Late last year, my computer was dying and I was upset. Sure, it was 7 years old and heavily worn, but at the time I was trying to save enough money to quit my job and the thought of shelling out more of my hard earned cash to buy a new one was making me grumpy.
At the same time, I was remembering a little trick I’d been reading about on some internet forums where travelers were buying coins from the US Mint in order to rack up airline miles. Here’s how the scheme worked:
- Buy a bunch of coins from the US Mint on your credit card.
- Deposit the coins into your checking account.
- Wait for the deposit to clear and use the funds to pay off the credit card purchase.
- Use the airline miles gained from the transaction to go somewhere exotic and have a lot of fun.
- Repeat until you’re tired of traveling/carrying really heavy coins.
Bingo. I wasn’t planning to go anywhere, but I did have a credit card with a high limit and a cash back rewards program. All it took was some quick math to realize I could make $300 to help pay for my new computer for what seemed like very little work. I’d have to cross my fingers a little and try something new, but I liked the idea.
***
I started floating the plan around to some of my friends and co-workers, excited to hear what they thought of this great scheme, but everyone gave me one of two responses:
- They thought it was a scam.
- They thought it was too risky.
How disappointing!
I thought everyone would be excited about this amazing trick I’d discovered. That was about the time I started to realize just how important it is to think for yourself when it comes to decisions like this. When you choose to accept more risk in your life, you’re going to have more and more people telling you you’re foolish.
Learning to ignore that is something I recommend working on sooner rather than later.
***
Assuming the US Mint and my bank weren’t trying to scam me, that only left myself as the scam artist and I knew I wasn’t trying to cheat anyone, so that took care of that concern. And, there wasn’t really any way around the fact that things might not go according to plan, so I just had to accept that.
I took a deep breath, crossed my fingers, and hit that “confirm order” button. I’d just bought $15,000 worth of $1 coins. Here’s how it all went down:
I called my bank.
I knew this was going to be an unusual transaction, so before I made my order, I called ahead to make sure everything would work out.
They said to call the day before I came in and everything would be all set. No problem.
I waited till the beginning of the month to place my order.
Most credit cards come with a 25-30 day grace period – the time between when you purchase something and when you have to pay for it without paying interest.
By waiting till the beginning of a new billing cycle, I gave myself 50 days to get things figured out if the **** hit the fan. That was important because even though I had access to the $15,000 in credit I needed to make my order, I didn’t actually have that much sitting in my bank account to make a disaster disappear.
That’s called leverage and it’s bitten many people that got careless with it.
The coins were delivered.
It took about 2 weeks for the mint to fill my order and deliver the coins. During this time, I didn’t have to do anything except log in and track my order every few days.
They arrived on a Tuesday afternoon via UPS in unmarked boxes. There were 6 of them and they must have weighed around 300 lbs in total. I had to borrow a hand truck just to move them around. I loaded them up and headed to the bank.
I deposited the coins.
Despite the pre-work I’d done with my bank, this is where the process broke down a little bit. In my phone calls to the branch before ordering the coins, I’d failed to ask to speak with a manager. I didn’t think it would be necessary.
Well, any time you deposit more than a few hundred dollars in coins at a bank, the manager almost always has to approve the transaction. Lesson learned. The teller I’d spoken with assured me there’d be no problem, but when I showed up with a hand truck loaded with coins, her manager assured me of the opposite.
She explained it was too late in the day to process the transaction, and my deposit was too big to fit in their safe overnight. I tried to do a little sweet talking, but she wasn’t having any of it. I was plain out of luck. I’d have to wait until the morning. The manager at my bank was making a big stink, so I called another nearby branch, explained my situation, and scheduled my deposit with the manager for the next morning.
Begrudgingly, I lugged the coins home, hid them under my bed for the night and headed out in the morning where things went off without a hitch (for the most part). Ty, the new manager, wasn’t thrilled to be dealing with a hand truck full of coins, but he honored his word and I was able to make my deposit.
There was only 1 hiccup here: due to the bank’s policy on how they must accept coins and prepare them for transfer and counting, I had to accept a a hand written deposit slip from Ty that stated, “$15,000 in coins, subject to count.” That made me a little nervous, but that’s how it goes when you’re carting around thousands of $1 coins. My deposit was safe and in the bank.
My rewards posted.
As as soon as my deposit cleared and was available in my checking account, I scheduled a transfer to pay the balance on my credit card. I was pretty relieved that I didn’t have to use many of those 50 days I’d allotted.
