Taking 4% off of your Credit Card Balances from Home

Right now, there's a nice opportunity for paying bills from home at a 4% discount, and it's less convoluted than many of the games we play. The ELI5:

• The Coinbase debit card gives 4% back in XLM crypto which you can sell immediately
• PayPal bill pay accepts the Coinbase debit card and doesn't charge fees

To get the Coinbase debit card, you first have to open a Coinbase account, and then you have to join a waitlist for the card (the waitlist currently clears in about 36 hours though, so it's not what you'd normally expect from a waitlist). Joining Coinbase via referral will get you $10 and the referrer $10. As usual please use a friend's link to make their day, but if you don't know anyone with Coinbase you can use my link too.

Once you've got your account, the first transfer will take about 7 days to clear so I'd go for the maximum amount that they'll let you. After the initial 7 day waiting period, ACHs of $1,000 or less show up immediately. For that reason I typically ACH exactly $1,000 in per day. Note: Transferring in really means buying a crypto currency called USDC which is pegged to the US Dollar, but no worries because your Coinbase card spends USDC too.

After you've built up a USDC balance at Coinbase, open the PayPal mobile app and click the '$' tab at the bottom, click 'Bills', then click the '+' to add a new payee. American Express, Bank of America, Barclays, Captial One, Chase, Citi, and others are all possible payees. After you've added a bill, you can pay with your Coinbase debit card and earn 4% back immediately.

Notes and Caveats:

• I refuse to pay American Express or Chase with any bill payment service because I don't want that to be a reason for shutdown at my two favorite banks (though I'm not aware of shutdowns related to PayPal Bill Pay)
• I believe that the debit card spend limit is $2,500 per day, but I couldn't find it written at Coinbase
• Coinbase shuts down heavy hitters, the threshold seems to be approximately $25,000 per month. I'd keep it under $20,000 to try and prolong the deal
• I personally try not to pay a target twice a month. But, that doesn't necessarily mean just one bill pay payment to a card a month because BoA business cards give you a minimum of two account numbers, which means two targets. If you add employee cards, you'll get even more.

Happy hacking!

update: If you’re shutdown, try and open a new account.