FabFitFun seasonally ships out subscription boxes with full-sized fitness, health, beauty, and fashion items in it. Their “200+ valued” box is listed for $49 but with some trickery the price can be knocked down as low as $14.99.
Stitch Fix is a shopping service that sends you a delivery box containing a total of five clothing and accessories items handpicked for you by your stylist. You then keep what you want and return what you do not want by using a free prepaid shipping label.
Some cell phone service providers charge you fee to change number while others do not. Do note that some will waive the fee if you complain about your current phone number, ex: it is getting too much spam text and calls. In this post I will attempt to list out the cost of changing a phone number with each carrier. If there is no cost then I will also attempt to provide a limit on how often a number can be changed.
Churners, or “gamers” as American Express calls them, are known to frequently cancel cards they see no merit of paying annual fee for. American express issues a lot of cards with annual fee and is it is expected that not all of them appeal to all churners.
A Word of Warning
Because of Once in a Lifetime Rule (see Anti-Churning Rules), I strongly urge you to not to downgrade to a card that you may not have had the signup bonus for. A notable exception to this is the American Express Green charge card which has a poor signup bonus.
Also, I must mention that The Reward Abuse Team (often called RAT) at American Express likely condemns the act of getting a signup bonus on a card and downgrading right away to altogether avoid the annual fee. Additionally, The following statement is often found in terms and condition of American Express cards.
If we in our sole discretion determine that you have engaged in abuse, misuse, or gaming in connection with the welcome bonus offer in any way or that you intend to do so (for example, if you applied for one or more cards to obtain a welcome bonus offer (s) that we did not intend for you; if you cancel or downgrade your account within 12 months after acquiring it; or if you cancel or return purchases you made to meet the Threshold Amount), we may not credit Hilton Honors Bonus Points to your account.
I have highlighted the relevant bit to this article. I do not think it is enforced but that may have partially to do with the fact that a lot of non-churners do cancel or downgrade within 12 months, many churners do not cancel or downgrade within 12 months, and the simply fact that not a whole lot of people abuse this.
Prorated Refund of Annual Fee and American Express
American Express used to provide prorated refund upon cancellation of a card but they have stopped doing so since September 2016. However, American Express still provides prorated refund upon downgrade. If you downgrade a card, say A, to another card, say B, with an annual fee then you will receive prorated refund for A but will also be charged a prorated annual fee for B.
Example 1
Some American Express cards can be downgraded to a no annual fee card. The most notably example is the American Express Everyday Preferred (EDP) credit card with an annual fee of $95 with its no annual fee counterpart simply called American Express Everyday (ED) credit card. If you have an EDP card that you do not wish to renew then it may be wise to simply downgrade it to the ED card and get some juicy prorated refund.
downgrading annual fee card to no annual fee card
In the screenshot shown above, after 2 months of holding a card with an annual fee of $95, it is downgraded to a card without no annual fee. Thus annual fee for 12-2 = 10 month was refunded i.e. 95/12 * 10 = $79.16.
Example 2
Some American Express credit cards can be downgraded to cards with lower annual fee that you may actually want to keep. A personal example of mine is my recent downgrade of Delta Platinum to Delta Gold. I could have cancelled my Delta Platinum card right away, instead I chose to downgrade it to a card that I wanted and got some of prorated refund in the process.
In the screenshot displayed above, after 3 months of holding a card with an annual fee of $195, it was downgraded to a card with $95 annual fee. First, annual fee for 12-3 = 9 months was refunded i.e. 195/12*9 = $146.25, then a new annual fee was applied for 9 months, i.e. 95/12 * 9 = $71.25. Overall, I ended up with the card that I wanted and instead of paying $195 for a full year, I only ended up paying 195-146.25+71.20= $120 which is $75 less than what I had already paid.
Example 3
Some American Express credit cards may be downgradable to cards with lower annual fee but you may not see any value in the latter card. As shown in example 2, if you downgrade a card with an annual fee then you will get a prorated refund but you will also be charged a prorated annual fee of the new card. However, you can cancel the new card, within 30 days of requesting downgrade, and get a full refund of the charged prorated annual fee.
In above screenshot, a card with $450 annual fee is renewed but after 2 months it is downgraded to a card with $95 annual fee. First, annual fee for 12-3 = 10 months was refunded i.e. 450/12*10 = $325, then a new annual fee was applied for 10 months, i.e. 95/12 * 10 = $79.16. But since the downgraded card was cancelled, a full refund of $79.16 is provided. Overall, only 450-375 = $75 is paid to keep a card long enough to chew through $200 airline credit for yet another year.