Just like clockwork, there was an additional $300 in my rewards account on my next credit card statement. I withdrew it, bought my computer, and life was good.
Was it a bit of a headache? Sure. But even though the story makes it sound longer, the total time I invested in the process was only about an hour. Lots of people put up with much bigger headaches every day for a lot less in return.
What could have gone wrong?
Lots of things could have gone wrong in this deal, but I think the most important thing to note is that none of them did.
Here’s a list of things that could have screwed up my plan:
- My packages with $15,000 in them could have been lost by UPS.
- I could have been robbed on my way to the bank.
- The bank could have refused to take my coins.
Any one of those things could have happened, but they didn’t. The likelihood of any of those scenarios is minuscule and not really worth fretting over. Even if they did occur, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world.
- If UPS had lost my package, it was insured for the full amount and I had 50 days to figure it out.
- If someone had robbed me on the way to the bank, that would have been awful but also highly unlikely and the thief would have had a hell of a time making off with 300 pounds in coins.
- If the bank had refused my deposit, I would have had to just make smaller deposits of $2,000 at a time for 8 days so that they could handle the volume.
People often dismiss an idea as too risky long before they give themselves the chance to figure out how they could actually make it work. I think it’s really too bad that so many great plans get pushed aside because someone is afraid that something could go wrong.
In the end though, what tends to happen is what you allow yourself to believe will happen. If you think everything will go wrong, it probably will. More importantly though, if you believe that things will go right, it probably will, also, because you’ll be willing to work hard enough to make sure it does.
You usually get what you expect out of life.
So when you’re evaluating a risk, take a second to plan for the potential hiccups that could occur, but spend more time planning how to make things go right. You might be surprised by the results.
By the way, this coin program through the US Mint is still open and available to anyone that’s interested in doing it themselves. However, if you’re a Chase customer on the west coast, I’ll have to apologize for spoiling some of the fun. A branch manager called the day after my deposit to say their new policy is to not accept more than $2,000 per day.
Update: The US Mint now limits transactions to $1,000 every 10 days. I still do this on a regular basis, but no more $15,000 coin runs for me. If you want more, you’ll have to call and explain why.
Update: After reading Chris Guillebeau’s Frequent Flyer Master guide, I now use coin transactions to gain frequent flyer miles instead of cash rewards as they work out to be considerably more valuable if you’re a frequent traveler.
~~~~~
Image by: Mahdi Ayat
Great article! Pretty hilarious that you pulled this off, but great job sticking to your guns and forging ahead despite negative feedback from your co-workers. What, aside from the headache of dealing with your bank over this, would stop you from repeating this process over and over every-time you pay off the credit card?
Matt, I’m actually gearing up for another round of this – so nothing, actually! I’ll do a better job of communication with the bank this time. The only other concern is that if you buy very large amounts at one time, it can negatively impact your credit score (though likely not much) by raising what’s called your “credit utilization.”
Of course, you can eliminate that risk by getting your overall credit limit as high as possible and buying your coins in…smaller doses.
I don’t know if anyone has checked the U.S. Mint’s website recently but it says that you cannot purchase coins for immediate bank deposit, as it does not comply with their terms anymore, you also are only allowed to purchase 4 boxes of $1 coins (I think thats $1000 worth). Anything beyond that and your credit card will not be authorized.
Love the article was interested in doing this for airmiles and traveling. but after reading your post AR are you saying that you basically cant do this anymore? and if your can your limit is only $1000 and how long do u have to wait to deposit it?
Think about how high your opportunity cost is from research, effort, and stress.
Is all of that really worth exploiting a “grey area” for $300?
Agree:
300$ profit on a 15K capital investment (0,02%) + the work put in + possible risks it is not really the kind of deal you’d be looking for.
Specific bank deposits give you better interest rates with no work/risk needed (via Internet) and same short time lapse.
Upps, I meant 2%. Still, the comment is still consistent. Cheers
Pretty amazing story, Tyler. Advanced riskology indeed
I’m headed to China late this year, so I’m tempted to give this thing a try … maybe.
Jeffery, this sort of tactic will probably be much more valuable with frequent flyer miles than how I did it with cash back rewards – especially if you’re using them to take an expensive flight. When I do this again, I’ll only use it to gain miles.
Clever way to make $300, Tyler! If you really only spent about an hour, that’s not a bad hourly rate.
Thanks for sharing your experience with this cool “hack.”
