Not sure if you guys still do this or not, but many people out there still ordering dollar coins from the Mint Department and get cash back since they don’t charge any fees. I’ve written about many times in the past, but it still works and a great way to make side money if you have the time.
Here’s the advance version:
- Make sure you have a good cash back card such as the Schwab 2%, Fidelity 2%, or even the AARP 5% cash back.
- Sign up for Big Crumbs to buy American Express gift card to get 1.6% cash back with your cash back credit card.
- Since American Express gift card is just as good as a credit card, now you can go to The Mint website and order coins.
- You can order in batch of $250 per box. I think as many as boxes as you want, but there is limit to certain type of coins.
Once you get the coins, there are many ways to get rid of it since you don’t want to carry all these coins.
- Deposit back into you bank account, however it’s frown upon since their Terms of Service asks you not to do this.
- Use it to pay your mortgage at the bank, or pay your tax, or wherever you can pay using these $1 coins.
Personally, if you have a hard time get those credit card bonus requirements for spending such as the $200 Citi Premier, then I would use this method.
So question, are you still doing this with the coins method? Let me know how you are cashing out.
I had been doing this monthly with the Schwab card and had it all running seamlessly. However, as soon as the Mint put up the disclaimer noting this approach was antithetical to the desired outcome of the program (i.e. coins in circulation), I discontinued it based on ethical grounds. Other people draw the line differently.
By the way, I was taking about 40lbs of coins in each time to the bank and never had an issue with making the deposits. Some curious tellers asked questions, and I always explained, but never a problem.
Now the program allows four boxes every 10 days per credit card per address.
I work this several ways.
1. I have a credit card that I get 2% back on.
2. I have new credit cards that I needed to make $ 800 – $ 1,000.00 in purchase to get a $ 100.00 bonus. So, I buy coins.
3. I have credit cards that offer 0% on new purchases. These cards also have points that are about 1%. I buy the coins, collect the points, turn the points into cash, put the coin money in a rewards checking account paying 4% and make the payment to the credit card company using the money from cashing in coins. It’s like getting a cash advance without the transfer fee.
I do this with sever zero purchase cards, I use other trusted individuals (like parents) with credit cards and address.
I keep some of the coins but most of them are taken back to the bank. I only exchange $ 250.00 at a time per visit. The reactions I get from the teller are usually very positive. Like where did you get these? You are going to make someone very happy, as people have been asking for them. Also, you don’t have to have an account at the bank but it helps. If the bank has a lot of branches, it’s easy to just deposit it and transfer the money to pay the credit cards (bill pay) or transfer to rewards checking. This also helps with house hold cash flow.
Mr. hustler you will have to update yourself a little as mint does not take the american express gift any more or i might be in the dark as the gift card might have started again.