What is the easiest way to MS currently? I'm considering opening some more cards, but the min spend is going to be in the 5 figures. I'm not sure I'll be able to do all that naturall in 3 months, though my rent is 2k/mo. so I cna probably get close.

I'm guessing I should just buy a $500 Gift card when grocery shopping and then figure out how to best liquidate it? Never really MS'd before.

My favorite method for easy MS is to buy $500 Visas online from giftcards.com using a portal and then liquidate them at Walmart, Publix, Food Lion, Kroger (getting shut down lately) or USPS. A lot of local or regional grocery chains sells MOs to debit cards. It is pretty much break even, although the portals usually take a few weeks to pay out and you lose a little when you purchase MOs.

I highly recommend topcashback.com.
Although TCB doesn't always have the highest payout %, they are the most reliable in my experience, at 100% payout for me, which includes a large purchase from Blue Nile for an engagement ring that I received a couple hundred in cashback from, as well as 6 figures in visa gift cards.

What is the limit you can do on a Money Order usually? Do you have to just do 1 per card? Any red flags ever get thrown up from doing this?

You can split tender and do $1k at grocers without any questions. Walmart used to be $2k with splits, but it's getting harder and harder to find cashiers that can and will do it. I recommend only doing $500 at a time, especially to start, until you get more comfortable with it.

You can always say something like "I can only do $500 on this debit card with Bank A today and need another MO with my Debit Card for Bank B" if that helps you. Cashiers don't care too much, as they're not liable for any fraud, as long as you are using a Debit+ PIN and following company policies.

Cool thanks. To confirm, these are these the cards I should buy:

http://www.giftcards.com/build#!/predesign/1104/visa

And when I get them how do I set up a PIN? Info on the back I'm guessing? Then I get the MO at the customer service desk of my local grocery store and tell them I'm using a debit card?

Yes. I use the puppy design (http://www.giftcards.com/build#!/predesign/1107/visa), as it looks like someone's debit card that they put their own picture on, as well as minimizing the Debit part listed on it. Make sure you put in the correct value, and choose the free card. If you're going to use a CB site, make sure you either clear cookies, or open a different browser first. Put your name as the recipient and it will be printed on the card, so it will match your ID in case you need it, which is why I like using giftcards.com

When you receive the cards you will need to activate them online or by phone. You will need to setup the PIN through giftcards.com that is kind of hard to find, but with a little searching on the site you can find it, or type in giftcards.com/PIN.

Then you buy the MO from the customer service or money center at your grocer. Walmarts work well, except for a few areas that are hit hard by MSers or Fraud. Looks like you are in Seattle: Safeway sells MOs to debit I believe (Not 100%, as I'm currently in the South)

Nice. I like that it puts your name on the card a lot. Do you usually try to spread the Money Orders out to different banks?

How about opening up and funding a bank account directly with a credit card? That's what I was planning on doing if I came up a little short on the CSR minimum just via my natural spending, does that throw up any red flags?

It would likely work but if you're just a bit short I'd just play it safe and buy GCs to Amazon, gas station, grocery store, prepay cable/internet bill etc.

d No red flags there. You just want to know that it will code as a purchase and not a cash advance. You can look at data points on reddit curning, flyertalk, DOC, or other churning sites as to what CCs and what banks code them differently. It definitely is a good way to knock out some spending very quickly.

I have deposited 5 figures in both my local credit union and a Regions account over the past few years and never had any issues. If you're not depositing more than $5-10k per month, they're not going to care IMO, as they can always chalk it up to rent to the landlord, craigslist sales, etc.

I value certain bank accounts, like Chase for my CC accounts, as well as Checking and Savings account bonuses that can be churned, so I would recommend opening up an account at a credit union or other bank and making your MO deposits there. Don't spread them out between banks, as you could end up structuring the deposits (look up structuring for more details), which is illegal. If you deposit them all into one account, the worst thing that happens is the bank closes your account because you're high risk or unprofitable.

On structuring:
Basically, if you have a legitimate reason to deposit more than $10k in cash (or equivalents), just do it at one bank and fill out a form if needed. If you split it up or spread it out over days, week, or months, it is illegal and could look very bad. If you're doing heavy MS (more than $10k per month?!? Props!), then just deposit in one account and even though you might get shut down for being high risk or unprofitable, you are doing NOTHING illegal.

Im curious if anyone can share more info on transferring points from a CSR card to their partners. I see it is a lengthy list of airlines and hotels. Saw Hyatt Gold Passport is on there, which I know you can actually book MGM hotel properties through Hyatt.

So I assume UR points transfer is a one way street? Once you send it to that partner, it can not be sent back to your card if the points go unused? I also wanted to know can you transfer UR points from Hyatt account then over to an Mlife account, or is that more for just bookings.

Anyone with experience on this situation is appreciated. Also suggested which is the best partner to transfer UR points to?

You can transfer out but not back, and you can transfer to Hyatt but not to MLife tier points, only to gold passport points to book hotels with.

Best is also subjective, most people like United and Hyatt, or in a rare case SW (wouldn't recommend this). As you get deeper into FFN the other partners are pretty valuable too, like singapore, korean etc.

What's the drawback on sw?

well, SW points are worth 1.4-1.6 cents each? I think? But you can use the CSR points at 1.5c per point in place of cash, and doing it that way you actually EARN miles/points.

With the CSR the only reason you'd ever transfer to SW is if you needed xxxx points to add to your existing balance to redeem a reward.

Got it. Thanks.

And since I haven't said it directly before, thanks so much for this thread and thanks to everyone else who contributes. It has not only helped me, but many of my friends and family with the great info I've been able to pass on. Cheers.

My pleasure, and I know the regulars enjoy helping and tossing ideas back and forth. We all learn from each other. I'm thrilled with the way it turned out too, one of the few on 2p2 that has been consistently civil and w/o trolling

Just passing along my experience applying for the CSR, since I thought I was a coinflip to get approved:

Score: 729
Average Age of Credit: 2.2 years
Credit Accounts:
-8k Amex BCP
-Mortgage
-2 Dept Store cards with small limits
3/24

Instantly Approved with 31k limit, which I was surprised about, since my household income is not extravagant.

Finally seeing my 100k UR's in my earnings. Gotta make the call to downgrade my CSP soon. Has anyone here sucessfully downgraded to the Freedom Unlimited?

Finally seeing my 100k UR's in my earnings. Gotta make the call to downgrade my CSP soon. Has anyone here sucessfully downgraded to the Freedom Unlimited?

I did.

I think there is an issue if you have had the CSP < 2 years (1 year?), you can only downgrade to the regular Sapphire card. I have seen reports of people who have done that and later converted the Sapphire to the FU.

I downgraded CSP to Sapphire before FU was an option. When the FU was released I had no issue changing the Sapphire to the FU, so I can confirm that route works.

Why wouldn't you wait to downgrade until just before the annual fee hits/you get that second $300 credit/you redeem your UR with the CSP 1.5x multiplier

Talking about downgrading my CSP, not my new CSR. Annual fee just posted on my CSP and I want to get that refunded and downgrade since my CSP is of no use to me now that I have the CSR.