I have yet to do this because I’m still listening to the little voice in my head that whispers “it’s too risky!” I want to do it just to see the look on my wife’s face when I show here the credit card balance! YIKES!
Ha. I definitely suggest letting your wife know ahead of time if you share your finances.
I really don’t see the risk. If the shipment is insured than you don’t have to worry about receiving the money.
If your bank won’t accept large amounts of coins (which is highly unlikely seeing as how laundromats, arcades, vending operators etc etc have to be able to deposit their money somewhere) than you can simply take the coin in $2000 or less installments, as you have 50 days or so depending on the card. Also, most banks (at least in Canada) will trade your coins for cash even if you don’t have an account at that branch so you can simply take 500$ or so at a time to various branches and just get the cash to deposit..
OR in Canada we have machines in MOST grocery stores that you can dump coins in and it will print a receipt that you take to the cashier and they will give you the cash value of the receipt I believe they can do up to 300$ or so at a time.. In my small city of only 120,000 people I know of at least 10 I can count of those machines, so it’d only take 5 days or less to get all cash to deposit…
OR absolute worst scenario, but still feasible, most corner stores, gas stations, or anywhere with a cash register will give you cash for rolls of coin in small amount like say 1-2 rolls, $25 dollars each so it’s only 300-600 stops or even less if you get a majority of it into the bank.
Get creative! There are lots of ways to turn coin into cash. for 300$ this may not be entirely worth all that effort, if you even have to do that.. but if you do this to earn bonus miles to purchase travel on credit cards it can be entirely worth it..
Check this out, this guy is travelling 35,000 miles around the world on all credit card points he got from bonus programs.. for example, on one credit card if he spend $4000 in 6 months he earned 75,000 bonus points and it only cost him 120,000 points for his whole trip. $4000 in coin would be a lot easier to deposit.
http://gizmodo.com/5710654/
Thomas
Tyler,
I absolutely loved this post. I’ve seen talk of this strategy in the Flyer Talk forums before but honestly was put off because it sounded too much like a scam. It’s wonderful to read about someone that made this work successfully.
Questions I have for you:
1. Are banks obliged to accept up to $2,000 in coins every day as a general rule? I’m sure it varies by bank, but it appears you’ve done your homework.
2. Can you foresee any problems with turning this into a monthly routine?
I really appreciated this post, and will be hopping on the bandwagon as soon as I’m back from India. No access to my regular bank over here in Jaipur.
All the best and keep up the awesome work.
Hey Austin,
1. Short answer, no. Banks can make their own rules about what to accept and what not to accept. That’s why it’s important to work with the manager ahead of time.
That said, if the credit card is through the same bank that you’re depositing your coins at, then they’re legally obligated to accept them as repayment for your CC debt.
2. Only if you don’t have a good relationship with your bank. Get that sorted out FIRST.
You realize that this violates the policy of your rewards credit cart, right? If an employee of any bank found out that you were doing this they would be required to report the incident as potential fraud. Good luck trying to do this long-term. And talking about scaling this up? Find a better way to make $300.
This is completely out-of-the-box thinking. I LOVE it.
Have you thought about how you could scale this operation yet? haha
Great post!
Ha. Thought about it, yes, but haven’t been inclined to actually do it yet. It would take a bit of multi-bank coordination.
great article! but what about shipping costs from ups? did you have any of those?
No shipping costs if you buy through the Mint’s direct ship program. That’s the beauty of it – zero overhead.
Do you mean that, if you buy “collection” coins, the bank will basically buy them back for you ? What I see on the US Mint Web site is only “collectable”. For example, there is a package of 5 rolls of 25 1$ coins (total “circulation” value : 125$) that are on sale for 250$. If you deposit this package, will your bank consider its value at 125$ (circulation value) or at 250$ (collection value) ?
Hughes – this applies only to presidential and Sacajawea $1 coins bought through the “Direct Ship” program.
A bank will not pay “collection” value for any coins, only “circulation” value.
I love those Sacajawea $1 coins! I would order them and then refuse to part with them, just so I could stare at them. I’m freaky like that.
As for your risk question, I always just tell folks: You can never predict the outcome, good or bad. Sometimes, you just gotta jump and learn the fine art of trust.
Even if some of the things that could have gone wrong had gone wrong, you would have recovered. Life just tends to work itself out. It’s beautiful like that.
Exactly. I can’t remember off the top of my head who said it, but a great quote is “Sometimes you just have to jump before the safety net will appear.”
