How I Simply Met the Spend on my First Cashback Credit Card

Today was a very exciting day. After 2 months now of mental consternation over meeting the spend requirement of 3 credit cards, I finally pulled the trigger...on one of them.

You recall, earlier this week I came up with this plan:

Card 1:  $500 visa gift card purchased at a grocery store (should trigger a 5% cashback bonus) (next weekend)

Card 2: Split between Spectrum internet bill and upcoming auto-insurance premium (mid-June)

Card 3: Power bill (mid-June)

But we know by now, if there's something I need to do, I'd rather just get it done.  So after clicking around on my favorite bonus churning site (Doctor of Credit), I decided to go with the gift card route. But instead of holding on to the gift card, I wanted to immediately liquidate it. 

While there are a few small purchases I could make within the upcoming week, I just didn't want the mental load of having to remember to use a gift card. Plus it would interfere with my current system of tracking expenses. 

Now mind you all the expert churners already know and do this, but since credit cards aren't really my churn of choice, it was my first time. 

The Objective: Turn $500 credit card purchase into $500 cash. 

Background

• So Credit Card 1 is offering 5% cashback at grocery stores. 5% of $500 =  $25 cashback
• Visa Gift Cards cost $6 in fees at Food Lion (my local grocery store). 
• Money orders at Food Lion = $0.46 each. 

Action Plan

• I bought a Visa Gift card at Food Lion with Credit Card 1 (first time buying a gift card with a credit card, btw). 
• [I actually went to my local Walmart to buy the money order, thinking it'd be cheaper, but they are closed due to local rioting.... #COVID, but I digress. ]
• Activated and added a pin to the Visa Gift Card in the parking lot.
• I went to another Food Lion a few miles away, not to raise any suspicion. (Unncessary)
• Bought a money order for $499.54 and was able to pay with the Visa Gift Card I just bought! 
• It was so easy! 
• I immediately deposited the money order in my bank account. 

Now that I know how little attention they pay to me, I don't think I'll be as nervous buying the Gift Card and using the Gift Card in the same visit. But we shall see. 

So in total, what Free Money Wins do I hope to gain: $200 (bonus cashback for spending $500 in the first 90 days) + $25 (cashback for using Credit Card 1 at grocery store) - 6.46 (fees) =  $218!! That's a win especially since the grocery store cashback was not my target at all!

It was really fun and a fun little activity to get out of the house and try. Again, I don't really see myself going for credit card bonuses unless I have a trip planned and want to try to earn bonus miles. I was a victim of identity theft and in lots of credit card debt in the past, so that history make this hobby a little undesirable. 

I like the gift card route though because I don't have to worry about getting my expenses off track or having yet another account to keep track of in terms of tracking expenses.  So now, I'm deciding if I want to do this with the other 2 cards or stick to my plan above.

For right now, if there's a deal on gift cards, I might go the gift card route just to get it over with, but since I already kind of made up my mind to pay the bills above, I might stick with that. I'm just not loving having my credit card attached to all those different accounts. 

I've already made 2 mistakes so far in this churning business, and I don't hope to make anymore. Fortunately, my mistakes haven't cost me any of my own money (just potential bonuses). So that's sort of the urgency I'm putting on myself, to get the spend requirements out of the way and balances paid off so I can free up that mental real estate. 

Have you ever signed up for a credit card or bank account just for the bonus?