Confessions of a manufactured spend expert

My recent posts on the 3V Virtual Visa card have focussed minds on the topic of ‘manufactured spend’ – ie creating artificial financial transactions purely to generate credit card spend to generate airline miles.

It is very low-key topic, because by definition it depends on people not overdoing it.  3V is different because the cards are being used as they are intended and because Tesco is big enough to have enough stock.

With so many prepaid cards now on the market, there are clearly other opportunities.  If you have a branch of ‘The Range’ near you, for example, this Flyertalk thread outlines an interesting game you can potentially play with their prepaid card.

(I have never been to ‘The Range’ and, living where we do, I am very unlikely to do so, so you won’t find me posting about this one unfortunately.)

I received this email from a Head for Points reader who wanted to share some of his experiences.  He gave me permission to reproduce this (I have done some minor editing and merged two emails into one story):

a)  My first purchase was a o2 Money Card whereby you could top-up in o2 shops with Amex (technically not permitted but no staff knew about the card and it went through the till points no problem) and then withdraw at £200 a time from cashpoints. This card has since been withdrawn but I had to stop after reaching their £10,000 per annum top up limit.

b)  I moved to the Orange Cash Card when this was released. This card could again be topped up in Orange shops using Amex in the same manner as the o2 Money card. The problem here was withdrawing the balance as there were no free cash withdrawals with this card. I did this in a number of ways:

Depositing the balance at MetroBank branches. Unbelievably when they first opened they were allowing customers to deposit money into their accounts via POS terminals. I never did test whether CCs would have worked but they accepted the Orange Mastercard Debit no problems. This was eventually shut down after this was detected by the bank’s Operations Manager and my account was closed.

Purchasing shopping centre gift cards issued by Flex-e-Card. These were issued as Maestro debit cards supposedly only to be used within the shopping centre listed. They however were able to be used at any physical POS Maestro terminal (not online – you had to sign for these, no chip & pin). I liquidated these through an obscure feature called Saveback at Sainsbury’s which allows you to deposit money into online Sainsbury’s bank accounts in-store in similar fashion to ‘cashback’. Money from the Sainsbury’s online account would then be wired back to my LTSB account.

c)  I purchased UKASH vouchers from Co-Op stores from their Paypoint terminals using the Amex (again no Paypoint transaction is meant to be permitted using credit cards but the Co-Op terminals processed the payments no problem). These were then deposited into bookmaking accounts and bet on extremely low odd results with the winnings then withdrawn back to my bank account or with some bookmakers in cash in their stores. [This was not risk free as I could have lost the bet at the bookmakers – I worked in the industry so perhaps would have more confidence than others with this].

I would like to say that sometimes positive externalities will also come your way. For the Orange Cash Card not only was I accruing miles by topping the card up but each £ I topped up I was also given Orange points to redeem on their side for things like money off bills and in store vouchers. And with the Maestro shopping centre gift cards, even more unbelievably, the volumes I was purchasing these in meant I was offered me Kindles and iPads as sales incentives to keep me with their centre when I indicated I was considering heading elsewhere.

One thing I would however highlight about all of these schemes is they all have pretty finite lives.  The o2 Money Card was restricted up to £10,000.  The Orange Cash Card was revoked by the issuers on suspicion of money laundering (despite me providing ample documentation to the contrary – I think in the end I was just costing them too much money).  The MetroBank account was closed after an investigation by the Ops Manager,  the UKASH vouchers were eventually traced back to me and I had to provide notorised documents showing the provence of the funds to one of the gambling sites I had been using.

The reader ends with some sound advice as to why you will never find a huge amount of detail on this topic on the internet:

A lot of the activities that you will conduct to simulate manufactured spending will essentially mimic money laundering type actions and as such will often arouse suspicion. Other actions will only be able to be taken so far or undertaken so many times before a stop will be put to it. That is why it is pretty much impossible to publicise specific schemes to wide audiences in the way that the US Mint coins were.  The best way for people to be able to fly under the radar is to inform people through past examples so they can find their own.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.