Spend $150 Through PayPal receive $10-$100 - YMMV

HT: Slickdeals via @esthery

PayPal is sending out targeted offers.  If you spend $150 in August through PayPal, you will receive $10-$100 in September.

See if you are targeted here.  I was not targeted.

Interestingly, it seems like you can make yourself eligible by sending a later to them.  I think this one is actually worthwhile.

Multiple Ways to Save at Staples Right Now

Update: Gift card portion is dead. 


I will be on vacation until Wednesday so please forgive me if you email or tweet at me and I don't respond immediately.  There are posts prepared and ready for Monday and Tuesday.

There are multiple ways you can save money at Staples today.

In Store Only - 25% Staples Rewards on One Item

HT - @single_flyer on Twitter

Staples has their 25% back in Staples Rewards on one item this week.  You can find it at Staples.com/coupons

Valid in Staples® U.S. stores only. Membership number must be supplied during purchase to receive benefits. Not valid on prior purchases or purchases made with Staples®Procurement or Convenience Cards. Limit one coupon per customer, nontransferable. Purchase a qualifying item and earn 25% back in Staples Rewards. Standard percent back in Staples Rewards will be excluded. Price eligible is amount paid at checkout after application of all promotions, coupons, instant savings and rewards redemptions and does not include tax or shipping. Not valid on desktop or laptop computers, tablets, netbooks, Amazon products, 

Basically, the coupon is not useful for all the things I normally resell, but that doesn't mean you won't be able to find anythign good.  Think outside the box and check the prices on Amazon as you are browsing.  If you find anything interesting, be sure to comment.

Online - A few ways to save

1) $30 off your purchase of one regular-priced item.  Use Coupon code 68813.  Expires 7/29/2015.  Limit of One.

2) Buy Discount Gift Cards at 15% off - PayPal is selling $200 Staples eGift cards for $170.  You might even get 5x Ultimate Rewards points if you use a chase Ink Card. Be aware that since it is sold by PayPal, there are unknown reasons why the transaction often does not go through.

HT - @gregstarling on Twitter

3) Use a Shopping Portal. You can either use the Upromise portal for 5% cashback or the United Shopping portal for 4x miles + up to 4,000 bonus miles for extra spending.

As always, use a Chase Ink credit card for 5x Ultimate Rewards points as Staples.  Also make sure to use your Staple Rewards # for up to 5% back in Staples Rewards (25% back for the first deal)

Only Received 2/3 Staples Gift Cards from eBay? Wait a Day and then Contact the Seller

There have been quite a few reports on Slickdeals (read the comments) of people buying 3 $75 staples gift cards from eBay (through PayPal) yesterday and today and only receiving 2 out of 3.  This happened to me as well.

I have also previously bought discount eBay gift cards and not received them in my email at all.

First of all, always keep track of your purchases.  Easier said than done.

Second, what should you do now?

The gift cards aren't late until 24 hrs after you bought them so be a little patient.  If 24 hrs pass, you can log into your eBay account and contact the seller.  Let them know what happened and hopefully they will resend the email.  PayPal was really good about resending the email to me previously.

Hurry! $75 Staples eGift Cards for $60 - Limit of 3 - 20% off + More!

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site:   Ebates and eBay and Top Cashback

Update: I originally wrote that the gift cards cost $65 (13.33% off) because that was the price last week.  The price is actually $60 which is even better (20% off!)


eBay is selling a $75 Staples eGift Card for $60 from PayPal Digital gifts.  Limit of 3 gift cards per person.  The gift cards will be emailed to you within 24hrs.

This is 20% off!

Use Chase Ink and you should get 5x points

Ebates is currently offering 4% 1% cashback for gift card purchases on eBay. You can use my referral link.  Use Top Cashback for 1.1% cashback instead.

You should also receive eBay Bucks (a minimum of 2%) towards a future purpose.

This is a monster deal!  The last one ran out in a couple hours so buy it quick!

Chevron/Texaco Gift Card Deals on eBay - Easy and Quick Pajama Money

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site:  eBay and Ebates


HT: Doctor of Credit

eBay is a having a sale on Chevron/Texaco Gift Cards that can be a big money maker for reselling or just a really gift discount, all from the comfort of your Pajamas.

