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**WARNING:** If you believe Chase Ultimate Rewards should only be redeemed for travel, this post probably isn't for you and you should stop reading now.
This is a long post describing a six-month manufactured-spending experiment I did simply to prove to myself that Chase Ultimate Rewards could be converted into physical gold with minimal out-of-pocket spending. It isn't a get-rich-quick scheme, and like any manufactured-spending strategies, it carries real risks, including changing retailer policies and possible bank account shutdowns. It is intended to be helpful; not controversial. I will edit the document with any constructive feedback that is shared.
This write-up is aimed at people who want to accumulate physical gold, don't have much disposable cash, but do have time and patience. Over approximately 6 months, I used a manufactured-spending strategy to earn 600,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards (CUR) points. Redeemed at 1¢ per point, those 600,000 CUR points were enough to:
* Pay my Chase credit card purchase of a $4,209.99 one-ounce gold bar and, 
* Cover my transportation expenses (assuming the IRS Federal mileage rate), and 
* Pay/recoup for the business startup registration fees, and
* Still have enough CUR remaining to pay for some Costco pizza and a hot dog.
Some caveats:
1. This was my personal experience.
2. The rules might be different in your state; do your own research.  I make no guarantees.
3. You will need \~$130 available for a business license to start.  Your costs might be different than mine; do your own calculations.
4. You will need access to reliable transportation and lots of time.
5. It helps if you have reasonably good credit history.
6. You need a Costco membership.  This is not included in my final calculations.
7. The calculations herein do not account for my time…only my transportation expenses.  When I am ‘running a hustle’, I am the beneficiary and, therefore, I intentionally do not assign a dollar value to my time. This was a side project completed over several months whenever it was convenient. If you value your time differently, adjust the economics accordingly.
8. You will need a retail store (I use my local grocery stores) that is willing/capable of exchanging pre-paid Visa/Mastercard gift cards into Western Union money orders.  TBH, this can be the most challenging element.  Definitely do some research first.  I can state, from personal experience, that it helps if you are friendly with the store staff.  They have a thankless job.  Be kind; be patient.
The basic cycle is:
1. Open an LLC.
2. Use that LLC to open a Chase Business Ink Cash credit card.  At the time I opened mine, it offered a 12 month 0% introductory APR and a 75,000-point welcome bonus after $6,000 in spend.  As you are completing this hustle, this first card will be the one you will want to use when purchasing your gas and paying the registration fees for your other, 2 LLCs.
3. Monitor Staples/Office Depot/OfficeMax for when they offer pre-paid debit cards for no activation fee.  I use [doctorofcredit.com](http://doctorofcredit.com).
4. Day 1: Assuming you have completed steps 1 and 2 and have your new card, go into the store and buy $1800 worth of cards.  There is an $1800 limit for each day and a store limit of $10,000/week.  $1800 is the sweet spot.  Please be prepared that different stores operate directly.  For example, Staples does not ask for any personal information.  Office Depot, however, will ask for your ID if you attempt to purchase more than \~$800 so that they can complete an Antimoney Laundering (AML) screen.  If you are uncomfortable with this, maybe just stick to buying at Staples.  Immediately start churning these cards.  I churn them by using them to buy Western Union money orders with a face value of $399.11 (using two $200 pre-paid debit cards).  At my store, the fee is $0.89, so purchasing a $399.11 money order fully liquidates two $200 gift cards. This allows me to completely churn two cards without any additional cash cost beyond temporarily floating the credit card balance.  The maximum number of cards I can use in a single transaction at my store is two $200 cards.  You have to wait for about 60 minutes before you can safely do this again. YMMV.
5. Day 2: Go back to Staples/Office Depot and repeat the buy.
6. As you start accumulating Western Union money orders…deposit them into your bank account and start paying off the credit card bill.
7. You want to repeat this process until you have ‘churned’ $25,000 in debit cards.  That will be 14 purchases of $1800.  Technically, you are overspending (14 x $1800 = $25,200 > $25,000 limit) but it just keeps things consistent.  That will max out this credit card’s 5% reward benefit for the year.  It will reset next year if you decide to keep the card (it costs $95/year to maintain the card).  Including the 75,000 point sign-up bonus, you just earned 200,000 CUR points which have a cash value of $2,000.
8. Go back to Step 1 and repeat steps 1-7 two more times.  That’s a total of 3 LLCs and 3 Chase Business Ink Cash cards.  For my setup, I opened a new LLC before each Business Ink application to keep everything organized. Other approaches may work as well, but this is the method I chose.  For my approach, I used the Chase Ink Business Cash card because it provided both the office-supply category 5% bonus and the 75,000 point welcome bonus.  Also, I spaced my card applications approximately 2 months apart between opening new Chase cards.  As mentioned in Step 1, for the 2nd and 3rd LLCs, you will want to use the first credit card to pay for the LLC fees (2 x $130).