Summary
Downgrading to get prorated refund is a known feature but downgrading then cancelling, while obvious, is a far less known yet far more useful feature. It will make you rethink the wide notion that you ought to apply in December to triple dip cards with airline credit.
Needless to say this post also applied to bother banks with similar prorated terms and conditions.
This deal requires a little bit of work. It requires you to have a Swagbucks account, an American Express online account with Naturebox offer (very common), and possibly a Drop account. If you care none for this deal then you could use my referral below to get a “free” 6 snack sample box ($30 discount) at a cost of $4.95 for shipping.
If you follow this blog then you may have noticed a decent number of phone or phone service related posts. I have reviewed the lucrative T-Mobile 55+ plan and (to my knowledge) been the first site to confirm that 50% off Pixel deal works with said 55+ plan. I have also posted about a fantastic Mint SIM deal: $30 for 6 month. And if you think I post about Project Fi often (Bill Protection, one free gogo pass, and broken travel trolley?) then you would hate to see my draft posts.
You probably thought I can’t possibly use all these services but I have. I more or less try every single deal I post on this site. So now you probably think why do I have so many numbers, especially from different service providers. Initially part of me just wanted to test some services but the other part of me knew that I could easily break even on my cost of purchase. For example, above mentioned Mint SIM deal cost me $45 for 6 months but the net cost was $30 after $15 swagbucks rebate. Needless to say 6 month of no contract 2 GB/MO 4G LTE service is fanatic for a net cost of $30 but the question I ask myself is “can i somehow earn back my initial cost?” and the answer is an absolute yes.
Now the absolute first thing I want to mention is that if you’re a beginner to churning phone services then avoid contract deals like a plague. There are often deals that require you to stick with a certain carrier for a certain period of time (as high as 24 months) and such commitment need not be made by a novice user. The intermediate/advanced phone churner will know that a lot deals popup when new iPhone, Samsung, Pixel, etc are released and thus will “prepare appropriately”. For example, I plan to cancel 1/2 lines in T-Mobile 55+ plan few months prior to the release date of next flagship phone because doing so will ensure that I qualify for the churn the next generation of Pixel 50% off deal or Samsung BOGO deal. These are really nit picky terms and conditions that you need not worry about now. This post is all about you, the novice phone churner, and churning cancel anytime contract free phone lines.
The idea is very simple – you want the cost of acquisition of a new number to be as low as possible, then you set out to recover your cost. One way of doing this is by requesting a change of number with your existing carrier but this may result in some fee. The other way is by acquiring a completely new service, preferably during a promotional period. Regardless, when you get a new number you can signup for various services to make the trouble worthwhile.
Uber – up to $30
Use new number to open a new uber account. Please do NOT use referral as $30 signup bonus is easy to get. I suggest adding a platinum card to the new account so you get instant benefits of VIP Uber.
Uber EATS – up to $20
You can refer your new account with an old account. New account will get $5 off next 3 order while the old one will get $5 off. Note that Uber EATS has a delivery fee of $4.99 so in some cases you might be better off looking for a $10 off code.
Lyft – up to $20
You can refer a new Lyft account with an old one. New account will get $5 off one ride while the old one will get $15 off one ride.
Dosh – up to $20
Once upon a time Dosh worked on VOIPs and nonsense numbers but now they require an actual number to register. On occasions, like 2017 Holidays and 2018 New Year, they run $15 promo for the referrer and $5 promo for the referred. In lack of a promo, I still suggest referring your new account and not adding any cards to the new account for a while because that sometimes triggers connect a card and get $15 promo.
Note that you need to have a minimum of $15 to cash out through Dosh. Ideally you would use a referral to signup for account A, then refer B, cash out account A, refer C using B, cash out B, and so on. If you want less of a hassle then you can simply use one account to refer but in doing so you would let $5 sit idle in your new accounts.
Drop – up to $6
Drop normally offers 1000 points ($1 in gift card) for referrer and referred each. Occasionally Drop offers referrer $5 bonus. Drop often have lucrative deals, like the much abused Giftagram offer, which makes it worthwhile to hold on to multiple Drop accounts.
spam my number
Sometimes some site will give you giftcards in return for adding your phone number. For example, express.com offers $5 bonus reward for adding a phone number. I did this once and yes they texted me frequently you but it is not like I gave them my real number anyway.
Summary
This post is meant to show you that churning can be done with more than just credit card. Also, it is intended to be an entry point for novice phone churners. I think the real value of these deals lie in deals like Samsung BOGO deals. When the time comes I might do a separate post on churning these more valuable deals.
