By Aleks
Previously, we discussed Buyer’s Groups as a way to generate spending on your credit card. We reviewed what Buyer’s Groups are, how to use them safely, and what our favorite groups are. However, we saw that there is a certain degree of risk with shipping items across the country and relying on third parties to hold up their end of the transaction.
In this post, we’ll discuss a specific category of Buyer’s Group that mitigates many of these issues - Gift card Buyer’s Groups.
What are Gift Card Buyer’s Groups?
Similar to normal Buyer’s Groups, this manufactured spending (MS) play involves you purchasing items and reselling them to the group. However, unlike a traditional Buyer’s Group, these do not involve any shipping element, which was the primary risk factor for those groups. With these Gift Card groups, you purchase (physical or digital) gift cards when they are on discount (think Lowe’s, Home Depot, etc). Then, you can share the gift card number with the group through their online platform, and they will refund you whatever amount you spent on the card.
How do these groups work?
Similar to traditional groups, they will send e-mail/Slack channel notifications when gift cards are on sale. You do need to commit to the purchase quickly, as they often have quotas on how many gift cards they will buy. In cases where you can buy unlimited volumes of gift cards, I’ve seen these quotas fill up within minutes, so it’s important to have your notifications on for these.
What are the best groups?
My recommended groups are: The Card Bay and Aligned Incentives. Both of these are well known and reliable. However, they can take some time to be approved, so I suggest you go ahead and sign up right away. Both of these groups have mostly deals that are break-even.
The Card Bay
The Card Bay maintains an online platform that allows users to digitally submit their gift card information. As you can see in the screenshot below, you can select among a bunch of common companies that sell gift cards. If you have a gift card for any of those companies, you can sell The Card Bay your gift card.
Submission of your gift card information is simple - you just need to fill in your card info and PIN, if the gift card comes with one. Certain sensitive brands will require you to submit proof-of-purchase as well.
How much can I spend with these groups?
You should be able to easily hit at least $5K per month with these groups. Additionally, most of the deals will be break-even!
What are the downsides?
This probably won’t be an issue to most, especially if you are starting out, but the primary downside that I have experienced with this play is that it is hard to scale up the monthly spend amount more than $5K-$10K. With gift cards, retailers typically set a fixed quantity that can be purchased from one account. For most resellers, it is not possible to create secondary accounts, especially if you want to use the same credit card across those accounts.
Besides that, I think this play is one of the most risk-free, beginner-friendly MS plays that exist out there.
Comments 7 comments
Questions and datapoints from readers.
Hey. Thanks for your coverage of these. I just wanted to throw my two cents in for readers and say that I do NOT recommend The Card Bay. After signing up with them and saying I wanted to start slowly, I was told I could do so as long as I met the monthly minimum. I hit that and then went on vacation for two weeks. When I got back to start the new month's requirement, I found that I was unceremoniously removed from the site and the channel. This violated the agreement between us (notice is required to be given) and after multiple inquiries all I got was snarky replies. Not a trustworthy way to do business. On the other hand, I have had very good experience with Aligned Incentives so I DO recommend them.
Hi I was wondering whether the method of purchasing gift cards online for the buyers group would qualify the 5X rewards for for 5 days for BILT credit card. I recall seeing some language about purchasing prepaid gift cards is not qualified for rewards. Any thoughts and/or data points on this issue? Thank you very much!
Hi L, No data points myself, but I expect you should be fine with this. I'd suggest you try the free-trial of our Slack, you can probably find someone with a datapoint on this. You can find that here: https://www.patreon.com/thecreditchronicles
Thanks. I will check it out. Also, I received the physical BILT card today but not the email about 5X for 5 days yet. I read about data points saying that even though people did not receive the email for the 5X for 5 days promotion, they still got 5X points anyway when the statements came out. Does anyone have any insights as to whether all people with a new BILT card get the 5X points for the first 5 days, or there are people actually didn't get the 5X points? Is there any way to confirm if the 5X is activated on your account? $12500 spending is a big commitment. You'd better know the 5X is on before you carry that out. Appreciate your input on this.
I actually just received the 5X for 5 day offer in the email just 5 seconds ago. However, I the offer comes with the below terms: This promotional offer is only valid for 5 days from the date this email was sent. During this time you will earn a total of 5 rewards points, (1 base point plus 4 bonus points), per $1 spent on net purchases (purchases minus returns/credits), excluding purchases classified as Rent in the Bilt World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card Rewards Program Terms and Conditions. The maximum bonus points you can earn with this offer is 50,000, regardless of how much you spend. You must make at least 5 transactions each statement period using your Bilt Mastercard to earn points, including bonus points for this promotional offer. ATM charges, cash advances, travelers checks, money orders, pre-paid gift cards, balance transfers, SUPERCHECKSTM, wire transfers, fees or interest posted to your card account such as returned payment fees, late fees, monthly or annual fees, bets or wagers transmitted over the internet, and casino gaming do not earn points. It may take up to seven (7) days for bonus points earned through this offer to post to your account. To qualify for this promotional offer, your Bilt Mastercard account must be open and not in default at the time of fulfillment. Should you receive points on an ineligible purchase, Bilt may deduct those points at its discretion. Promotion is subject to the Bilt Rewards Terms & Conditions. I'll HIGHLIGHT the below ************ "ATM charges, cash advances, travelers checks, money orders, pre-paid gift cards, balance transfers, SUPERCHECKSTM, wire transfers, fees or interest posted to your card account such as returned payment fees, late fees, monthly or annual fees, bets or wagers transmitted over the internet, and casino gaming do not earn points." ************ Not sure if the normal MS method (buying gift cards) that you recommended would qualify for this or not and whether that counts as "pre-paid gift cards".
While they do count as pre-paid gift cards, Bilt will have a hard time detecting this. For example, if you go to your grocery store and buy the gift cards, BILT will only see the name of your grocery store, not the items you purchased.
I've found that the hardest thing with all this is just being extremely detailed with everything. Where each dollar is going, am I getting paid the correct amount, etc. I've been using BuyingGroupPro.com which has helped a ton though.