Earn Cash Back, Frequent Flyer Miles, Or CC Rewards With BlueBird & Vanilla Reload Cards

Okay, so this isn't as good as the US Mint Credit Card Hack from a few years ago but a quick easy way to make some money or rack up some rewards or frequent flyer miles. In this post we will teach you how to rack up credit card rewards, frequent flyer miles, or make an extra $200 a month with Cash Back from a Wells Fargo 5% Cash Back card or other cash back cards.

This doesn't take much time, less than an hour. After that maybe a half hour a month recurring to do this each month. This doesn't take much time or money but you can earn free vacations or even cash back. There are however 4 requirements you will need to meet...

The Requirements...

1. Must have a social security number and reside in the USA.
2. Must have good credit, preferably 720 or higher, though possible to get other cards with lower scores.
3. Checking account or savings account with "BillPay" or "ACH Transfer" ability
4. Need to have a CVS, Walgreens, 711, or other stores that sell "cash cards" and can be reloaded with a credit card.

What To Do...

1. Apply for a Wells Fargo 5% Cash Back Credit Card...

This card gives you 5% cash back for grocery, drug store, gas, and a few other purchases for six months. This card is meant for those with higher credit scores. There are some other cash back cards and you can earn credit card rewards, miles or points on but make sure it's a high earning card. If you have a card that does not offer good rewards you will actually wind up losing money due to the few fees that are involved in buying the reloads and paying bills as often time paying bills with cards adds a small surcharge. If you're denied by Wells Fargo applying online you can call on the phone and generally get a quicker decision. Once you have confirmation you've been accepted to the card you can move on to the next step.

2. Apply for American Express Bluebird Card:

You can often buy a starter pack at Walmart for a few bucks, but it's just as easy to buy one online and wait for it in the mail, shouldn't take longer than a week max. This card doesn't pull your credit for an approval so you won't have your soft credit dinged any points as you would applying for a real credit card. You do however need a social security number, probably due to Frank/Dodd and Anti-Money Laundering Policies but you're credit won't be pulled and you won't be dinged. It basically just allows them to validate your identity.

3. Now that you have the Wells Fargo Card and the Bluebird card in your possession go to any one of the stores that qualify as a drugstore, gas station, or grocery store and buy Vanilla Reload cards with your 5% Wells Fargo Credit Card. It's important that these are Vanilla Reload cards and NOT One Vanilla, My Vanilla or any other variations of the Vanilla brand. You may want to find a store which sells these cards prior to getting all this setup. The card should look like the pic below...

The Vanilla Reload cards are reload packs. They allow you to put cash onto many prepaid and other debit cards. They do have a $3.95 charge per card and you can only load a max of $500 on each card. The tough part is locating a gas station, drug store, or grocery store that allows you to purchase the Vanilla Reload cards with Credit Cards. Many of them will only accept cash or will take a card but only debit. Once you find a location which will allow you to use credit cards buy them with your Wells Fargo 5% cash back card.

It will depend on your credit limit and how much a store will sell you. Buy as many as you can up, you max out at $5,000 per month.

4. Now you have Vanilla Reload cards. Visit VanillaReload.Com adn enter the unique 10 digit PIN number into the box. You will find it on the back of the Vanilla Reload card after you scratch it off like a lotto ticket. After doing this enter your 15 digit BlueBird card number. BlueBird will allow $5,000 per month to be loaded and a $1,000 daily limit. This will take you a min of 5 days to accomplish.

5. You now have $5,000 loaded onto your BlueBird card. Go to the "settings" tab on the upper right hand corner and link it to your bank account. You can do this as soon as you get your card as well. Once it's linked you can transfer the entire $5,000 from your BlueBird account that you recieved by buying the Vanilla Reloads to your bank using the "Withdraw Funds" link/feature.

*Some people have been shut down either by Bluebird or their Credit Card company by doing the direct transfer of funds to your bank account. To fly under the radar you may want to instead use your BlueBird card to pay bills, pay your taxes. Though many bills will not allow you to pay with a Credit Card most will allow you to pay with a debit card for a small fee of $3 or $3 vs 2% or 3% which is generally waht you'll be charged to pay bills by card, if they allow payment by credit card at all. It's up to you if you want to take the easy/lazy way and transfer to the bank or if you want to pay your rent and other bills with the debit card.

6. Last step here. Now you have $5,000 in your bank account. Use Billpay or ACH to pay off the $5,039.50 balance on your Wells Fargo 5% cash back card. The reason your paying $5039.50, even though you only loaded $5,000 is because you pay $3.95 per load. This is also why you want to make sure you have a card where points are at least valued at a penny or more, because you're paying about 0.8 cents per mile you earn. If you have a poor earning card you will lose money. If you have a good earning card you will be earning about 0.2 cents per Dollar spent and come out ahead. This is what you will have completed...

1. $5,039.50 Charged on Wells Fargo 5% Cash Back Card for Vanilla Reloads.
2. $5,000 moved from Vanilla reloads to BlueBird.
3. $5,0000 moved from Bluebird to bank account.
4. $5039.50 moved from bank account to pay off Wells Fargo 5% Credit Card.

You're now left with...

1. $5,039.50 credit card balance paid off.
2. 5% rebate of $5,039.50 which comes to $251.98, subtract the $39.50 you paid for 10 Vanilla Reload cards.

Total Monthly Gain: $212.48

Couple Other Things To Consider...

1. No reason to, but don't inform the cashier you are buying the Vanilla Reload cards for what you are doing. If they realize it's easy money they may hoard the cards for themselves.

2. Finding these cards can be a challenge. I'm surprised how hard it is to find these cards. I do find them at a few different CVS locations near my home though. If you get a rapport with a cashier they will sometimes save the cards for you when they come in, be nice and bring them a coffee or something.

3. Not sure how this is taxed if at all. You should do your own research. I'm under the impression this is considered a discount and not taxable income but I suppose all income earned is ordinary income at the least.

4. This sounds somewhat complicated but it's very easy and simple. This type of earning is referred to as arbitrage. It normally takes me 2 minutes to drive to the CVS by my home and buy $5,000 worht of cards. A couple minutes everyday for each reload. Basically less than an hours worth of work for $212.48. Do you make that at your job? the toughest part will be locating the cards and a store who sells them.

Wrapping Up:

Your not gonna get rich off this but at the same time hard to not take advantage of $1,275 over a 6 month period with basically 2 hours worth of work.