I recently explained how to use Amazon Payments to meet minimum spending requirements or increase your spending on credit cards in part 1 of my series on manufactured spending.  In part 2, I’ll walk you through using Vanilla Reload Cards and a Bluebird Account in order to exponentially increase your spending activity.  If you haven’t already opened a credit card to earn miles, do so.  For some large sign up bonuses, I recommend the British Airways or American Airlines credit cards.  If you feel comfortable getting both, you could very quickly amass over 150,000 miles in your coffers.

Assuming you have the credit cards on which you have a minimum spend to meet or want to earn additional miles on top of your usual spending activity, the first step is to open a Bluebird account.  Bluebird is a free online checking account set up as a joint venture between Wal-Mart and American Express.  About a week after you create your account, you will receive an American Express/Bluebird branded debit card in the mail with your account number on it.

Once you receive your Bluebird card, make a trip to your nearest CVS and purchase Vanilla Reload Cards like the one pictured below.  You might see some other products called Vanilla Debit Cards or Vanilla Gift Cards; they are NOT the same thing and won’t work in this particular process.

Most CVS stores will allow you to buy up to 10 cards a day but I would not recommend doing that unless you’d like a phone call from your credit card company wondering why you’re spending $5,000 at a pharmacy.  I recommend buying 1 or 2 cards to start.  You should tell the cashier that you want to load each card with the maximum allowed, $500, since there is a $3.95 fee no matter the amount you put on the card.  You should use your mileage earning credit card to pay for the purchase and always take your receipt in case of any problems with the Vanilla Reload Card.  If you buy 2 or more cards, expect to show the CVS cashier your driver’s license, which they will need to scan to ensure that the name matches the name on the credit card you’re using.

With your Vanilla Reload Cards in hand, the next step is to visit the Vanilla Reload site in order to load your Bluebird account with the money from your Vanilla Reload Card.

Scratch off the back of your Vanilla Reload Card and type the 10 digit pin number.  Then click continue.

Enter your Bluebird account number (the 15 digit debit card number) on the next screen, click that you agree with the terms and conditions, and type the text you see in the Captcha box.   Then click apply reload.

Confirm that you’re sure you want to apply the funds to your Bluebird account.

You’ll see a confirmation screen if you’re successful.  If you log into your Bluebird account, you should see the funds there immediately.

Next, you can load another Vanilla Reload Card using the same process or log into your Bluebird account for the next and final step.

You can use the funds in your Bluebird account to write checks, pay bills, or withdraw and transfer the funds to your primary checking account at your preferred bank.  In order to do the latter, click the Settings link on the top right of the page (NB that this used to say “My Account”) and under the first section called Funding & Transfers, click the link to Withdraw Funds.  You may need to confirm your account ownership by either entering your banking login and password or waiting a few days to confirm two small amounts deposited into your account.  Once your Bluebird and checking accounts are linked, it takes about 2 to 3 business days for the withdrawal to post to your checking account.  Then, you can use the funds to pay for the Vanilla Reload Cards that you purchased on your credit card.

A few points to note:

• The maximum that you can load onto Bluebird is $1,000 per calendar day (on east coast time).  This means you can load $1,000 at 11:30pm NY time and then another $1,000 31 minutes later at 12:01am NY time.
• The maximum that you can load onto Bluebird is $5,000 per calendar month.  This means that you can load $1,000 on April 30 and beginning the following day on May 1 through May 31, you can load up to $5,000.
• Lots of places sell Vanilla Reload Cards; why do I have to go to CVS?  At the moment, there are very few retailers that accept credit cards for the Vanilla Reload Cards.  There are some gas stations that do which is great if you have a credit card that earns larger rewards or cash back, but most retailers accept only cash.  It doesn’t hurt to try other merchants but don’t be surprised if they ask for cash.
• Once you load the funds from your Vanilla Reload Card to your Bluebird account, the Vanilla Reload Card is garbage.
• The $3.95 fee adds up.  If you’re buying the Vanilla Reload Cards to just increase your credit card spending, the fees add up.  If you consider that an average domestic flight requires you to redeem 25,000 miles for a free ticket, this would take you 5 months and $199.75 in fees using just Vanilla Reload Cards to earn miles.  An off-peak trip to Europe (September 15 through May 14) on American Airlines requires 40,000 miles for a free ticket.  It would take you 8 months to earn the miles and cost $319.60 in fees.  There might be some savings on the domestic ticket and very likely some on the ticket to Europe, but be mindful of the time it will take to accumulate the miles and the cost associated with buying Vanilla Reload Cards.
• The biggest bang for your buck is to use Vanilla Reload Cards to meet minimum spending requirements.  If you apply for the American Airlines credit card which has a $10,000 spending requirement within the first three months of card ownership in order to receive 100,000 bonus miles, for just $79 in fees, you could end up with 110,000 American Airlines miles.  With another 10,000 miles, you have 3 free roundtrip tickets to Europe!

UPDATE: Sadly, CVS will no longer allow you buy Vanilla Reloads with a credit card.  On to bigger and better ways to earn miles and points!