PayPal My Cash Cards
This is a reload card that can be loaded up to $500 for a $3.95 fee. So, bonus points aside, you have a cost of about 0.8 cents per dollar of manufactured spending. There is only one prepaid debit card account that can be loaded with PayPal My Cash cards, and that is a PayPal account.
Where to Buy PayPal My Cash Cards
You can buy PayPal My Cash cards at CVS and at 7-11. I also saw these at Walgreens, and they might be available at Marathon/Kangaroo Express. If you buy them at CVS, then you can take advantage of certain credit cards, such as the old Amex Blue Cash, that offer bonus points at drug stores (in this case, 5% cash back). Initially, you would pay a $3.95 fee and earn $25 cash back, making a profit of $21.
You can also buy PayPal My Cash cards at 7-11, Marathon/Kangaroo Express, or another gas station convenience store to earn a gas station category bonus on a Chase Ink card, a United business card, a US Bank Flexperks card, or another credit card. If the credit card offers double points at gas stations, you would be earning points at a cost of 0.4 cents per point.
You can buy PayPal My Cash cards at CVS and at 7-11. I also saw these at Walgreens, and they might be available at Marathon/Kangaroo Express. If you buy them at CVS, then you can take advantage of certain credit cards, such as the old Amex Blue Cash, that offer bonus points at drug stores (in this case, 5% cash back). Initially, you would pay a $3.95 fee and earn $25 cash back, making a profit of $21.
You can also buy PayPal My Cash cards at 7-11, Marathon/Kangaroo Express, or another gas station convenience store to earn a gas station category bonus on a Chase Ink card, a United business card, a US Bank Flexperks card, or another credit card. If the credit card offers double points at gas stations, you would be earning points at a cost of 0.4 cents per point.
Prepaid Debit Card Account That Can Be Loaded With PayPal My Cash Cards
PayPal Account
Load limit: between your 2 allowed PayPal accounts (1 personal and 1 business), you can load a total of $8,000 per month
Fees: None
How to sign up for it: instructions to sign up for a PayPal account are here
How to liquidate: bank transfer, PIN-based methods such as money orders and Walmart Bill Pay (using your PayPal debit card), use
PayPal Business Debit Mastercard to buy other types of reload cards for 1% cash back, pay PayPal Extras Mastercard credit card bill
Load limit: between your 2 allowed PayPal accounts (1 personal and 1 business), you can load a total of $8,000 per month
Fees: None
How to sign up for it: instructions to sign up for a PayPal account are here
How to liquidate: bank transfer, PIN-based methods such as money orders and Walmart Bill Pay (using your PayPal debit card), use
PayPal Business Debit Mastercard to buy other types of reload cards for 1% cash back, pay PayPal Extras Mastercard credit card bill
Special Ways to Liquidate the Money on Your PayPal Account
The PayPal Business Debit Mastercard is a unique type of prepaid debit card, because you can earn rewards both for loading and unloading the card. It earns 1% cash back on credit-based signature transactions. On other prepaid debit cards, you only earn miles for loading the prepaid debit card. So, the best way to liquidate the money on your PayPal Business Debit Mastercard is to use it to buy reload cards or other prepaid debit card products. This 1% cash back helps to offset the fee for the PayPal My Cash cards, which reduces your cost of manufactured spending. In order to come out ahead, you have to buy a prepaid debit card product with less than a 1% fee. That means it's useless to buy Moneypaks or Visa gift cards using this PayPal Business Debit Mastercard. Here are some examples.
Vanilla Reloads: Use your PayPal Business Debit Card to buy Vanilla Reloads at CVS or another store. Then, load the Vanilla Reload onto a prepaid debit card, and use that prepaid debit card to pay the credit card bill. For each Vanilla Reload you buy, you earn $5 cash back. For the total process, you pay a $3.95 fee for the PayPal My Cash card and a $3.95 fee for the Vanilla Reload, and you get $5 cash back. So, the cost per dollar of manufactured spending is reduced from 0.8 cents to 0.6 cents. If you used a card with a 2X category bonus at gas stations to buy the PayPal My Cash cards and liquidate with Vanilla Reloads, then you earn points for 0.3 cents each.