9. When you finish, you should have 600,000 CUR points with a cash value of $6,000, assuming a 1¢ per point cash redemption.  The credit cards should have a \~$0 balance except for some residual expenses (the gas you bought; the $0.89 from each transaction that you accumulated).  You'll probably want to consolidate the Ultimate Rewards points into a single account before redeeming them; logically it would be the same card where you’ve been charging your gas and the costs associated with LLCs #2 and #3.
10. Your time has finally arrived.  Go to either Costco online or your local warehouse.  Find the combination of gold/silver products that you’d like to purchase.  For my academic exercise…I bought a $4209.99 PAMP Lady Fortuna.  Because my state exempts bullion from sales tax, I did not include sales tax in these calculations.  I used the first credit card to make the purchase and, when the bill arrived, I applied the necessary CUR points to pay the bill.  I also used the CUR points to cover the expenses of the LLCs and gas (I technically did that along the way.)
By the numbers:
Churning through \~$25,000 on 1 card requires:
* 14 visits to Staples (17 miles roundtrip…14x17=238 miles $0.725/mile Federal rate = $172.55)
* 63 visits ($400 per visit.  $25000/$400 = \~63) to my local grocery store to convert the gift cards to money orders. (5 miles roundtrip…63x5=315 miles $0.725/mile = $228.38)
* \~10 visits to my bank to deposit the money orders (I pass by this on the way to/from the grocery store so…zero cost)
I used the IRS Federal standard mileage rate to estimate the total cost of transportation, which includes fuel, maintenance, depreciation, tires, insurance, etc.
Total cost:
* Three LLC registrations (3 x $130): $390.00
* Staples travel (3 × $172.55): $517.65
* Grocery store travel (3 × $228.38): $685.14
* Western Union fees ($0.89 x 63 = $56.07) (3 cards × $56.07): $168.21
* Gold bar: $4,209.99
* Total: $5,970.99
* Total in Chase Ultimate Rewards: $6,000
* Total remaining: $6,000-$5,970.99=$29.01
In other words, every dollar of my estimated costs, including the gold itself, was covered by redeeming Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
That remaining $29.01 is more than enough for both a slice of pizza \*and\* a hotdog.  Simply using your first Chase card to buy these and…you guessed it…redeem your CUR points to pay off that balance.

**WARNING:** If you believe Chase Ultimate Rewards should only be redeemed for travel, this post probably isn't for you and you should stop reading now.
This is a long post describing a six-month manufactured-spending experiment I did simply to prove to myself that Chase Ultimate Rewards could be converted into physical gold with minimal out-of-pocket spending. It isn't a get-rich-quick scheme, and like any manufactured-spending strategies, it carries real risks, including changing retailer policies and possible bank account shutdowns. It is intended to be helpful; not controversial. I will edit the document with any constructive feedback that is shared.
This write-up is aimed at people who want to accumulate physical gold, don't have much disposable cash, but do have time and patience. Over approximately 6 months, I used a manufactured-spending strategy to earn 600,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards (CUR) points. Redeemed at 1¢ per point, those 600,000 CUR points were enough to:
* Pay my Chase credit card purchase of a $4,209.99 one-ounce gold bar and, 
* Cover my transportation expenses (assuming the IRS Federal mileage rate), and 
* Pay/recoup for the business startup registration fees, and
* Still have enough CUR remaining to pay for some Costco pizza and a hot dog.
Some caveats:
1. This was my personal experience.
2. The rules might be different in your state; do your own research.  I make no guarantees.
3. You will need \~$130 available for a business license to start.  Your costs might be different than mine; do your own calculations.
4. You will need access to reliable transportation and lots of time.
5. It helps if you have reasonably good credit history.
6. You need a Costco membership.  This is not included in my final calculations.
7. The calculations herein do not account for my time…only my transportation expenses.  When I am ‘running a hustle’, I am the beneficiary and, therefore, I intentionally do not assign a dollar value to my time. This was a side project completed over several months whenever it was convenient. If you value your time differently, adjust the economics accordingly.
8. You will need a retail store (I use my local grocery stores) that is willing/capable of exchanging pre-paid Visa/Mastercard gift cards into Western Union money orders.  TBH, this can be the most challenging element.  Definitely do some research first.  I can state, from personal experience, that it helps if you are friendly with the store staff.  They have a thankless job.  Be kind; be patient.
The basic cycle is:
1. Open an LLC.
2. Use that LLC to open a Chase Business Ink Cash credit card.  At the time I opened mine, it offered a 12 month 0% introductory APR and a 75,000-point welcome bonus after $6,000 in spend.  As you are completing this hustle, this first card will be the one you will want to use when purchasing your gas and paying the registration fees for your other, 2 LLCs.