I think this is a great idea. However, I went to the US Mint website and it says that there is a 4 box or $1,000 limit for each order after which you must wait ten days to make another order. How did you get around this? Or am I missing something?
That may be a new rule. They’re changing them all the time.
I can’t get myself through this statement:
“The immediate bank deposit of $1 Coins ordered through this Program does not result in their introduction into circulation and, therefore, does not comply with the intended purpose of the Program.”
“By clicking “Add to Cart” I agree that I understand, and will comply with, the intended purpose of the Program.”
How do you explain to the bank for the deposit?
I didn’t explain anything to the bank beyond that I needed to deposit a lot of coins. That verbiage was not on the site the last time I bought coins, but that doesn’t surprise me as they change the details of the program on a regular basis.
I guess the main thing to debate is “immediate bank deposit.”
This trick was featured on a few big sites a while back (I think even CNN did a piece on that). After seeing that, the mint changed the verbage & posted the new policy. Still can work, you just might need to spread out the deposits over time.
Tyler–
What a great and innovative way to make $300.00!!
My friends are always laughing (but secretly envious, I’m sure!) at my frugality.
You’ve given me some fuel for the financial risk-taking fire.
Thanks for a wonderful read!
Linda
We’ll see who laughs last, Linda.
Tyler,
Great story and clever. Did you have to fill out a form stating where the money came from because the deposit was over $10,000 in a single day?
Mike
Hey Mike. They took a photocopy of my driver’s license, but no, no statement. It was pretty obvious where they came from – they were still in their boxes labelled US Mint!
I think that this trick is great for frequent flyer miles. Even if the Mint has changed the program since Tyler tried it, 1,000 miles on a program like Starwood Preferred Guest through AMEX is a sweet deal for no shipping and a quick trip to the bank. If you were able to do this even 4x/month that’s 4,000 miles/mo and 48,000 miles/year – more than enough for a single rewards ticket. 25,000 is the typical amount you need for a domestic awards ticket, and if you’re using SPG you get a bonus of 5,000 miles for every 20,000 SPG points you transfer into miles. So… 2 free domestic awards tickets?
I think the overall spirit of the post – better living through uncertainty – has been missed in some of the comments. This is very valuable info. Thanks again to Tyler for sharing the story.
whatever happened to those Sacajawea coins? Weren’t they supposed to take over for the dollar bill? interesting article
I visited the US mint website to learn more about this and discovered that in order to buy the coins I had to agree that I understood and intended to comply with the intended purpose of the program.
Then it says in big blue print that immediately depositing the coins for some reason does not comply with the purpose of the program.
Does this disturb you at all?
Tyler,
Kudos to you! I love a great frugal find! Especially a way to work around any rewards program! I have a Visa rewards card and after a 5 yr. membership have just earned enough for a ticket to any of the 48 states, lol! The points are earned from my own spending, at a normal rate of 1 pt. to $1 per credit card use on a debit card. On occasion, they will boost it to 2 pts. to $1. I think your plan shows your intuitiveness, yet eventually would think the rewards program would begin to change their payouts, etc. to spoil the fun!
I don’t understand, if you had $15000 credit on your card, why didn’t you just charge the purchase? It’s obvious the Mint didn’t foresee this kind of trickery, and it takes advantage of their free shipping offer, which undoubtedly was meant to encourage smaller buyers to buy more. This is one risk I think you shouldn’t have taken, and it leaves me with a bad taste towards your website.
I’ve seen and heard of some pretty shaky ideas, but you know what, this one was pretty ingenious. I would have never thought of doing something that crazy. But I guess that’s what Advanced Riskology is all about. Now you got me going through my mental database to think of a way to jump start my FYF or more importantly get out of this light mound of debt that I am in. But I’m sure if I really stop thinking about so much and just do it, I will be well on my way. Glad I came across this site Tyler. And for anybody that feels as if tactics like this are too much of a risk, then I guess you’re not ready for the journey…
I’ve heard that certain CC companies/the mint have rules that keep people from constantly doing this….because I’ve thought about doing something like this back when I discovered credit cards. Was I misinformed, or are there any CC companies that don’t give rewards for currency transactions?
hey what kind of coins you got
because i cant find regular circulation coins
sorry im new to this
[...] year, I bought $15,000 in coins from the US Mint to get the credit card rewards to buy a new computer when my old one died. I [...]
