How hard to push MS?

Discussion in 'Manufactured spend' started by cinereus, Sep 12, 2019.

  1. cinereus

    cinereus Member

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    I have a lot of experience flying under the radar so to speak in making the most of profitable loopholes outside of travel hacking.

    But with MS how much do you balance in longevity and making the most of loopholes that can potentially net 7 figs of miles a year? I think I have the tricks but I want to know how far I can safely push them without lifetime bans from Curve/Amex/Virgin Money.
     
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  2. JoeD

    JoeD Well-Known Member

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    Great question.

    Naturally it will vary immensely depending on individual circumstances. Personally, I wouldn't really mind if I upset Curve, but getting in Amex's bad books would be a minor disaster.
     
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  3. CraigS

    CraigS Member

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    Curve's business model is unsustainable so IMO you can go crazy with them until they collapse.

    Virgin Money will ban you fairly quickly if they don't like what you're doing. Amex as well, although I struggle to think of how you are going to spend loads on an Amex buying something that is cash-equivalent.

    You'd hardly be the first person to pay off their Amex with a Visa / MC credit card linked to Curve though.

    As always, don't have more money in circulation that you can't live without for several months if part of your cycle is shut down. Good luck...
     
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  4. cinereus

    cinereus Member

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    Are there any other non-Curve ways to pay off an Amex with another points card?
     
  5. AndrewM

    AndrewM New Member

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    Craig, I've been using the Virgin money fee paying card. You could say I've been "pushing it" for over a year now without any issues. Obviously I wouldn't like to loose the card. Do you know of any examples of Virgin Money banning people fairly quickly and what did they do to prokoke the ban?
     
  6. cinereus

    cinereus Member

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    Do you mean Virgin Atlantic Reward+ card? Through Curve?
     
    Last edited: Oct 9, 2019
  7. AndrewM

    AndrewM New Member

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    Yes, Reward+ but not through Curve.
     
  8. CraigS

    CraigS Member

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    Can't say that any specific examples come to mind. If you're just spending loads of money that you cash out elsewhere they'll love you. If you're pushing thousands through a single merchant / spending category that is processing as a purchase but could easily be classified as a cash advance - gambling or some kind of fintech come to mind - then you might have cause to worry either about your account or the rules being changed.

    Essentially the idea is to look like a big spender, not exploiting Virgin Money for a specific merchant and putting your regular spend through Amex, etc.
     
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  9. cinereus

    cinereus Member

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    What if you're doing, say, £2k/month regular spending and another £30k/month across 4-5 different MCCs (but ones that might be classified as a cash advance ;))?
     
  10. johnbrowell

    johnbrowell Active Member

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    I was going to post a similar thread to this one, but it seems sensible to ask my question here now. I'm managing to get double bubble points with amex spend, then paying that off via curve with my IHG mastercard. But I wondered if anyone is trying a 3rd option, for example paying off the IHG card (via curve) with something like the Virgin Atlantic mastercard, so getting 3 lots of loyalty from one main spend ?
     
  11. cinereus

    cinereus Member

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    Theoretically you can go double bubble inception. If you're choosing to use Curve to double dip, I don't see it as much more risky to go turtles all the way down.
     
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  12. JoeD

    JoeD Well-Known Member

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    Yep - definitely works (though whether any of this is advisable is of course a personal choice!). I recently did some MBNA-IHG Mastercard-Hilton Barclaycard.

    The only issue I have is that the IHG card is really stingy about the amounts I can transfer via curve in a day - usually (but not always) anything over £200 gets declined for some reason. Whereas transferring Amex/IHG/MBNA to barclaycard I can do daily limit of 3750 with no issue at all.

    Creation, who issue the IHG Mastercard, are a funny bunch though anyway I suppose - they once put a fraud/stolen card block on my account because I'd had the temerity to buy something from Tesco online...
     
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  13. johnbrowell

    johnbrowell Active Member

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    You might as well have written that in Latin for all I understood.
     
  14. CraigS

    CraigS Member

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    That is of course the point... (I couldn't understand it either, but I don't really care because I don't have any of the cards...)
     
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  15. cinereus

    cinereus Member

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