My obsession with Vanilla all started when I met Frequent Miler at Frequent Traveler University in April. He spoke to my family and I with such enthusiasm about gift cards. Our discussions made me realize how crazy I must sound to my friends, family and acquaintances when I talk about my passion for this travel game of frequent flyer miles and hotel points.
Anyway I was not quite ready to start buying more gift cards than I had already been buying to meeting the minimum spend requirements on new credit cards to earn sign up bonuses. Then I applied for the Ink Bold MasterCard and everything changed. By spending $10,000 on this credit card in three months I earn 50,000 Ultimate Rewards bonus points.
My husband and I have been running our businesses from our home for more than 25 years and we are always buying paper, envelopes, toner and various other office supplies for our three businesses. We love using our Ink Bold MasterCards and earning 5 times our purchases in Ultimate Rewards points at office supply stores and for paying our phone bills with the cards.
Our home needed a new roof and and some other repairs. The contractor we are using accepts Visa, but not AMEX. So we purchased some Vanilla Visa gift cards using our Ink Bold card at Office Depot. These Vanilla Visa gift cards cost $4.95 for each $500 gift card. I never understood why someone would be willing to spend money for a gift card. With the Ink Bold card we earn 5 times our purchase at office supply stores in Ultimate rewards points. So for spending $10,000 on the card over three months we each
earn 100,000 Ultimate Reward points equal to 100,000 frequent flyer miles or hotel points.
State Farm our insurance company also accepts Visa as payment for our insurance bills. If I put the bills on a credit card I earn one point per dollar, but if we spend the money on gift cards we earn five points per dollar. I am using Visa Vanilla gift cards purchased with our Ink Bold cards to pay our insurance.
Over a four month period with two Ink Bold cards my husband and I plan to earn more than 200,000 Ultimate Rewards points. Hoping to do it again with the Ink Plus cards earning a total of 400,000+ Ultimate Rewards points. Thank you Frequent Miler!
I was just getting ready to buy Vanilla reload cards and then I read Frequent Miler’s recent post. Should I spend the extra $1.00 for each Vanilla Visa or switch to the Vanilla reload cards? Either way I love vanilla!