[...] The best deal right now – American Airlines Citi cards: first year fee waived, spend $4,000 within 6 months for 75,000 points. Sign up for one (or two..or three) of those cards, hit the spending limit (by putting EVERYTHING YOU BUY on the card and paying it off in full), and you’ve just earned 75,000 points without ever stepping foot on an airplane. If you’re a frugal spender, try doing things like pre-paying your car insurance, buying gift cards, or do a little research and to find out about some of the other methods for hitting spending limits. My friend Tyler got mighty creative… [...]
Even with the new rules, this could be a great way to purchase stuff if you don’t use your credit card to track your spending.
If you pay cash for everything, instead of getting your cash from the bank get it directly from the mint.
It’s less convenient to carry than the paper money, but it’s a minor hassle (plus the time cashiers have to take to count it, but $1 coins on purchases less than $50 shouldn’t take long to count.
Brilliant Idea… Unfortunately as a prior commenter noted, there is verbiage on the mint site preventing this now
I wish I would have known about the direct ship program when it first started. For the time being, this looks like a missed opportunity for me. Awesome story though, and thanks for sharing!
P.S. Please email me if you have/find other methods of increasing my credit utilization that net out to a 0 change in my cash position once the cycle is complete! So far I’ll I’ve managed is sporadically buying things other people want, that they intend to pay cash for, and then getting the cash instead.
Will this also work in Canada?
You are not allowed to do this based on most credit card contracts. Check your fine print. They can cancel your credit card.
Very cool. I bought $1000 in coins, just as a kind of trial run. I have had fun walking around with a roll of $25 dollar coins and making small purchases and tipping with them (although I’ve been told that waiters don’t really appreciate being tipped in change) but haven’t taken the majority of them to deposit at the bank yet. When I was on the US Mint site they also had a limit of I believe $4000 that you could order at a time. Maybe that’s been added recently.
Bit of a problem with this:
the credit card treats it like a cash advance and you have to pay a large interest fee that does not make it worthwile
You basically got the credit card fee from the US mint by doing this scheme. $15’000*2% = $300. It’s a bit unethical, but the responsibility falls on US Mint’s for accepting credit cards for things such as these.
[...] do a little research and to find out about some of the other methods for hitting spending limits. My friend Tyler got mighty [...]
Kudos on having the sufficient level of steel concentration in your balls for being able to pull this off. My only gripe is that your actions resulted in western Chase banks not accepting more than 2k. Also, if you KEEP doing it, it’s only a matter of time before they close that loophole thus preventing OTHERS from ever trying it. Spread the wealth man!
[...] do a little research and to find out about some of the other methods for hitting spending limits. My friend Tyler got mighty [...]
[...] http://advancedriskology.com/the-day-i-bought-15000/# [...]
The US mint now limits: 4 boxes every 10 days and also states:
“The immediate bank deposit of $1 coins ordered through this program does not result in their introduction into circulation and, therefore, does not comply with the intended purpose of the program.”
There is currently a $1000 limit per each 10 day period. Here is the full verbiage on the US Mint site:
Circulating $1 Coin Direct Ship Rolls
The intended purpose of the Circulating $1 Coin Direct Ship program is to make $1 coins readily available to the public, at no additional cost, so they can be easily introduced into circulation—particularly by using them for retail transactions, vending, and mass transit. Increased circulation of $1 coins saves the Nation money. The immediate bank deposit of $1 coins ordered through this program does not result in their introduction into circulation and, therefore, does not comply with the intended purpose of the program.
Order Limit:
There is a 4-box $1 coin limit for every 10-day period on any and all $1 coin orders. Beyond that your credit card will not be authorized. If you need quantities greater than this, please send an e-mail before placing your order to directship@usmint.treas.gov explaining why your order should be exempted from the limit.
By clicking “Add to Cart” I agree that I understand, and will comply with, the intended purpose of the program.
Tyler,
this sounds like a pretty good idea. i had an offer from one of my credit card to spend a fix no. of $$ for 5 straight months on anything and they would give me 5% cash back on all the money. what i found is the amount is hard to reach sometimes. But out local grocery store and also Walmart offers cash back on credit card transactions. The limit is $60. so what i would do it i break down my weekly groceries into multiple transactions, take $60 cashback on each one of them and deposit that money into Bank to pay to Credit card. i continued doing this whenever i was short of reaching the limit. That gave me $500 in free cash!!
FYI, I just went to the US Mint website and saw this:
There is a 4-box $1 coin limit for every 10-day period on any and all $1 coin orders. Beyond that your credit card will not be authorized. If you need quantities greater than this, please send an e-mail before placing your order to directship@usmint.treas.gov explaining why your order should be exempted from the limit.
