Capital One Visa Cardholders - Free "Purchase Eraser" Program for Air Miles!

[KeithG]

Aeroplan cards are totally different from the Capital One card. The World card give 2% back on all purchases. There is tiered levels. 60,000 miles and up gives you $600, 100,000 $1000 etc. It's the lower levels that get you. $250 in spending requires 35,000 miles, no longer 2%.

Aeroplan requires learning how the systems works and how to avoid outrageous taxes and fees, plus planning way in advance. I've always got tickets over the Christmas holidays for instance and always snag the biz seats.


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thanks. understood. we are loyal aeroplan junkies but are always on the lookout for other reward programs that will net us more (we dropped the airmiles program a few years back when we did the math on the return rate. it was not worth the effort of pulling the card out).

with the purchase eraser do you get the same 2% "pricing"? if so it seems like a loop hole around black out dates / flight restrictions.i believe they are smarter than that. there must be some kind of penalty for using the purchase eraser after the fact.

 

[mikeycanuk]

Capital One is a different program completely. Easier if you spend lots and have travel over $600. It's not great for low spenders but then no reward program is. It's simply a brute spending type program, no way of getting miles but spend.

Aeroplan miles are easily accumulated by simply applying for Amex, TD and CIBC cards, shopping via their estore, esso etc. this way you don't have to spend $100,000 to get $2000 back like Capital one. I can get 455k Aeroplan miles by churning various cards and maybe a Platinum card ($499) or 2. This is the miles needed for a trip for the 3 of us to Indo in biz class with maybe a few hundred in taxes.


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[KeithG]

Capital One is a different program completely. Easier if you spend lots and have travel over $600. It's not great for low spenders but then no reward program is. It's simply a brute spending type program, no way of getting miles but spend.

Aeroplan miles are easily accumulated by simply applying for Amex, TD and CIBC cards, shopping via their estore, esso etc. this way you don't have to spend $100,000 to get $2000 back like Capital one. I can get 455k Aeroplan miles by churning various cards and maybe a Platinum card ($499) or 2. This is the miles needed for a trip for the 3 of us to Indo in biz class with maybe a few hundred in taxes.
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Agreed!

Reward plans are not free money. There is no free lunch. And (unfortunately) they are not stupid. I am also a pessimist. But there may still be a few loop holes. Tell me about the loop holes and not the marketing BS about how wonderful they are.

I fully understand aeroplan and the cost benefits of churning cards - almost none since the sign up and yearly fees balance out the benefits. I know I can "buy" vast amounts of aeroplan miles by getting more cards, but they all cost real $. The cheapest aeroplan card I am aware of is $120 a year with 15,000 bonus miles for a NEW client. No reward for a "returning" client. Not many chances to become a new client in Canada. We were recently shuffled from CIBC over to TD and I was able to "sign up" back with CIBC for some bonus miles since I was a new client. My divebuddy could also signup, but no bonus miles since she was a "returning client".

As a "big spender" or "big mileager" I get 50% bonus on all my purchases and miles. Aeroplan treats me okay. So no complaints. But this only works if we concentrate all of our purchases via a single channel (kind of like Life Insurance brokers sales...)

With Aeroplan it is real simple: commit to $120 (+ $50 for second card for the divebuddy) per year for the credit card and then charge EVERYTHING you can to the credit card. $1 purchase == 1 flight mile. Except if you are special, then $1 purchase == 1.5 flight miles (lucky me?). Miles only expire if you become inactive (i.e. stop spending). The more you spend, the more seats become available and the cheaper the seats are. The Aeroplan spend breaks are at $25k, $50K. $100K per year. Real (non reward) flight miles also add to your total. So if you use your card to buy a flight and then fly it, you get double miles: miles for buying & miles for flying (and even bonus flight or purchase miles if they like you). Aeroplan is simple. Aeroplan & Air Canada Altitude is confusing as hell.

I will admit that I do not know the $ spent per $ flown for aeoplan. My divebuddy tells me that it is good. Sounds like a
"trust me dive"? I should figure that out?... Maybe not....

SO: Please layout how I can best exploit Capital One (without screwing up my aeroplan) and how much it will cost me.

Thanks...

 

[mikeycanuk]

Some Amex cards are free, apply and cancel in 4 months. AMEX biz gold with referral for me and my wife nets 110,000 miles for zero cost, the regular gold 80,000 for us.

As for the Capital One any travel purchases are recognized by the purchase eraser for up to 3 months after the initial purchase. You click on your points and are taken to the points page. Like I explained earlier a purchase over $600 will cost the purchase x10, do $600 is 60,000 miles. The credit will show up on your account a few days later.


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[KathyV]

The only loophole I am aware of with Capital One Rewards is that they have the option to "seize your points" if you fail to make a monthly payment. I don't know if they are hardcore about doing that and I don't know if other credit cards do the same thing. That has not been an issue for us I am happy to say.

