Author Topic: 10x at Amazon--worth trying to max? $7500, 9.5% Return,unknown how long to spend  (Read 5696 times)

Jags4186

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I threw this up on reddit but I am also tossing this out here to see what everyone's opinion is.

2 Chase Freedoms: $3000 at 5x, $3000 at 10x, 1.25cpp
1 Discover It: $1500 at 10%

So a total return of $187.50, $375, $150=$712.50

$712.50/$7500 = 9.5%

But now I have $7500 at Amazon with no real way to liquidate other than to buy Whole Foods GCs and buy overpriced groceries for 2 years or try to buy GCs for pretty much everything going forward.

Does Amazon sell any GCs that are practical? I did a quick search for regular grocery stores around me found nothing. If you can't liquidate in under 2 years you're better off just getting a 5% savings account (mango).

Thoughts?

One commenter told me I am unable to buy gift cards with amazon gift cards....so now I have to figure out merchandise to either buy and resell or go smaller (say $1500 or $3000 at 10x).

NotJen

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I personally wouldn't be able to liquidate that much credit at Amazon.

Right now, AmEx is offering $15 back on $60 spend at Amazon, or 25% off. I could use this offer 8 times, but I'm not sure if I can justify pre-spending even that much. My plans are at least $60 GC to Whole Foods (new in town, so I know I'll go once, but I'm pretty sure I won't do my regular shopping there), $60 GC to Panera (my sometimes Friday lunch spot), and $60 Amazon GC (for future misc purchases).  Otherwise, I couldn't find other GCs I would actually use.

I will probably ignore the Freedom cash back completely.

Jags4186

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I personally wouldn't be able to liquidate that much credit at Amazon.

Right now, AmEx is offering $15 back on $60 spend at Amazon, or 25% off. I could use this offer 8 times, but I'm not sure if I can justify pre-spending even that much. My plans are at least $60 GC to Whole Foods (new in town, so I know I'll go once, but I'm pretty sure I won't do my regular shopping there), $60 GC to Panera (my sometimes Friday lunch spot), and $60 Amazon GC (for future misc purchases).  Otherwise, I couldn't find other GCs I would actually use.

I will probably ignore the Freedom cash back completely.

If you were looking to buy some appliances they do sell Sears gift cards and they also sell JC Penney gift cards.  I do like Penney's but I just don't know what I'd buy.  If you have any travel planned they also sell Southwest Airlines GCs as well as Hyatt gift cards.

I'm thinking if I throw $1500 into Amazon that gets me 15,000 Chase UR points at 10x.  I've looked through my history and I generally spend about $1000/yr on Amazon.  If I just shift around some of my expenses I might be able to hit $1500 in 1 yr which would be the max amount of time I would want any money locked up.

I just need to make sure I am not spending more than I normally would... 

Scandium

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I personally wouldn't be able to liquidate that much credit at Amazon.

Right now, AmEx is offering $15 back on $60 spend at Amazon, or 25% off. I could use this offer 8 times, but I'm not sure if I can justify pre-spending even that much. My plans are at least $60 GC to Whole Foods (new in town, so I know I'll go once, but I'm pretty sure I won't do my regular shopping there), $60 GC to Panera (my sometimes Friday lunch spot), and $60 Amazon GC (for future misc purchases).  Otherwise, I couldn't find other GCs I would actually use.

I will probably ignore the Freedom cash back completely.
Can you do multiple? Usually it's just $x back once.

NotJen

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I've managed to acquire 8 cards this year ::eek::

dragoncar

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Can you explain how this is a 9.5% return?

Jags4186

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Can you explain how this is a 9.5% return?

Sure:

$1500 on Chase Freedom #1 before 11/23 will return $93.75 (7500 points, valued at 1.25 cents per point)
$1500 on Chase Freedom #2 before 11/23 will return $93.75 (7500 points, valued at 1.25 cents per point)

$1500 on Chase Freedom #1 after 11/23 will return $187.50 (15000 points, valued at 1.25 cents per point)
$1500 on Chase Freedom #2 after 11/23 will return $187.50 (15000 points, valued at 1.25 cents per point)

$1500 on Discover it at 10% cash back will return $150.

$93.75 + $93.75 + $187.50 + $187.50 + $150 = $712.50

$712.50 / $7500 "banked at amazon"  = 9.5%

So you will have $712.50 in cash and $7500 held at Amazon.

The trick is what to do once you have $7500 sitting in an Amazon account.  Obviously the longer it sits there the lower your APY return.  The goal would be to drain it in under 1 year.  I don't  know if that is possible without simply buying stuff for the sake of buying it.

I have looked over my records and I spend about $1000/yr on Amazon.  I believe if I shift some of my grocery store spending over to Amazon I can hit $1500 in 1 year.  So I think I'm going to put $1500 in and get back 15000 chase points.  This will give me $187.50 and I will be able to spend down the $1500 during 2016.
« Last Edit: November 20, 2015, 08:09:26 AM by Jags4186 »

dragoncar

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Ok, definitely not worth it then... That's called a discount not a return!  I thought maybe you could set up as a seller and sell yourself something expensive but the fees are enormous: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/seller/registration/participationAgreement.html?itemID=200336920&language=en_US&ld=NSGoogleAS

Makes me want to rethink buying anything on Amazon marketplace!