A while ago I wrote a post detailing out the cheapest and most optimal way of making call within Nepal, surfing net in Nepal, and calling USA from Nepal. In this post I want to detail out the cheapest way to call Nepal from America. Yes, internet calling through various messengers like that of Facebook can sometimes be cheaper but such features are a luxury for some.
Bank of America Premium Reward comes with an annual fee (AF) of $95 but provides an annual airline credit of $100. If there was a way to turn $100 airline credit into cash then one would practially profit a minimum of $5 every year. If such method were to exist then there would be very little reason to downgrade/cancel this card, granted one does not intend to churn it. In this post I will detail out a trick that allows you to cash out $100 airline credit as $100 cash.
Late December 2017 all my Chase credit cards were closed siting I had too many accounts and inquires on my credit report. Back then it seemed like vast majority of shutdown of this type were overruled after an appeal to an executive office or an analyst. So, I picked up a phone and called Chase executive office at 18882147712. I was asked for last 4 digits of cards I wished to reinstate. Because I was very optimistic that my accounts would be reinstated I proceed to list last 4 digits of all 9 Chase cards I held at the time. I was told a reconsideration case had been submitted. I thought everything went perfect. I thanked the representative over the phone and we bid our goodbyes.
just a letter from the Chase executive office acknowledging my concerns
A few days later I received a call from different person, likely from the executive office, letting me know that my accounts would not be reinstated. She said “you have too may accounts and inquires” to which I promptly respond “I applied for cards because of signup bonus, hotel/airline/rental perks, and points earning rates”. That was supposed to be my main argument and it completely phased through her….now, I was worried. Again she proceed to remind me that I have too many accounts and inquiries and this time around I said “but I have been a Chase customer for a decade, never missed a payment, here or elsewhere, and never had a derogatory remark ever” but she pretty much ignored that argument as well.
At that point I recalled a recent post on r/churning titled “bustout score risk factors” and realized that Chase saw me as a credit risk. Then I tried to raise arguments that would show otherwise. My first argument was that I had closed Chase and other credit cards which possibly can’t be a profile of someone who is going to swipe a card and never pay. The moment I said it, the lady asked goes “humm” and asked me to be on hold. A little later, presumably after confirming that I have indeed closed some cards, she came back on the phone and said something along the lines of “I can forward this to higher analyst and their decision would be final”.
This conversation took place late afternoon yet very early in the morning of the following day I got a call from the same lady stating that my reconsideration had been denied again. I was disappointed, skeptic that a reconsideration could have been done so fast, and perhaps maybe I was even a little bit angry in the inside. Regardless, I thanked the lady, wished her a good day, and bid my goodbye. I then fired off my browser and started to search for what I could try next.
Expense Rewards is yet another data mining app that targets the credit card and banking audience. Like most apps of its kind, Expense Rewards requires your bank login details. This Android only app is offering $5 referral bonus which you may obtain by using the code below
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.expreward&referrer=utm_campaign=W3EPSP
make sure to use the code W3EPSP
you get $5 and so do I. You need to link at least one bank login and a credit card. Signup bonus is paid if/when bank login and credit card has at least 5 transactions.
Point Value and Earning Rate
As of today these points cannot be cashed out but they can be turned into a giftcard at a favorable rate of 100 points = $1 giftcard. The minimum redemption value is of 200 points (i.e. $2 giftcard).
- Amazon, $2+
- CVS, $2+
- Domino’s Pizza, $5+
- GameStop, $5+
- Groupon, $10+
- Macy’s, $5+
- Nike, $10+
- Old Navy, $10+
- Petco, $10+
- Sephora, $5+
- Starbucks, $5+
- Target, $2+
- The Home Depot, $5+
The earning rate isn’t anything amazing:
- every day you will receive 5 points for every purchase you make
- every time you connect a new account you will earn 5 points per purchase for the last 30 days
The first part is really telling you to “split your transactions in 5 cent so everything you buy is free”. On a semi-serious note, if you purchase $1 item then you are practially get 5% off and obviously the discount gets higher as your cost of purchase gets lower than $1. The second bullet point just incentives adding more accounts but I would not put all my accounts under one expense rewards 😉
Closing Remark
I got this app after reading DoC’s review on the matter and since then I have been poking around with the app. Their support is responsive, the app looks nice but needs to be smottened out in some areas. My major complain is that, at the moment, this app does not allow me to delete added bank logins and credit card details on my own. Also i think this novice app has some holes (not security related) that can be exploited by a regular churner but eventually their data should reveal these exploits to them.
