October 30th, 2008
HOT! Buy $1,000 Travelers Cheques At Face Value + $5.95 Shipping!!!
Update: Already received the cheques yesterday and deposited them into my savings account! 1,000 easy Starpoints for $5.95. Plus the interest earned in my money market account on the $1,000 for ~45 days until the statment closes and the bill is due should just about wipe out the $5.95 fee!
Wash, rinse, and repeat in 8 days!
Originally posted on 10/24:
Related: Mint your own Starpoints
Remember that with the Starwood Consumer AMEX you get a bonus 15,000 Starpoints for spending $15,000 within 6 months, in addition to the 10,000 Starpoint bonus after the 1st purchase with the card. This is a great way to reach that limit. In addition people have been able to get the 15,000 Starpoint bonus on the Starwood Business AMEX automatically as well, or by calling up AMEX after spending $15,000 on the card.
AMEX Travelers Cheques are being discontinued effective 12/31/08, but until that time you can knock off the regular $15 fee with promo code: TCDIRECT
You can buy up to $1,000 every 2 weeks, so effectively the price for 1,000 Starpoints is just $5.95!
Travelers Cheques can be deposited into your bank account for free.
Travelers Cheques post as a purchase, not as a cash advance. You can pay for them with any AMEX card. You will not get MR points for Travelers Cheques, so use your Starwood card-not a card that gives MR points!
October 24th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Dan, I tried to order these but it balked when it came to using my Starwoods Business- kept saying it couldn’t go through. What gives?
October 24th, 2008 at 11:50 am
do you must pay with a AMEX or can u purchase it with another card such as visa or MC?
October 24th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
better than coins?
October 24th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
once i have the cheques how do i deposit them in my bank account?
October 24th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
only amex
October 24th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
great job dan….is it one per name, address or credit card number?
October 24th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
order placed today, thanks Dan…
October 25th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
once i purchase them can someone else deposit the checks into my account?
October 25th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
who the hech is this person trying to advertise on shmais ”amazing deals – free stuff” what do they think they are doing?? don’t they know they’ll NEVER beat Dan???
October 25th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
so this is like you buy em, get the points, and just put them back in your account….
October 25th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
How is this $1000 limit enforced? Per credit card? address? account? Unless it’s by CC then the restriction should be fairly easy to circumvent.
October 26th, 2008 at 11:00 am
@Bob
My wife and I have a shared AMX account with separate cards. My order has been shipped and her order is being processed. Order submitted to same billing address, same CC# and account, different billing name. I’ll let you know if the second order goes through after confirmation…
October 26th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
the second order was declined…
“Your order exceeded purchaser limits either by quantity, dollar value, or both for the allowed time period.”
October 26th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Dan if I have consumer and then two diffrent business cards(one with my social and one with a legit EIN) does it make sense that I can order $1000 on each card? I dont see why it shouldnt work unless they think someone stole all my cards and is ordering checks, worse case scenario they will call me and I will verify that its legit. If anyone else has tried this please let me know. Thank you
October 26th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
interesting, I ordered o my business card and my consumer, seperate EIN and socials but listed under the same AMEX account, one came through right away and the other email said declined. I think it works by either email address or AMEX accounts. If anyone has a way around this let me know. DAN why cant you just walk in to any place that sells Travelers checks and buy five grand worth on one card, does the $1000 limit apply when you purchase in person also?
October 27th, 2008 at 8:22 am
it wouldn’t be by email address, I used two different email addresses…possibly by AMX account or shipping address?
October 27th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
It is still charging me the $15.00 processing fee. Is there a code to take it off?
October 27th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
so far i checked many banks and they take only cash to purchase amex cheques.ordered 1000 on my card but then had trouble with secound order.
October 27th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Can we get jetblue points with this method?
October 28th, 2008 at 4:28 am
got one for me one for wife
same address different account
October 28th, 2008 at 9:54 am
@Yanki:
Did you try the code in the post?
@Yoel:
Sure
@chulent:
Good to know!
October 28th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Tried code in post, gave me discount but then transaction did not go through. Said had problem with card, check with issuer – card is STARWOOD PREFERRED GUEST. Anyone have the same? What can I do?
Dan, would you get points on Starwood by purchasing AMEX Gift Cards? You can purchase $5,000 every 14 days, made up of 10 $500 cards at $3.95 card fee per card and $7.95 UPS shipping. Or $47.45 for 5,000 Starwood points.
October 28th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
the starwoord card is up to $45 a year – after the first year
October 28th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
they are waiving 3.95 gift card purchases with promo code
“phone”
October 28th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
by the way,what would we do with the gift cards ????