You can buy up to 3 $100 gift cards for $90 each, $270 for $300 is the limit.

- You can break even (even getting a small profit) by reselling the gift cards to either ABC Gift Cards, Saveya (same as giftcards.com) according to Gift Card Granny.  No profit at this point.


- Some people including myself have been targeted for up to 5x purchases from eBay for today and tomorrow on anything over $150.

• If you have the regular eBay Bucks offer of 2%, you will earn $5.40 if you bought the full $300 of gift cards.  $27 if you have been targeted.

- You can buy eBay Digital Gift Cards from Paypal (limit of $5,000 per 180 days) with a Chase Ink for 5x Ultimate Rewards Points.  Alternatively, you can eBay gift cards in a store that earns extra points.

• You should be earning at least 2% on this so let's says a minimum of $5.40 profit, but can be a maximum of $13.50

- Ebates is currently offering 4% cashback for gift card purchases on eBay.  You can use my referral link or Doctor of Credit's Link as a thank you.

• $10.80 profit.

If you already have all the accounts set up, this will take no more than 5 minutes and will earn you over $20 at a minimum and over $50 at the maximum.  Not too shabby!

A Word of Caution

1. No tracking given to you for the cards to be mailed out, but you should be covered by eBay guarantees.
2. Gift card reselling prices are always in flux.  When big deals like these come out, you should sell as soon as possible to minimize the chance that the price being offered for your gift card lowers because of resellers.

Getting the Transaction to Work 

It might just be me, but I've been having a lot of trouble being able to pay with Paypal recently.  Ever since I got myself a Chase Ink and AMEX Platinum and added those to Paypal it seems like I can't checkout at all.

A few hours on the phone with Paypal didn't seem to help the situation.  Argh!

If this is happening to you, try this:

The only thing that works for me, at least sometimes, is to clear all of my cookies, go back to eBay and then get back to the login screen at Paypal.  It should look like this:

Click on the area that says "Don't have a PayPal account?"

In this way, you can add a credit card (or prepaid card) and pay without actually logging in to PayPal.

The next time I tried to use PayPal this option was gone.  I had to clear cookies again.  So be it.

eBay Gift Cards from Paypal Coding as Cash Advance for Barclays and No More 5x Points from Chase Ink

Doctor of Credit is reporting that digital eBay Gift Cards bought from Paypal are being coded as Cash Advances by Barclays (fees and no miles) and that you will no longer earn 5x Points from Chase Ink for buying the gift cards.

Check out his post for more details.

$5 off a Paypal Purchase

Just follow the steps at this link until the end (about 2 minutes) and you will be given an offer via email within the next week for $5 off your next purchase through Paypal.  The purchase needs to be finished by 9/30/2014.

You should be able to sign up with each email that is connected to a PayPal account.


HT - Dansdeals

Paypal Business Debit, Old Amex Blue and Serve - The Power Trio!

A word of caution before this plan is laid out:  Paypal is known to shut people down for manufactured spending activities.  Normally, it involves withdrawing directly to your bank account or logging in from outside of the country, but this manufactured spending gem will likely get you shut down.  You also make get a Financial Review from American Express if you continuously spend a lot of money on any one of their cards.  You are forewarned.  You can now enjoy some fictional reading.

The New Power Trio

The following accounts are necessary for The Power Trio:

1. Paypal Account with a Paypal Business Debit Card
1. You will get 1% cashback on signature transactions (non-pin transactions).  You need to activate the 1% cashback from your Paypal account or you won't be eligible.
2. No hard pull, no maintenance fee.
2. Old American Express Blue Credit Card
1. Unlimited 5% cashback at Pharmacies, Grocery Stores and Gas after you spend $6,500 at these categories.  The first $6,500 of the year will be 1% cashback, the rest of the year will be 5% cashback.
1. If the application doesn't load, try browsing incognito.
3. Serve Prepaid Card
1. The relevant point for our discussion is that you can load funds onto Serve via a Debit Card and use those funds to electronically pay your credit card bill.  I think I see where you're going here ;)

How it Works

It's actually relatively straightforward.  Here it is step by step once you have all the accounts.