3. Monitor Staples/Office Depot/OfficeMax for when they offer pre-paid debit cards for no activation fee.  I use [doctorofcredit.com](http://doctorofcredit.com).
4. Day 1: Assuming you have completed steps 1 and 2 and have your new card, go into the store and buy $1800 worth of cards.  There is an $1800 limit for each day and a store limit of $10,000/week.  $1800 is the sweet spot.  Please be prepared that different stores operate directly.  For example, Staples does not ask for any personal information.  Office Depot, however, will ask for your ID if you attempt to purchase more than \~$800 so that they can complete an Antimoney Laundering (AML) screen.  If you are uncomfortable with this, maybe just stick to buying at Staples.  Immediately start churning these cards.  I churn them by using them to buy Western Union money orders with a face value of $399.11 (using two $200 pre-paid debit cards).  At my store, the fee is $0.89, so purchasing a $399.11 money order fully liquidates two $200 gift cards. This allows me to completely churn two cards without any additional cash cost beyond temporarily floating the credit card balance.  The maximum number of cards I can use in a single transaction at my store is two $200 cards.  You have to wait for about 60 minutes before you can safely do this again. YMMV.
5. Day 2: Go back to Staples/Office Depot and repeat the buy.
6. As you start accumulating Western Union money orders…deposit them into your bank account and start paying off the credit card bill.
7. You want to repeat this process until you have ‘churned’ $25,000 in debit cards.  That will be 14 purchases of $1800.  Technically, you are overspending (14 x $1800 = $25,200 > $25,000 limit) but it just keeps things consistent.  That will max out this credit card’s 5% reward benefit for the year.  It will reset next year if you decide to keep the card (it costs $95/year to maintain the card).  Including the 75,000 point sign-up bonus, you just earned 200,000 CUR points which have a cash value of $2,000.
8. Go back to Step 1 and repeat steps 1-7 two more times.  That’s a total of 3 LLCs and 3 Chase Business Ink Cash cards.  For my setup, I opened a new LLC before each Business Ink application to keep everything organized. Other approaches may work as well, but this is the method I chose.  For my approach, I used the Chase Ink Business Cash card because it provided both the office-supply category 5% bonus and the 75,000 point welcome bonus.  Also, I spaced my card applications approximately 2 months apart between opening new Chase cards.  As mentioned in Step 1, for the 2nd and 3rd LLCs, you will want to use the first credit card to pay for the LLC fees (2 x $130).
9. When you finish, you should have 600,000 CUR points with a cash value of $6,000, assuming a 1¢ per point cash redemption.  The credit cards should have a \~$0 balance except for some residual expenses (the gas you bought; the $0.89 from each transaction that you accumulated).  You'll probably want to consolidate the Ultimate Rewards points into a single account before redeeming them; logically it would be the same card where you’ve been charging your gas and the costs associated with LLCs #2 and #3.
10. Your time has finally arrived.  Go to either Costco online or your local warehouse.  Find the combination of gold/silver products that you’d like to purchase.  For my academic exercise…I bought a $4209.99 PAMP Lady Fortuna.  Because my state exempts bullion from sales tax, I did not include sales tax in these calculations.  I used the first credit card to make the purchase and, when the bill arrived, I applied the necessary CUR points to pay the bill.  I also used the CUR points to cover the expenses of the LLCs and gas (I technically did that along the way.)
By the numbers:
Churning through \~$25,000 on 1 card requires:
* 14 visits to Staples (17 miles roundtrip…14x17=238 miles $0.725/mile Federal rate = $172.55)
* 63 visits ($400 per visit.  $25000/$400 = \~63) to my local grocery store to convert the gift cards to money orders. (5 miles roundtrip…63x5=315 miles $0.725/mile = $228.38)
* \~10 visits to my bank to deposit the money orders (I pass by this on the way to/from the grocery store so…zero cost)
I used the IRS Federal standard mileage rate to estimate the total cost of transportation, which includes fuel, maintenance, depreciation, tires, insurance, etc.
Total cost:
* Three LLC registrations (3 x $130): $390.00
* Staples travel (3 × $172.55): $517.65
* Grocery store travel (3 × $228.38): $685.14
* Western Union fees ($0.89 x 63 = $56.07) (3 cards × $56.07): $168.21
* Gold bar: $4,209.99
* Total: $5,970.99
* Total in Chase Ultimate Rewards: $6,000
* Total remaining: $6,000-$5,970.99=$29.01
In other words, every dollar of my estimated costs, including the gold itself, was covered by redeeming Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
That remaining $29.01 is more than enough for both a slice of pizza \*and\* a hotdog.  Simply using your first Chase card to buy these and…you guessed it…redeem your CUR points to pay off that balance.