2022 Year-end Rewards Recap
As 2022 comes to an end, I wanted to recap the points I earned this year, discuss specifically how I earned them, and talk about what new joiners can expect in year one. This year was fairly typical with a few gems (Amex employee offers in particular) and some improved manufactured spending plays. Credit card churning / Manufactured Spending was at medium-level effort this year for me as I have a young baby, WiFi biz, gym, started this Substack, and have really ramped up the W-2 effort (thanks to Bull’s recommendation). January 2023 to December 2023 will be max effort to get all paid subscribers to $10K+ WiFi money within their first year.
*Quick Note* For those that are new, P2 = Player 2 (usually a significant other or relative in your household that lets you apply to cards in their name for additional earning). MS = manufactured spending (spending money on your credit card in a way that enabled you to get most/all of that money back into your checking account in a quick/predictable amount of time)
Below are annual tiers for what to expect in 2023
Tiers
$0-$9,999 NGMI
-You really didn’t try at all. Minimal effort, didn’t take time to read the posts and ask questions, and didn’t take action.
$10,000 - $24,999 GMI
-Congrats! You took your time to read the posts, asked some questions, came up with a plan of attack and executed
$25,000 - $49,999 Impressive!
-You understand the game, keep detailed records of everything, and can now use your earnings to pay a decent chunk of your day to day expenses.
$50,000 - $99,999 Player 2 and Beyond
-You’re at an advanced level where you are crushing the game! You have a P2 (maybe even a P3) and you are constantly looking for the best opportunities and executing on each one. You may have even found a secret unicorn (top secret manufactured spending technique) that you don’t share to prevent it from dying and earning as much as you can.
$100,000+ Turbo Mode
-Personally know several of these people. At this point it’s pretty much a full time job and you very likely have a real business that requires lots of spending (particularly social media ads). To get to this level you need to be absolutely ruthless, and take on a ton of risk. You and your P2, P3, P4 etc are boldly applying to as many SUB’s (signup bonuses) as you can possibly get and hitting them as fast as possible with some high-risk manufactured spending plays. Bank shutdowns are common at this level, but you don’t care and are playing this game at 100MPH. Note that if you have legit spending in your real business, it is much easier to reach this level.
$1M+ God Mode
-Personally don’t know anybody at this level, but they do exist. If you ever hit the point, you are likely working with 2-3 close people that you are in constant communication with via WhatsApp or Telegram. You have several unicorns that no one else on the planet knows and you are hitting them as hard as possible. You have several real businesses and likely have many processes automated or virtual assistants to free up time, so you can hit everything as hard as possible.
Below are rough estimates of points earned in 2022. I’m not counting WiFi money spend or ad spend. I only have 2 players and will make note of P1 earnings and P2 earnings. I’ll discuss rewards earned at the beginning in Part 1 and discuss the manufactured spending plays to earn these rewards after in Part 2. This is not meant to be a flex at all. This is just to show what’s possible with a little bit of effort and more importantly, action.
PART I
Amex Blue Business Plus
In early 2022, Amex was offering up to 99 employee cards with a bonus of 20,000MR after $2,000 spend for each card. Those who opted in were able to get 99 additional cards in their own name, and when I chatted with Amex, they said that many do this to categorize and separate their spending. I called Amex, and they were able to put all the cards under my name and distinguish each one with a roman numeral (eg BowTiedBum I, BowTiedBum II, BowTiedBum III, BowTiedBum IV, BowTiedBum V, etc). I had six months total hit the spend on all of these cards. $2,000 spend on 99 cards = $198,000 to profit $21,780 via Schab cashout.
Note: Schwab cashout is for those with a Schwab brokerage account and the Schwab Platinum card. Amex lets you transfer the points to Schwab, where they can be cashed out at 1.1¢ per point.
Took advantage of this amazing offer for both P1 and P2.
Annual Fee: None
P1 Earnings: $21,780 (via Schwab cashout)
P1 MS fees: $2,475
P1 Net Earnings: $19,305
Annual Fee: None
P2 Earnings: $21,780 (via Schwab cashout)
P2 MS fees: $2,475
P2 Net Earnings: $19,305
TOTAL NET = $38,610
Chase Ink Cash
Maxed out the Chase Ink Cash 5X UR Office Supply category. P2 and I have 3 CIC’s each and had them for a few years so we did not earn any sign up bonuses this year.