• Go to a Pharmacy (like CVS) and buy a Paypal Reload Card with your old Amex Blue.  They cost $3.95 for a $500 card.  Let's talk about buying $1,000 at a time for round numbers sake.
• Cost = $7.90
• Rewards = $50.39 into your American Express account
• Load the funds onto your Paypal account.  You now have $1,000 in Paypal
• Load money onto Serve from your Paypal Business Debit Card, which you can link at Serve's website.
• Cost = $0
• Rewards = $10 from Paypal for signature transaction on your Business Debit Card.
• Pay your bills
• Cost = $0
• Rewards = $0

Total Cost = $7.90
Total Rewards = $60.39

Net Profit = $52.49 per $1,000 spending.  Let's call it $52.50 for simplicity.  That's 5.25% cashback on your original $1,000!  Not too shabby!
As you see, you only have to go into one store.  Everything else is done online.  That is key to me.

How Much Can I Make?

There are two limiting factors, Paypal and, more significantly, Serve.  You can only load up to $1,000 a month from your Paypal Debit Card to Serve without ISIS.  Therefore, you are limited to $52.50 per month.
You can load up to $4,000 a month onto paypal.  You can be more creative at withdrawing the money from Paypal.  You can buy Money Orders using the Business Debit card in stores that allow Money Orders with Debit Cards.  The advantage here is that the Debit Card has your name on it and it doesn't say Gift Card on it so sales associates are likely going to be nicer to you.  If you max out at $4,000 a month, you will be getting $210 every month!  If you have a spouse and/or have access to another Paypal account, you can make $420 every month!  Not too shabby indeed!

You can even go further, you can buy plain Visa Gift Cards once you reach your Paypal limit.  Use them to load onto Serve at Family Dollar (Serve has a different set of limits for "cash reloads"), use Evolve Money, Amazon Payments or Money Orders as a Debit Card.  These all require an extra trip to a store so the time to money ratio is not as favorable, but you can still do well.

Kiva Loans - Credit Card Points for Free and Still Feel Good About Yourself?

Kiva Loans - Credit Card Points or Cashback for Free and Still Feel Good About Yourself?

Disclaimer - The Discover offers are no longer valid.

Update 5/6/13 - You can try Kiva with $25 free which can be used to make a loan.  Once it is paid back, the money should be yours to keep.  I have been using Kiva for about 4 months with a 0% default rate.  I always pick my loans based on loans that others from Mile Point have already invested in.


Kiva is a company that provides microfinancing around the world.  The basic idea is that many people provide loans in $25 increments that will provide one person with a loan of a few hundred or a few thousand dollars.  Group funding for people in poorer countries.

Kiva does not provide the lender with any interest on this loan so you will be paid back only your $25 (or $50, etc.) so it kind of makes you feel good that you are helping people start their own business.

Here's the selfish part:

Kiva loans can be funded via paypal, which means that the loans can be funded via credit card.

Most loans are paid back monthly and once you have been paid back $25, you are able to start the cycle again by relending that money.  Instead, you can also withdraw the money to paypal and from paypal to your checking account and fund your new loans via a credit card again.


The Fidelity American Express gives 2% cashback everywhere so you can potentially get 2% back on all of your loans and you also get your initial investment back as your loans are paid back.

I used my  Discover it™ this month because I get 5% back on all online transactions until the end of the year.

For example, if I am willing to lend $12,000 total, I can lend $1,000 every month and by the end of the year I will be getting $1,000 a month in repayments while lending a new $1,000 via credit card.  That's 1,000 points for free every month!

You can also use Kiva to make sure you hit your spending thresholds for bonuses when signing up for new credit cards.

What's the catch?

There is most definitely a catch here.  Borrowers can default on their loans and you could lose your investment.  That being said, the current default rate is 1% on average, which means you still should be making some money.  The more you lend to more sources, the more likely you are to be around the average.

Even more selfish part

When you invite someone to Kiva, you will get $25 towards a new loan or $25 free, so I would certainly appreciate you signing up through my link ;)

If you sign up, invite others and you will get the $25 bonus too.