verification deposits) then transfer the money from the card to the savings account. When you need to withdraw a balance, you'll have to move the money from the savings account back to the card and do an ACH pull. Now, since this product targets the under-banked, it is hefty with fees that nickel and dime you for practically everything you might want to do with a debit card. Be sure to read their terms and conditions . As a summary, to avoid all their fees, restrict your activities to the followi...

Well, May and June of 2017 have been one hell of a MSing spree for me. I had ordered 3 cards and had a huge minimum spending to hit within 3 months. Platinum - $5,000 Ink Business Preferred - $5,000 Premier Rewards Gold - $2,000 I'm still not done, but what I've done so far to hit them was to use Plastiq to knock off around $3,500, loaded a new PNC savings account with $2,000, and bought AGCs worth $3,000 on a monthly basis for the rest. I included a ton of organic spending on it, of course. Next in line would be to apply for the CSP, CSR, and Everyday Preferred for a total of $8,200 in required minimum spending. This will be in July as I am already 5/24, but my AMEX cards haven't reported on my credit reports yet.

It is possible to purchase up to $3,000 gift cards from American Express's website with a $3.95 and shipping fee. There are occasionally codes for free shipping (FREESHP71A works until July 2017). You can then add it to Venmo as a debit card and transfer it fee-free to someone whom can then pay you back via bank transfer.

Northpointe bank is offering a 5% checking account named the Ultimate Account . Here are the relevant details The APR is 4.88% and the APY is 5%. This is only applied to the first $10,000 and the balance earns 0.10%. Your are allowed to open multiple joint accounts if you have more than $10,000 and want to earn the 5% still. Make at least 15 debit card purchases within the statement period. Make a direct deposit or automatic withdrawal of $100. Enroll for e-statements. https://www.northpointe.com/banking/personal-accounts/ultimateaccount/ To make an automatic withdrawal, you can do an ACH pull from an external bank or make a $100 payment from your utility bill/credit card account. There is also a referral bonus where if you sign up and email my referral card to newaccounts@northpointe.com  after your account is set up, both the referrer and the referred will earn $25 after you make a $100 deposit. If you would like me to send you my referral card, let me know in th...

Recently, my CSP has posted it's $95 annual fee for the second year. Since the 24 month restriction for the signup bonus has already passed, I opted to downgrade the card to a Freedom and will apply for a new CSP next month. Likewise, the Arrival+ was downgraded to an Arrival last year to avoid the annual fee, but it can be reapplied a month later according to various data points across the internet. I called Chase up and was able to have customer service perform a product change of my CSP to a Chase Freedom. The annual fee was credited back. I opted for this option instead of cancelling because I had the card for 2 years already and it would negatively affect my credit score if it fell off my credit report. This year will net me another 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points from Chase and 50,000 statement credits from Barclays Bank. Both are worth approximately $1,300 in value.