Reloadits: Use your PayPal Business Debit Card to buy Reloadits at Safeway or another store. If the Reloadits have amounts of $500, then it's the same cost as the Vanilla Reload. If the Reloadits have amounts of $950, then it's very valuable. Let's say you load the monthly maximum $8,000 on your PayPal account. You can buy 8 Reloadits for $950 each, and then another $400 Reloadit. You would pay a total of about $64 in fees for the PayPal My Cash cards, and a total of about $36 in fees for the Reloadits. You would earn $80 in cash back. So, the net fees for $8,000 in spending would be $20, and your cost per dollar of manufactured spending is about 0.25 cents. If you used a credit card with 2X points at gas stations to buy the PayPal My Cash cards, then that's a cost of nearly a tenth of a cent per point. Also, if you used your PayPal Business Debit Card to buy Reloadits, and then used them to load a T-Mobile Prepaid Visa, then you would pay only the $64 in fees from the PayPal My Cash cards. In that case, you would profit $16 and earn points (perhaps even bonus points) from your credit card spending.
Green Dot Prepaid Cards: If you can find these Green Dot Prepaid Cards with an initial load up to $500 and a $2.95 fee, then it would be worth it to use your PayPal Business Debit Mastercard to buy Green Dot Prepaid Cards. Then, liquidate them once and toss them. For each Green Dot Prepaid Card you buy, you pay about $4 in fees for the PayPal My Cash card and $3 in fees for the Green Dot Prepaid Visa. You would earn about $5 in cash back, so that's a net fee of about $2. This would be a cost of about 0.4 cents per dollar of manufactured spending. If you use a credit card with a gas station bonus to buy PayPal My Cash cards, then you would earn points for about 0.2 cents per point.
PayPower Prepaid Debit Cards: If you can find these at a grocery store or other place for free, then you can use the PayPal Business Debit Mastercard to buy PayPower prepaid cards. For each PayPower prepaid card you buy, you're spending $4 for the reload card, and getting $5 in cash back. So, you earn a profit of $1 and points from your credit card spending. If you used a credit card that earns double points at gas stations to buy PayPal My Cash cards, then you're earning double points at a profit.
PayPal Extras Mastercard
Aside from earning 1% cash back for signature transactions, the PayPal Business Debit Mastercard has another special feature that no other debit card I know of has. If there's no money in your PayPal account, and you want to use your PayPal Business Debit Mastercard to buy something, you can use a PayPal Extras Mastercard as a back-up funding source. The PayPal Extras Mastercard earns 0.83% cash back on all spending, and you can earn up to about $416 in cash back per year when spending on the card.
Here's how you take advantage of it. Let's say there's 70 cents on your PayPal account. Use your PayPal Business Debit Mastercard to buy a money order at Walmart. $1,000 will be charged to your PayPal Business Debit Mastercard, earning $8.33 you cash back. Write the money order to yourself, and deposit the money order in your bank account. Then, use a different credit card to buy PayPal My Cash cards in a store. Load those PayPal My Cash cards to your PayPal account, and then use the money on your PayPal account to pay the bill for your PayPal Extras Mastercard. Use the money in your bank account to pay the bill for your other credit card.
For each $1,000 in spending, you pay a total of $8.60 for the money order and PayPal My Cash cards, and earn $8.33 cash back. This is a net fee of about 27 cents for $1007.90 in manufactured spending on your points-earning credit card, which is nearly free manufactured spending. Of course, if you buy the PayPal My Cash cards at gas stations using a credit card that earns double points at gas stations, then you're getting nearly free double points. Note that because of the limit on rewards earned with the PayPal Extras Mastercard, this technique can only be used to manufacture about $50,000 of spending per year for nearly free.
Here's how you take advantage of it. Let's say there's 70 cents on your PayPal account. Use your PayPal Business Debit Mastercard to buy a money order at Walmart. $1,000 will be charged to your PayPal Business Debit Mastercard, earning $8.33 you cash back. Write the money order to yourself, and deposit the money order in your bank account. Then, use a different credit card to buy PayPal My Cash cards in a store. Load those PayPal My Cash cards to your PayPal account, and then use the money on your PayPal account to pay the bill for your PayPal Extras Mastercard. Use the money in your bank account to pay the bill for your other credit card.
For each $1,000 in spending, you pay a total of $8.60 for the money order and PayPal My Cash cards, and earn $8.33 cash back. This is a net fee of about 27 cents for $1007.90 in manufactured spending on your points-earning credit card, which is nearly free manufactured spending. Of course, if you buy the PayPal My Cash cards at gas stations using a credit card that earns double points at gas stations, then you're getting nearly free double points. Note that because of the limit on rewards earned with the PayPal Extras Mastercard, this technique can only be used to manufacture about $50,000 of spending per year for nearly free.