Free Credit Card Miles For Buying Presidential Coins From The Mint - The U.S. Mint Finally Caught On & The Program Is Over

The US Government and un-intended consequences, the story repeats itself once again.

You know how the government is always comming up with a stupid solution to a problem, however the solution either creates more problems or a problem that is worse than the origional problem they set out to solve? Well they have done it once again.

Some people make a hobby and even some financial gain out of amassing credit card rewards points which can be good for travel, merchandise, or even cash back. Well, people caught onto a way to earn big credit card rewards points through a stupid program the U.S. Mint had put together.



We all know Americans don't want coins. Sure it's cheaper in the long run as a coin outlives a dollar by quite a large margin so it's less money to produce which is cheaper for the government. For years the government has been trying to get us to use coins with various stupid programs introducing $1 coins.

I recently heard a story about how we had to buid a new multi-million dollar vault just to hold all these Presidential coins that no-one wants.

Anyhow, the U.S. Mint a while back introduced a program that allowed people to buy up to $500 worth of Presidential coins, pay for them on their credit card, and then get free shipping as well. This was designed to get people to buy and circulate these coins.

Guess what, this should come as no surprise but we don't want coins so guess what happenned? People bought $500 worth of coins so got $500 face value worth of coins and free shipping to their home. They then took those coins straight to the bank, deposited them into their account and immediately collected the credit card rewards points.

The coins didn't end up getting circulated, money was wasted on not only making these coins in the first place but also shipping them for free, and people got a load of free credit card points.

On July 22, 2011 the U.S. Mint ended this program, or at least stopped allowing people to use Credit Cards and Debit Cards to pay for the coins. Though there was nothign illegal about doing this it clearly isn't what the mint had intended so they ended this program. It will be interseting to see how the sales of these coins plummet now that this has happened.

It had been a favorite technique among many to boost credit card rewards points. The Mint sold the coins at face value and shipped them to customers for free, intending that people would start using them in everyday life; not return them to the bank to finance repeated rounds of coin purchases, WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENNED. A similar program was done by the Mint and abused back in 2009 so it was pure stupidity that they did it once again in 2011.

Here is an article from 2009 talking about how people did the exact same thing two years ago so what did the U.S. Mint do? Yep, they introduced the same FAILED promotion again.

After stories in newspapers as well as online forums and message boards in 2009; the Mint put a cap on credit card purchases at $500 every 10 days. However, some people created multiple accounts and shipping addresses to circumvent the limits.

On Internet chat boards, forums, and message board, participants in recent days have reminisced about the reactions of bank tellers when they showed up every two weeks with more boxes of coins for deposit. They predicted doom for the future of $1 coins (the next coin in the Mint's series of presidential coins, featuring Rutherford B. Hayes, is due out Aug. 18, available only by money order, wire transfer or check).

Many have written on message boards thanking or better put taunting the credit card companies. One person wrote on Flyer Talk, a forum for Frequent Flyer Mile Credit Card users..."Dear US Mint," wrote a member on FlyerTalk, a frequent travelers' forum. "Thank you for sending me to some very fancy hotels on my honeymoon! With fond memories."

"We are all in shock and disappointed," says Rick Ingersoll, who blogs about credit-card rewards at FrugalTravelGuy.com. Over the years, he figures he bought around $325,000 worth of $1 coins, nearly all of which he redeposited in his bank account.

Anyhow, the party is over for this method of earning credit cards rewards points. Others are still out there but people will probably be less likely to publish them as why turn others onto your scheme and create publicity which will just cause rules or policies to be changed and put an end to your gravy train.