Within the world of credit card products there are individuals that are familiar with a concept known as "manufactured spending." I can personally attest to being blessed by "manufactured spending" and "credit card churning." There are blogs about this and reddit articles on these subjects. Before I explain what manufactured spending is I need to explain how credit card promotions work.
Many credit card companies will issue credit cards with promotions such as "spend $3,000 within three months and get a $400 bonus" or "spend $2,000 within fours months and get 100,000 airlines miles." Many people would like to obtain these bonuses but they do not want spend $3,000 or $2,000 or get into debt in order to obtain these bonuses.
This is where manufactured spending comes in. People will apply for various credit cards with similar promotion terms and figure out a way in order to spend the money on the credit card and convert their spending back to cash in order to pay off the credit card and keep the bonus. There are entire websites on travel hacking whereby they explain how to get airlines miles and hotel points and maximize their value in order to enjoy vacations at ridiculously low prices.
People do this by buying money orders and converting them into cash or by sending money to a friend via a payment processor and having their friend give the funds back minus the fees. Another way people meet the spend requirement is finding a way to pay for something via credit card that they normally would not try to pay for with a credit card. For example some websites talk about finding ways to pay the IRS via a credit card. Another way is by finding apps or companies that will let you pay your rent via credit card. Another way is by prepaying for large services rather than paying them month to month such as automobile insurance.
Disclaimer: Getting involved with credit cards in order to obtain the bonus is not good for everyone. If you are going to get involved with this practice you need to exercise financial responsibility and always pay off the entire balance each month so that you do not need to pay interest.
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