Annual Fee: None
P1 Earnings: 125,000 Chase UR (per card) x 3 (3 CIC cards) = 375,000 Chase UR (can be cashed out via Chase’s PayYourselfBack program for total of $5,625)
P1 MS fees: $0
P1 Net Earnings: $5,625
Annual Fee: None
P2 Earnings: 125,000 Chase UR (per card) x 3 (3 CIC cards) = 375,000 Chase UR (can be cashed out via Chase’s PayYourselfBack program for total of $5,625)
P2 MS fees: $0
P2 Net Earnings: $5,625
TOTAL NET = $11,250
Chase Freedom (now called Chase Freedom Flex)
P1 and P2 each have 2 Chase Freedoms. Had these for years so no sign up bonus. Chase Freedom has 5X categories each quarter on spend up to $1,500 spend (7,500 UR points). With 2 Freedoms each player can earn 15,000 UR points a quarter for a total of 60,000 UR points annually.
Annual Fee: None
P1 Earnings: 60,000 Chase UR (can be cashed out via Chase’s PayYourselfBack program for total of $900)
P1 MS fees: $0
P1 Net Earnings: $900
Annual Fee: None
P2 Earnings: 60,000 Chase UR (can be cashed out via Chase’s PayYourselfBack program for total of $900)
P2 MS fees: $0
P2 Net Earnings: $900
TOTAL NET = $1,800
Amex Biz Gold
First signup bonus mentioned yet! P1 and P2 took advantage of the generous 180,000 MR after $20,000 spend ($1,980 via Schwab cashout)
Annual Fee: $295
P1 Earnings: 180,000 MR ($1,980 via Schwab cashout)
P1 MS fees: $250
P1 Net Earnings: $1,435
Annual Fee: $295
P2 Earnings: 180,000 MR ($1,980 via Schwab cashout)
P2 MS fees: $250
P2 Net Earnings: $1,435
TOTAL NET = $2,870
*Note* this card is most definitely a long term keep as the MS will be outstanding in 2023 (more below)
Cash Back Portals
While I use quite a few, I’ll just mention TopCashBack as old habits die hard and I’ve been using it forever.
2022 TopCashBack Earnings
$1,037.40
GRAND TOTAL: $55,567.40 (extremely conservative estimate)
Going to stop there as these were the biggest earnings from strictly Manufactured Spending and a little bit of personal spending. I mentioned the cards above as they were the biggest winners, and didn’t mention dozens of other cards where I either broke even or earned a few thousand dollars from. In general, if I’m not at least breaking even from a card, I won’t keep it long term. As long as I break even, no reason not to keep it forever.
*Note that this year, the majority of the earnings were on cards with No Annual Fee, and very few signup bonuses!*
Honorable Mentions
Chase Hyatt Personal
Earned 60,000 bonus points with the signup bonus
Chase Hyatt Biz
Earned 60,000 bonus points with the signup bonus
Chase Sapphire Reserve
Earned around $1,000 profit, mainly keep this for Chase Pay Yourself Back feature to cash out UR at 1.5 cents per point and the travel portal.
*Note* this card is most definitely a long term keep as the MS will be outstanding in 2023 (more below)
Amex Platinum Schwab
Used the Uber credit, $200 United travel bank credit, Clear credit, and Grubhub credit to offset the fee.
Note that these are rough estimates if I were to cash everything out. I typically like to keep a lot of UR to transfer to Hyatt, where the points are often worth well over 1.5 cents per point. I also like to keep lots of Amex MR points so I can transfer to airlines for fantastic value on first class and business flights.
PART II
Now for the fun part! Here is a breakdown of the Manufactured Spending plays I used on each card. For those who have recently subscribed, please see the main manufactured spending techniques outlined below:
Amex Blue Business Plus
$396,000 spending ($198,000 for P1 and $198,000 for P2) is not for the faint of heart! Luckily,