Did they impose a limit on account of your transaction I wonder?
Yet another caveat on the mint website:
“The immediate bank deposit of $1 coins ordered through this Program does not result in their introduction into circulation and, therefore, does not comply with the intended purpose of the Program.”
[...] [...]
I just found this site and was reading through the comments, and I think it’s ironic how half the comments are saying why you can’t do this any more but they all say the same thing over and over again. Completely contrary to the purpose of the post, which I assume was to get people to think of stuff they can do, not shoot down ideas.
Suffice to say, most people don’t seem to be able to read governmentese. Compliance with intended purpose is essentially a filler statement. It means nothing, and its only effect is to appeal to a reader’s sense of social order.
I’m not against social order; however, it’s always open to interpretation.
To restrict oneself from doing something that benefits oneself, when there are no outside sources of authority that are actually prohibiting you, is a waste of the many opportunities one has as a citizen of a first world country.
This experience is an exercise in recognizing the difference between dangerous risk and beneficial risk. In recognizing the line between legal restriction and self-restriction. Smart, calculated risk-taking is about chasing opportunities that help one grow, create no danger or loss for anyone else, and whose only cause for avoidance is one’s own level of self-restraint.
I may not do it myself (may not), but I can certainly learn the lesson from Tyler’s anecdote.
As stated by a previous poster, the US Mint is in fact losing money from this scheme. They have to a) cover the cost of the transaction fee imposed by the credit card company, which typically ranges from around 1% to 3% (probably 1% since the government negotiates the fee with the credit card companies), and b) they cover the cost of shipping, which according to a WSJ article is around $3/box.
I am all for someone taking a risk, thinking outside the box, etc. to make a buck. However, this is not truly making anything. It is exploiting a well-meaning program to personally gain from the loss of another party. It’s parasitic. Thinking that this is some kind of Thomas Edison s*** is just so misguided. Come up with a good idea that benefits yourself and someone else, without creating a loss for a well-meaning institution, and then pat yourself on the back.
[...] do a little research and to find out about some of the other methods for hitting spending limits. My friend Tyler got mighty [...]
The coin rewards is an idea I’d be up to test out (& reap the rewards of
). It was good to meet you tonight and I’ll definitely be creeping around this site in the future. Cheers -George-
[...] read an even more creative way of earning air miles you should check out Tyler’s story “The day I bought $15,000“. Tyler bought 15.000 USD from US Mint and then went to the bank to sell them again to cover [...]
I just want to say to THE RIDICULOUSLY HIGH amount of people who have posted things like:
“Your CC contract says…”
“I went to the website and you can’t…”
“The small print on the website says ‘blah blah’..”
…Will you all get your heads out of your asses and just try living a little?
If you spend your life waiting for “them” to say it’s ok, for “someone” to give you permission, or you need “somebody else” to try it first, you’re 1) a sad drone, 2) missing out on the joy of the unknown and 3) probably reading the wrong blog.
This wasn’t a primer in how to buy coins from the Mint.
Go back to your cubicle and think about this.
And no coffee until I call you….
1) Study up on ethics.
2) Employing this scheme is not an admirable enterprise.
3) I bet you posted this from your cubicle.
Go to law school. Become a doctor. If your goal is to make over $300/hour, then do it, but actually fulfill a need rather than be a parasite.
[...] one has been around for a few years now. Tyler Tervooren actually blogged about it awhile back. The US Mint will let you buy boxes of $1 gold coins at face value, with free [...]
[...] Tyler Tervooren – The King of Riskology leads by example. And yes, the rumors are true… he bought $15,000. [...]
Holy Crap! This is fantastic! Tyler thanks for this article. This is the first thing I’ve read on your site and I’m subscribing from here on out!
Such a freakin’ most excellent article you’ve written there. Just the thought of going against what is generally accepted gives me goosebumps…it’s the adreneline.
2 years ago at my lowest point (no money, no job, no business but definitely a spirit) I was walking past an art gallery, where a painting caught my eye. I just went with the ‘flow’ and walked in.
It was a mixed media painting by a relatively unknown artist called Nemo. I was fascinated by it. Two citites had been merged together and it went against what ‘artists’ would consider ‘real’ art.
What really caught my eye was the text written vertically, ‘becasue you’re worth it’. Hmmmm I thought.
I then over heard a woman behind me talking to an auction house dealer about the rising value of Nemo’ art.
