So I was talking to a rep about our Countrywide mortgage and I found out that they take Western Union's quick collect payments. I had already setup automatic online payments with the bank when it hit me: Western Union takes Visa/MC online or by phone for quick collect payments! Now many if not most bank would treat WU as a cash advance, but I remember an email from BofA last month. They were talking about their mileage based check cards. BofA issues check cards that can tie in to your Alaska Airlines, America West and USAir mileage accounts! Which means that WU transactions, because they are done as credit and not PIN-based debit transactions, could earn you miles on your account. Now USAir only gives you one mile for every two dollars spent but even at that, I would still earn 1,200 miles per month if I pay my mortgage and car payment via WU! Now if only there was an AA or Delta card with similar capabilities.
Doesn't WU charge you a "per transaction" fee? Wouldn't that negate or at least offset any awards benefits? -Peace, Dave
wait...there is one for AA https://web.da-us.citibank.com/cgi-...p?BV_UseBVCookie=no&BS_Id=AAdvantageDebit&M=S Looks like you can even get one mile for $1...
yeah there is a fee, I think it's more than the flat $11 or $12 charged at WU cash retailer. I just remember overhearing people at work wondering how they could run their mortgage payment through their Amex RewardMiles account and get miles for the house payment.
I do that. Learned it from my boss. He charges everything from gas to groceries on his rewards card. including mortgage (use an autopay drawn from the card). But if you pay it completely off, there is no % applied....and therefore no fee associated with the transaction...hence "free miles". However if you have a fee ($11 as you say or any fee at all really) associated with the transaction, then it negates the rewards (or at best reduces the rewards earned value). Does not work using WU I would think Maybe you could price the value of the "miles earned" and then determine if it was worth the fee...but I think if there is any fee, you lose the value-add completely. -Peace, Dave
Well I check WU's fees for online transactions. Using an average $1500.00 payment, the fee would be a whopping $95! So the transaction total would be $1595.00 which yields 1595 miles. I found a site that sells miles www.miles4sale.com They charge $0.04 per mile. Buying 1500 miles from them would only cost $60. So yeah, the WU fees eat up too much.
