Mint said the deal conflicted with the intent of the program, which was to circulate the coins throughout the economy. Thanks.”Ī member with the moniker “chasethemiles” called the coin-for-miles deal “one of those fantastic deals that only come once in a great while.”Īlthough no laws were broken, officials at the U.S. “I just placed my order,” said a Flyertalk member dubbed “matagal.” “A painless way to get miles. Other frequent fliers picked up the idea online and immediately ordered the coins in bulk. He told the Journal that he pulled off the scheme by using several banks and numerous credit cards. Pickles and claimed he bought $800,000 in coins with his credit cards to jack up his rewards point total. The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story last week, quoted a frequent flier who identified himself as Mr. Word spread about the scheme on Internet blogs, such as. (Some banks charge to count coins others offer the service free.) Several savvy frequent fliers got the idea to buy the coins with credit cards to accumulate reward points and then pay off the credit card balance after depositing the coins at a bank.
BUYING US MINT COINS WITH CREDIT CARD FREE
The mint allowed people to buy the coins with credit cards and offered free shipping in the continental U.S. But the mint set no limit on purchases of a sixth coin, which bears an image of Sacagawea, the Shoshone woman who guided the Lewis and Clark expedition. Under the program, individuals could buy a maximum of 500 of each of five presidential dollar coins issued by the mint (Washington, John Adams, Jefferson, Madison and Jackson). Mint launched a “direct ship” program to sell dollar coins directly to the general public in hopes of increasing the use of the coins, which last longer than paper currency. The trouble began in June 2008 when the U.S. Mint has written letters to about 75 cardholders who may have tried the scheme to collect airline rewards points. “It’s not what the program was meant to do.” “It’s not the right thing to do,” said Tom Jurkowsky, a spokesman for the U.S. In the end, the cardholders were out no money but their credit cards registered thousands of dollars’ worth of spending, and thus they earned thousands of rewards points or miles from the airlines. They then deposited the coins in the bank to pay off the credit card balance.
Under the scheme, people used their credit cards to purchase dollar coins from the U.S. Mint recently broke up a scheme by cardholders who figured out a way to get money for nothing and rewards for free. The idea behind credit cards that offer airline rewards is simple enough: The more you spend on the card, the more free airline miles you get.īut the U.S.
0 kommentar(er)