I knew what I had to do. There were just too many signposts to ignore. I whipped my credit card out and I told her I wanted to buy it. It was a cool £4175. I didn’t flinch, she did the flinching on my behalf. By that point I’d become relatively immune to what poeple around me would have to say about such a ‘silly move’.
I had 12 months interest free. I had 12 months to make some money.
Did my research and 4 months later, sold it for £7350.
I knew it would sell. So I let it go and the money came right back to me (”,)
[...] Spend $4000 on each card within 6 months. If you have trouble, consider buying coins from the US Mint. (http://advancedriskology.com/the-day-i-bought-15000/) [...]
[...] has a post about how he booked a trip across four continents for $416 and a bunch of miles. -Tyler Tervooren of Advance Riskology shows how buying $15,000 in cash racked him up thousands of miles that he’s putting towards a [...]
Tyler, this sounds like an amazing idea. I don’t think that it’s possible in the UK though, which is unfortunate.
American ingenuity is alive and well. I just had to laugh out loud when I read about your nervy adventure. I’m thinking you were sweating all the way to the bank and laughing all the way home.
(Found you through ZenHabits by the way – nice blog)
Tyler,
That is a really funny story and must have been a sight seeing someone walk into the bank with 300 lbs of coins.
It’s also an important lesson that illustrates the fact that people are often to take risks in life for various reasons, but those that do have a greater chance of being rewarded.
Brandon
[...] The Day I Bought $15,000 Tags: bingo, coins, enough money, travelers [...]
Thanks for a really interesting read, learn quite a few tips here, trying hard to improve my credit , i did a consumer proposal 7 years ago and just now i am starting to rebuild my credit slowly but surely and trying to avoid that credit card trap.
[...] use this program to earn cashback rewards. Tyler Tervooren, author of the blog Advanced Riskology, bought $15,000 from the U.S. Mint to earn $300 in cashback [...]
[...] use this program to earn cashback rewards. Tyler Tervooren, author of the blog Advanced Riskology, bought $15,000 from the U.S. Mint to earn $300 in cashback [...]
It looks like they just changed their policy so they no longer accept credit card payments. http://catalog.usmint.gov/wcsstore/ConsumerDirect/images/catalog/en_US/DSProdDescN05.pdf Tyler, were you aware of this?
Dude! It’s illegal to carry more than $10,000 in the United States without the proper permits and paperwork. You should’ve added one more risk to your risk analysis – getting pulled over and having the police confiscate your dough!
Uhh, no. That’s incorrect.
It’s illegal to take more than $10,000 out of the United States without first declaring so to Customs.
It is legal to carry any amount of money within the U.S.
You are confusing this concern with the fact that police in many (not every) jurisdictions, in the course of performing searches of your car, have taken it upon themselves to confiscate what they consider “large sums” of money as possible evidence of illegal activity. As long as you can demonstrate how you came upon the money (which, in this case you could), they must return your money… and this is in the VERY unlikely event that such a police stop even happened.
Well that sucks but that ok IF that was the ONLY way to do that it would suck.
err be bad lol
This is a pretty brilliant way of getting rewards out of your credit card. Nice going! I look forward to more posts about risk from you.
I went to the US Mint website and it says that there is a 4 box or $1,000 limit for each order after which you must wait ten days to make another order.
Tyler,
You funny, it’s like taking risk of riding bi-cycle to reach Aus from US.
I took risk of reading this blog post.
Now this is what I call thinking outside the box! I like it. I’m tempted to try this myself also.
Its funny how your “friends” can act when you have a new and interesting idea to do something. If I have a new business idea I only will talk about it with business people because friends will so often think of just some reason why it could never work. Did any of your friends come around and try it after you were able to tell them it worked?
I enjoyed your story and how you had to deal with the bank was kind of interesting. Hope you flew somewhere cool.
Where can you purchase the coins with your credit card? All I see is check, money order, or wire transfer.
Where can you purchase $1 coins with your credit card? All I can find on the mint website is wire transfer, money order, or check.
Fair play Tyler, nice hour’s work
I’m amazed how many commenters seem not to have read the post in its entirety, noticed the date it was originally posted, and have also seemed not to have read all the comments. Several people have made comments about the impossibility of buying $15,000 in coins. Duh! If you read some of Tyler’s later comments you would see why. One guy says that if you want to make $300 and hour become a lawyer or doctor. Duh! He needed $300 FAST, not after several years of school, tuition, and shitty long hours until reaching partner. Are you people for real?
