How much do 3,000 loyalty points weigh? About 60 pounds, give or take a bit.
The US Mint continues to try to get dollar coins into circulation. They last a lot longer than the bills and over their lifetime are way more cost effective to produce and keep in the market. They’ve tried various different approaches to get them out there; the most recent is the US Presidents series along with a Native Americans series. They are releasing four different presidents each year and one new Native American coin each year.
What does this have to do with points? Everything. In their effort to boost circulation of the coins the Mint is selling them – 500 per issue per customer – at a cost of one dollar each. And they are waiving all shipping charges. And you can pay with whatever point earning credit card you choose. The points are free and all you have to do is drop the coins back off at a bank to pay your bill.
I’ve actually been using some of mine for my everyday expenses, trying to get them into circulation and justify the points I’m earning this way, but that isn’t strictly necessary. Besides, carrying 60 pounds of coin into the bank to deposit it is a sure way to piss off the teller.
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The only way they’ll ever get dollar coins into distribution is to do it like the Canadians – issue them and set a deadline to withdraw the paper currency from the market.
Embrace the coins! If Canadians can do it, so can you! 🙂
You can actually get a free flight this way (or more). Maximum order is $5000 of each issue. They currently have 4 issues in stock = $20,000.
And free delivery.
If you can “launder” $20,000, you get:
1. 20K miles (or more if you get some sort of bonus)
2. Improved credit rating (as long as you pay on time)
3. Get back at the bank
They weight 8.1g each, so the monthly haul to the bank will be 162kg or roughly 350 pounds.
Of course, you can repeat on multiple cards for different family members.