Buying U.S. Mint Coins = Easy Credit Card Rewards?
About a year and a half ago, the U.S. Mint started selling one dollar coins directly to the public via their website. They also offered free domestic shipping and charged face value for the coins, even if the buyer paid with a credit card. Can you guess how people took advantage of this?
The $800k Coin Purchase…
According to the WSJ, one buyer raked up an astonishing $800,000 in coin purchases. Allegedly, he did this to earn the rewards on the purchases, then turned around and cashed the coins in at a bank. Assuming he earned the typical 1% cash back, that equals out to be an $8,000 profit!
Reportedly, the news of this credit card “deal” spread through online forums and message boards, resulting in tons of people doing it for the exact same reason… easy cash back and miles. Although this scheme wasn’t illegal, it wasn’t exactly what the U.S. Mint intended (they were trying to increase the usage and popularity of the dollar coin).
If You Were Thinking of Trying This…
While reading this post, I bet some of you were thinking it sounds like a good idea! (Off the record, I might have thought the same thing today when I found out about this too, ha!) However as it turns out, this “deal” no longer works. The mint has now changed its billing so these coin purchases are counted as cash advances instead of purchases. A credit card cash advance doesn’t earn rewards and the interest usually starts accumulating immediately from the time of purchase. So if you were thinking about doing this, think again
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