One person even talked about the high cost of interest on cash advances and credit cards. Please, for the love of God and your fellow man, read the portion in which Tyler discusses the “grace period” on his credit card. Seriously. Everyone has an opinion, but if you want to express yours, please at least make yourself familiar with the subject on which you are gong to comment.
As for you, Tyler, good trick. Too bad they are working to close the loopholes, but it is a good one nonetheless.
You should be aware that the Mint has closed all the loopholes on this activity. I placed an order last summer, only to have the mint cancel it, since they no longer accept credit cards for such purchases.
Fast forward to last week, when I wanted to get some of the coins (even writing a check for them), and I can’t even find them on their website!
So it looks like this reverse scam is history.
“If the bank had refused my deposit, I would have had to just make smaller deposits of $2,000 at a time for 8 days so that they could handle the volume.”
Actually, if you break a deposit greater than $10,000 into smaller deposits, it’s illegal. A bank is required to report all transactions above $10,000 to the government. If you break up a large deposit into smaller deposits then the government sees this as you evading their reporting requirement. It’s called “Structuring”.
The last time I checked the mint site, I could not find the offer for a volumn of
The last time I checked the mint site I could not find where you could order a volumn of $1.00 coins without paying a mint price. I have also heard that the federal reserve has 1 1/2 billion of the presidential coins and no where to store them.
Wow this is hilarious! Sounds like a loophole for sure. I wonder how long before they catch on to this? Lol.
You usually get what you expect out of life.
Just what I needed to read today. Thanks, Tyler.
awwwwe booo: http://thepointsguy.com/2011/07/rip-free-miles-and-points-courtesy-of-the-us-mint/
So much for the Mint route.
This is freaking awesome!
As I read it more and more I kept thinking “Wow, this is crazy… and SUPER AWESOME!”
Yes, I do think it was a big risk. I am sure if your credit card company discovered this then they probably would void the $300 but even if this happened then it is a zero sum game… Except you would still win because either which way it is a darn awesome story.
Yes, I do agree that there some other risks involved such as potentially getting robbed, and losing it in the mail. But if we start calling those risks then we also have to deal with the risk that you might get hit by a car and die (that was kind of brutal).
I just think at some point we have to let go and accept that there is always a risk (but you obviously know that – way better than I).
Awesome post.
I love so much about this article that’s hard to find a place to start but what I really loved is when you said you “started to realize just how important it is to think for yourself when it comes to decisions like this. When you choose to accept more risk in your life, you’re going to have more and more people telling you you’re foolish.”
So many times I have what I believe to be truly great ideas that get me amped up but as soon as I pitch them to others they get shot down or I get told it isn’t worth the effort, or w/e other excuse. I used to become immediately deflated by these naysayers. Am I alone on this? Am I Crazy? I used to question myself because these ideas seemed so clear to me.
Recently, I’ve started my own blog with my aim to be able to travel full-time. I am obviously excited about the idea and have been working really hard to achieve my goal. This time I made a pact with myself to not listen to the naysayers and go for it wholeheartedly. Criticism is important to improve and I always sought the opinions of others for this very reason. I’ve learned though that there is a fine line between constructive criticism and a cynical pessimist. Determining what criticism to listen to is as important as listening to it at all. It should help not hinder.
[...] abundant knowledge in this field on a blog called Advanced Riskology. Tyler has some of the most entertaining stories I’ve ever seen on a blog. His 1% Club is a diary of challenges he’s going to do that [...]
Hey Tyler,
This is great hearing your take on reward/travel hacking. I’ve been thinking about purchasing some coins, but I think I’m going to wait until I get another credit card with miles. I successfully got 50,000 miles via the United Mileage Plus card just from regular spending, but I noticed how many other cards have a minimum (in amount spent and time range) so this is going to be the way to go for those. I’m excited to give it a try and I’ll let you know how it goes. I need more travel in my life – it’s been too long!
Since no one wants to refinance our underwater mortgage I am considering doing this, but my purchase won’t be quite as big. I’m hoping my credit union will have no problem taking the coins.
Ain’t gonna happen, autum. The Mint discontinued the program a long time ago, due to folks like you who wanted to abuse it.
Wow I thought I was good at manipulating frequent flyers on my credit card account but this takes the cake. I wonder if the Australian Mint does this too?
Wow, this is not out of the box thinking or even creative. The mint was doing this to give an easy way to promote the circulation of the coins. You agreed when you ordered them NOT to just deposit them at a bank. You are not clever, you are not a hacker, all you did was what they clearly asked you not to do. Pathetic and weak.