Below is a link from CardHub and they compare credit cards in various categories (transfer funds, back to school, etc.) and they rate several Capital One cards high in the rewards category. Take a look and see how they compare to your current card.

In posting information about the Purchase Eraser program I wasn't trying to get people to change their credit card company; I just wanted to let people that already have Capital One know that they should sign up for the PE program because it worked well for us.

Two years ago we were able to use our Capital One rewards points to book our roundtrip air to Provo in the Turks and Caicos. It was great to offset the costs of the airfare but we had to book through the credit card rewards center. This time it was much easier just to book the airfare with our card, earn additional rewards points, and then simply erase the charge from our statement.

Best Rewards Credit Card - May 2015

 

[mikeycanuk]

I need to admit I messed up the math, it's 2% back, so $50,000 in spending with get $1000 back in credits. Plus you get 35,000 points when you are approved , $120 fee per year. So $350-120 = $230.

Problem is you can churn Capital One cards. I rotate Amex cards and even switch my biz cards from CIBC to TD each year so I'm paying the fee but getting 20,000-30,000 Aeroplan miles a year. As long as the miles cost under 1c each I'm good. I've got redemptions anywhere from 2c-5c and even as high as 7c per mile ( avios via Amex).

I think any credit card company will take back points for non payment. The manager at my LDS lost all his Amex miles years ago when he got into financial difficulty with his Caribbean dive shop.


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[mmmbelows]

Periodically I've revisited all this and redone the math, but I've not found yet anything better than just a simple capital one card 2% cash back on every dollar spent. They give you cash, spend it anyway you want, buy your tickets just like anyone else, nothing to erase or convert to miles, just cash.

I've yet to have discovered anything that nets more than 2% cash back, it seems like after you back out different fees and sort through the gimmicks, it really always comes back to the CC companies cap their rewards to 2% no matter how they package them, since that's the case, it's always just been simpler to just use a 2% cash back reward card and spend it how you want. If someone has discovered something higher than a net 2% and done the math I'd be interested.

 

[KeithG]

Periodically I've revisited all this and redone the math, but I've not found yet anything better than just a simple capital one card 2% cash back on every dollar spent. They give you cash, spend it anyway you want, buy your tickets just like anyone else, nothing to erase or convert to miles, just cash.

I've yet to have discovered anything that nets more than 2% cash back, it seems like after you back out different fees and sort through the gimmicks, it really always comes back to the CC companies cap their rewards to 2% no matter how they package them, since that's the case, it's always just been simpler to just use a 2% cash back reward card and spend it how you want. If someone has discovered something higher than a net 2% and done the math I'd be interested.

agreed if you simply look at the long term "spend" return.
BUT: as mikeycanuk points out, you can get ahead of the game by taking advantage of "new client signup" bonus miles available when you get yet another new card. AMEX also has referral bonus points system. so you can get points cheaply by churning cards.

In my aeroplan world, "most" signup bonus are 25000 miles for $120 yearly fee as long as you spend about $500 on the card in the first 3 months. There is an amex card available that will waive the $120 fee for the first year. so that is 25000 free miles. the scheme is to apply for the card, use it for a short period to qualify for the bonus and then stop using it and cancel it before the end of the year. then do it some more.

the 25000 aeroplan miles gets me a return economy flight anywhere in continental US and Canada.

 

[mikeycanuk]

We net some major free miles, mostly through Amex.

For instance,

Amex Biz Gold $5000 spend, no fee, + referral miles ->60,000 miles (including 5,000 from the spend requirement)
Amex Reg. Gold $500 spend, no fee (2X miles of gas, groceries + travel) referral -) 40,500
Amex basic Aeroplan card free, $1 spend + referral miles -20,000

Me and my wife do this so 120,500 x 2 = 241,000 miles for free per year. Usually you cancel 3-4 months after application and apply again in 3-4 month time. Most do 6 months but I spend decent coin with Amex. (business spending)

I do get into the Platinum cards, SPG cards. There are fee's but anything below 1c/mile is money in my pocket. These add a few hundred thousand too.

In the end though it's all about how you travel and how much you spend. Carrying a balance however means lowest interest card only, don't get suckered by points.

Capital One is easy, however for me the low credit limit was an issue.

There are also no-forex fee cards which differ for US vs CDN. We have only Chase with a 1% back. But forex fees are 2.5%

It's a game I've learned and is limiting in we go where Star Alliance flies. But flying in Business for a fraction of the cost isn't something I plan on giving up soon.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Doesn't canceling a credit card ding your credit score? I've seen advice not to cancel: Why you should almost never shut down a line of credit | Clark Howard and How does opening and closing credit cards affect your score? | Clark Howard. But if you start playing the game of acquiring new cards just for the initial benefits, you end up with a lot of cards, which would make me concerned about losing track and opening myself up to fraud, identity theft, etc.