October 29th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
YOU CAN GO TO MOST AMEX SERVICE OFFICES LOCATED IN SOME MAJOR MARKETS AS IN N.Y.C.AND PURCHASE 1000 CHEQUES WITH STARWOOD AMEX EVERY 7 DAYS.OR WITH AMEX PLATINUM CARD 10000
EVERY 30 DAYS.BY THE WAY THERE IS ZERO CHARGE!!!!
October 29th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
i don’t get it – if it doesn’t give you MR points how does it give you starwoods points
I have a Jetblue Biz card? Dan said over here http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/4298#comment-42278 that it gives you Jetblue points. How does that work if you don’t get MR points?
October 29th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
@AEF:
Simple, you can earn points for travelers chaques on AMEX branded cards but not on AMEX MR cards.
October 29th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
@Dan/Ctownbochur:
So if I am understating you correctly I can buy Travelers Cheques on my JetBlue biz card and get points?
(I was speaking to an awards guy AmEx today about something else and they told me that it’s possible it could work on Starwoods or Delta and not JetBlue since on JetBlue you need a minimum of 200 MR points to transfer over automatically to JB. But Starwoods and Delta you can do on any amount. I don’t even know what that means – lol)
October 29th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Correct.
What he’s saying is that on Starwood AMEX spending $1 gets you 1 Starpoint, but on a Jetblue AMEX you must spend $200 in order to get 1 Trueblue point.
October 30th, 2008 at 12:21 am
I placed an order with my Starwood Personal Card and received an email that my order was rejected because:
“This offer was intended for use with an OPEN Charge Card only. Please place your order again using an Open Charge Card.”
Anyone else get this?
October 30th, 2008 at 10:01 am
I used my CitiBank AA Amex card and it was approved.
October 30th, 2008 at 10:29 am
@Avid Reader:
Nope, strange!
October 30th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
once i purchase them can someone else deposit the checks into my account? Or do I have to be the one to deposit it into my account
October 31st, 2008 at 4:43 pm
@Avid Reader:
I got the same email after purchasing with Starwood Consumer AMEX.
November 2nd, 2008 at 10:51 pm
the is a way to pay with a diff card then amex?
November 4th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
I Had the same problem with my starwoods offer declined, because it was only for Open Cards
November 5th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
are you sure that it doesn’t post as a cash advance? i called amex and they said it does?
November 7th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
@Avid Reader: I also tried to order the checks using a starwood preferred member card and it said the card cannot make this type of transaction. have they stopped the deal, dan?
November 9th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
amex told me its a cash advance, not a purchase
November 10th, 2008 at 11:55 am
My first $1k order went through and my second order got rejected. I called Amex and they said the order was rejected because it’s considered a cash advance and I cannot order more than $1k (including fees) within any 7-day period. I explained to them that I placed the same order 2 weeks ago and that it wasn’t reflected as a cash advance and that it exceeded $1k with fees ($1,005.95). Then I tried to place an order for $950 + $5.95 and that got rejected too. The Amex people bumped the matter up to a supervisor who admitted he had no idea what was going on, and they said they’d get back to me in a couple of days.
November 10th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
@ Anonymous
i deposited checks orderd under my wife’s name. made out to me signed by me no problem’s.
November 11th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Had the same experience as ‘milechazzer’ did. Spoke to Amex again today, and they told me that as of 4 days ago, you can’t use any amex card other than an Open charge card to buy traveler’s checks. They were probably swamped by people using Dan’s Deal, and decided that it was time to end the party. Just goes to show how Dan can influence Amex policies
.
November 11th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Amex called me back today and said they still haven’t figured it out and that they have their techies working on it.
November 12th, 2008 at 1:34 am
just ordered for the third time on my *wood bus. and it says the order went thru
November 12th, 2008 at 11:23 am
I just placed another order for $1,000 and it seems to have gone through (although it didn’t work yesterday, and Amex told me they’re still looking into the problem).
November 12th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Just got an email from Amex stating that my order has been declined since the “offer was intended for use with an OPEN Charge Card only”
November 13th, 2008 at 4:03 am
ordered 2 days ago on my starwoods & was declined–ordered just now and it went through!–so is it every eight days or every two weeks?
November 13th, 2008 at 10:36 am
First order went through , got checks waited 2 weeks 2nd order declined – Open Charge Only email. oh well thanks for the 1000
starpoints Dan!
November 15th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
sat.nite 11-15-08
ordered once and got checks then tried couple of times and was declined.now it seemed to accept it.so try again.good luck.
November 15th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
p.s. got declined again,as far as im concerned this is dead.
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:35 am
i also got declined saying i need an open card
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:49 pm
If you desire a cash advance, you have to pay the fee.
Sometimes they issue “checks” which draw on your card line of credit and waive the fee as a promotion, but this is evolving more and more unusual.