Money Order Questions

For whatever reason, I got a bunch of emails yesterday about structuring and depositing money orders. Instead of responding to the questions individually, I thought I’d do it as a post. Here are my answers:

  • First, I’m not a lawyer. If you do ever get in real trouble because of structuring, my advice will mean nothing. You’ll be facing a real shitstorm and the insight of ol’ MileNerd will be the last thing you need. You’ll be too busy cutting a big check to an attorney and cursing the day you ever learned about miles and points.
  • Yes, I do know multiple people who drew unwanted attention for depositing large amounts of money orders.
  • Structuring – the wording of these laws can seem vague to some and incredibly complicated to others. Again, I’m not a lawyer, but I would never advise anyone to split up deposits.
  • Justifying reasons why you split up your deposits on Flyertalk is cute banter between friends. What isn’t cute is when you try to make those justifications to people who aren’t playing games. It’s not easy to prove intent (or lack thereof). Once again, the penalties are real. The stress is very real. And the bill from your lawyer can get painfully real.
  • Personally? I’d be more comfortable making a $15,000 deposit at one bank. Splitting that up into multiple deposits at multiple banks is not for me. Of course, that might get my account closed. But there are definitely worse problems to have (see: bulleted list above).
  • All of this (plus the lack of time in my day) is why I don’t mess with large amounts of money orders. If you do things differently, please beware of the consequences. They do exist.

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DirecTV Offers Ending

VERY observant reader Phil let me know that the DirecTV offers (30,000 miles from United or 25,000 from American) are ending today. Will the offers be extended as they have in the past? I would guess so, but can’t say for sure.

50,000 American Miles For Checking Account

Thanks to Mark and a bunch of you for reaching out about the reappearance of this popular Citibank deal. Use code WD3QFS2Y4C and enter it here. Many of you sent a link from the master of these types of offers and I’m sure all the small print details are there. Even if you don’t have the assets to avoid the monthly fee (until collecting the miles), this is still a strong offer. If you haven’t picked up this bonus before, I’d take a close look.

mark

Latest PointBreaks

It’s not the best selection we’ve seen from IHG, but their PointBreaks hotels are still a great value. As always, 5,000 points per night is hard to beat.

Fidelity Offers

Fidelity’s offers of up to 50,000-miles each were extended again:

  • American Airlines here,
  • Click here for United,
  • Delta has one too.

The basics in the past have been…

  • You are able to get a big bonus every 12 months.
  • You need to keep the minimum amounts in your account for 9 months.
  • So basically, this is for people with a lot of cash who are ok with tying it up for a while.

Edit: Good point/correction by reader Gary about that last bullet. “This is not correct.  You can meet the $ minimums by simply transferring assets from another brokerage. Easy. Fidelity does it for you.”