I don't really do the serious CC reward churning like some people, but I was just reading a thread here about it and people were discussing the best way to spend to get the rewards within the time frame. Most of these cards require you to spend a certain amount within 3 months or so to get the signing bonus. Usually 500 to 1500 dollars.
Seems like most people settle on gift cards as the way to do the spending, and then just use the gift cards for normal expenses like gas and groceries.
However, if you are doing this a lot you could end up with more in gift cards then you spend on gas or food in a year, and now you have thousands of dollars of your money tied up in gift cards not earning you anything (which isn't the safest place either, since they can be lost or stolen).
I was thinking that for somebody who really did a lot of CC rewards, would using Square make sense? If you need to use the card for $1000 worth of stuff, just charge $1000 on your square card reader. You lose the 2.75%, which in this case would be $27.50, but then you instantly get the signing bonus of $100 to $500, and you also get whatever %cash back from the card reward that could be another $10 to $50, depending on your rewards rate. And then you get the money from square deposited back into your account to use on whatever you want.
Total profits probably slightly less than buying gift cards, but a lot quicker and cleaner with no risk of something happening to the cards.
Thoughts?
