So this is interesting. CNN ran an article yesterday about a guy who claims he has a plan to buy one million points over the course of a year for $6500. Using only two credit cards, he says he will buy $1500 in gift cards every day and then liquidate them through Evolve Money. He expects to pay around $6200 in fees for this.
I have so many thoughts about this. If you’ve read this blog for any amount of time you know that points and miles are not my focus. But it’s impossible to be part of the Boarding Area community, know so many amazing points and miles bloggers, and not learn at least a few things. What this guy is doing seems so risky for normal people. What happens if (when) these loopholes are closed, and you can’t redeem the thousands of dollars of gift cards you have on hand? My understanding (from Frequent Miler) is that Evolve’s policy only allows you to make four payments per month to any one account.
Also, it seems like miles and points bloggers are constantly walking a fine line between sharing tricks and ruining deals. By sharing this on CNN, isn’t this guy hastening the demise of his game?
An finally, one million miles in one year for $6500 seems kind of, I don’t know, weak, compared to Frequent Miler’s Million Mile Madness last March. He got one million miles in one month, and did it for under $500. He also explicitly, repeatedly, said it was not something people should try to do on their own (for the exact reasons I listed above).
On the other hand, if $6500 for a million miles seems like a good deal to you, and you are willing to take the risk and the work, who am I to tell you no?
Readers, what do you think? Is this guy crazy or a genius?
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Evolve could easy block his account
This guy is a blow-hard with a brittle “strategy” and a deal-killer who is clearly willing to do whatever can get him some extra eyeballs on his blog (which is plastered in CC affiliate links).
+1 Sounds like perk abuse via Evolve. And also, the banks could get wind and shut him down as well. Good luck, fringe user, good luck. But, slow it down for the rest of us amateurs 🙂
Hope he succeeds. And gets the loophole closed. MS spend is right up there with money laundering.
Evolve has already closed the ability for this guy to do this. They have limited it to 4 payments per month per account he tries credit to. Unless he has over 40 different accounts he can push evolve payments through he is already dead in the water. Good riddance.
Not to mention that his website just looks awful….
why propagate such a bad article? Not only is it full of inaccuracies, it never mentions risks. Like for example how he recommends using evolve to overpay accounts at retail stores like Victoria secrets and then request refunds. Yeah thats a solid long term strategy to liquidate 1500 a day. what could go wrong?
He’s a leech on the hobby. Don’t give him links or attention.