Cromacster

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Whole Foods produce isn't that much more expensive than produce at other store.  Though I have no proof of this other than the few times I have shopped there and my bill wasn't much different than other retailers.  Even so, I would struggle to spend 7,500 at whole foods.

What about buying gift cards and reselling them?  You won't recoup the entire 7500, but I'll bet you could get 4-5k in cash.  I would argue cash is more valuable than amazon credit anyway.

Personally I would do a mix of the above.  Buy some whole foods gift cards.  Buy other gift cards that have high margins on the resller sites, and leave about 1k to cover your typical amazon expenditures.

Edit to add:

A quick browse of one reseller sites it looks like you could expect to get 66% of the value of a gift card.
« Last Edit: November 20, 2015, 02:00:02 PM by Cromacster »

NotJen

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Whole Foods produce isn't that much more expensive than produce at other store.  Though I have no proof of this other than the few times I have shopped there and my bill wasn't much different than other retailers.  Even so, I would struggle to spend 7,500 at whole foods.

What about buying gift cards and reselling them?  You won't recoup the entire 7500, but I'll bet you could get 4-5k in cash.  I would argue cash is more valuable than amazon credit anyway.

Personally I would do a mix of the above.  Buy some whole foods gift cards.  Buy other gift cards that have high margins on the resller sites, and leave about 1k to cover your typical amazon expenditures.

Edit to add:

A quick browse of one reseller sites it looks like you could expect to get 66% of the value of a gift card.
What? Why on earth would anyone spend $7,500 to get $5k in cash, plus the $712.50 rebate?

catccc

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Sorry, can I back up a little bit and understand the promos?

You are proposing the purchase of amazon gift cards, is that right?

You get 10% back on your chase freedom for spend at amazon. 
And the discover card, that's 10% only with apple pay?  If you don't have apple pay, only 5%, correct?



arebelspy

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Yeah, gotta agree with those people that say a 10% discount (via cash back) isn't much, so if you're gonna buy something anyways, sure, use that card, but buying a ton of Amazon gift certs just to max out that 10% off doesn't get you anywhere good, IMO.
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Jags4186

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Sorry, can I back up a little bit and understand the promos?

You are proposing the purchase of amazon gift cards, is that right?

You get 10% back on your chase freedom for spend at amazon. 
And the discover card, that's 10% only with apple pay?  If you don't have apple pay, only 5%, correct?

Discover is currently offering 5% cash back for Amazon purchases.  It is also running a concurrent promo that doubles your cash back (if you sign up new or requested to be enrolled before they blocked existed cardholders from the promo).  So 5% + 5% = 10%.

Agreed on saying that it's not worth doing if you're going to overspend, I'm just throwing out questions to see if anyone has any ideas on how to cashout Amazon credit.  I don't think I can--I'm going to restrict it to buying $1500 in Amazon/other gift cards to get 15,000 Chase points.  That seems to be about the amount I spend in 1 year on Amazon anyway looking at my order history.  Therefore it's worth locking in the 10% cash back now vs 2% if I just buy something in February or May.

arebelspy

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You spend 1500/year on Amazon?!  As a Mustachian?

How much are normal people spending?  Seems like a good idea to buy Amazon stock, if you're into that sort of thing.
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Jags4186

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You spend 1500/year on Amazon?!  As a Mustachian?

How much are normal people spending?  Seems like a good idea to buy Amazon stock, if you're into that sort of thing.

I buy many things on Amazon; toilet paper, laundry detergent, household cleaners, video games, gift cards when bonuses are available, most family gifts, etc. 

I'm sure I could bargain hunt and get better elsewhere, but I'm not going to drive myself crazy over saving $0.50 on dish soap or dishwasher detergent.

Another thing I love to do is if say if like 3 people go in for a gift together, I always try to pay for it and get reimbursed for 2/3s.  For example my father, sister, and I bought my mom an iPhone for Christmas this year.  I bought it on Amazon for $400 but I'm only paying $133.
« Last Edit: November 20, 2015, 06:08:58 PM by Jags4186 »

serpentstooth

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We spent $4500 at Amazon last year. I'm just buying $3000 in Amazon gift cards ($1500 each on two cards), loading them into our account, and calling it good.

serpentstooth

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Remember if you have Mint it's easy to pull your transaction history, export the data and figure out what you paid this year.

serpentstooth

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You spend 1500/year on Amazon?!  As a Mustachian?

How much are normal people spending?  Seems like a good idea to buy Amazon stock, if you're into that sort of thing.

I have tons of Amazon stock. Our last ten orders, if you're curious: baby wipes, Babytooth's Christmas gift, nipples, glass baby bottles, flash drives for my parents' business, Sophie the Giraffe, sharpies (husband's business), a duster, 5 pounds of hair gel, and fancy in-ear headphones (husband's side jobs requires them). Granted, the baby walker and Giraffe probably aren't strictly necessary, but I'm pretty okay with those purchases.

dragoncar

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Kinda OT, but amazon recently had a couple slickdeals where you'd get a $10 credit if you switched your primary card to discover, and another where you get an extra $10 on a $50 gift card.  I hit both of those -- just check slickdeals to see if they are still valid.