Paypal My Cash cards

Making Money and Earning Points with Paypal and Square Cash

ByThe Miles Professor

I like point earning methods that are as quick and efficient as possible and that allow me a quick return on my time. Paypal My Cash cards are sold at many drugstores and can be purchased with many point earning credit cards. They are great for meeting spending requirements on some of those nice miles bonus or earning drugstore bonuses. The reason I really like these is that they’re quick and efficient. Once you have the Paypal card, you just go home, spend a few minutes on the internet and you’re done. In this post, I am going to describe a method that allows us to earn points without paying any fees by pairing a Paypal account, a good point earning credit card and the Paypal Business Debit MasterCard.

The Steps to Making Money and Earning Points

  1. Open a Paypal account or have an already used one.
  2. Buy a Paypal My Cash card at a drugstore to load $500 for a fee of $3.95.
  3. Load into your Paypal account (the maximum is $500 a day or $4000 a month).
  4. Send payments to others  via Square using the Paypal business debit card earning $5 for each $500 (up to $2500 a week).

Update: Many readers report having trouble with the Paypal Debit card through Square Cash right now so be the Square Cash step may not work. Regardless, many people still use a 5% cash back card at drugstores so buying a Paypal card without the Square Cash addition is still very profitable. You can still send money to others through Paypal normally, just subtract $5 per card (or $40 per month per Paypal account from the below calculations).

If you follow all these steps, each $500 card purchase will earn you $1.05 in cash plus any points you earn on the card. I prefer to use a 5% cash back card so I actually earn $26.05 for every $500 card I purchase on my credit card. If I buy $1000 in Paypal cards every time I stop by a drugstore, that’s $52 just for stopping in!

The Ingredients

Paypal My Cash Cards

Paypal My Cash cards are sold at various drugstores and many will take credit cards for them. They can be loaded for $500 at a time for a $3.95 fee. The cards are then loaded onto your Paypal account via the Paypal My Cash portal.

The load limits are:

  • $500 a day.
  • $4000 a month where the month is 30 day rolling (e.g. if you load $4000 at the end of the month, you have to wait until toward the end of next month to load again. Your limit is not reset on the 1st).
Paypal My Cash cards
Paypal My Cash cards

Once the cash is in your Paypal account, you can do with it as you wish. You can use it for regular purchases, send money to others, withdraw to the bank. I don’t recommend just loading money and withdrawing to the bank. Besides, if you do that… you’ll miss out on the 1% cash back opportunity with the Paypal Business Debit card.

A Point Earning Credit Card

I prefer to use credit cards that earn 5 points per dollar or 5% cash back. Although my favorite Citi ThankYou card that earns 5 points per dollar at drugstores is no longer available to new members, there are a few other available cards with this feature. A few examples of cards still available include:

  • Wells Fargo Cash Back Card
  • Citizens Bank Cash Back Platinum MasterCard
  • Old Amex Blue Cash Card

You can actually use any credit card, but the ones I mention above are what I would prefer. It makes a lot more sense to earn 5 points per dollar or 5% cash back rather than just one point at a time.

Another option is to use it to meet spending

Paypal Business Debit Card

My reader Andy told me about the Paypal business debit card and the fact that it earns 1% cash back on non-PIN transactions. You can apply for the card here. One non-PIN way to use the business debit card is to send money to others via Square.

Square Cash

Square  Cash is a service that allows users to send money from one debit card to another. The easiest way to use it is to download the app onto your phone. You can link any debit card to it (prepaid cards don’t work, by the way, I have tried) and then send money. You enter the recipient’s email address and he receives an email saying he can accept the payment. He enters his own debit card number (this can be any debit card on his end) and the money appears in his checking account in one or two days.

The limit for sending money for free via Square is $2500 a week.

How Much Do We Earn?

Let’s now look at the math. To buy the Paypal My Cash card, you pay $3.95. When you send the $500, you then receive back $5. That’s a profit of $1.05 per card plus the points you earn. If you have one Paypal account and load all $4000 a month this way, you will earn $8.40 in profit plus the points.

Here’s our earnings with different credit cards:

  • Starwood Prefered Guest Card: 1x points per dollar = 4000 points per month + $8.40.
  • Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard: 2x points per dollar = 2.2% cash back = $97 a month.
  • 5% Cash Back Credit Card: 5% cash back per dollar = $8.40 + .05($4031.60) = $210 a month.

Now let’s put into perspective how little work this takes. In NYC, drugstores that sell Paypal My Cash cards are everywhere. In fact, I have four on my 10 minute walk home from work. Every time I stop in to buy $1000, it takes me roughly four minutes to get the card, wait in line and pay. Once I have the card, the rest is a quick few minutes on the internet at home. In my estimate, the total time expended on a $4000 Paypal account amounts to 30-45 minutes a month. I personally go with the cash back option so my return, in that case, is $300-$400 an hour.

A few warnings

As we can see, this is quite a lucrative strategy. However, the important thing is to start slow. Don’t do things that are uncomfortable to you and don’t go spending up tens of thousands of dollars on a credit card immediately. Also, try to use your Paypal account for other things like online purchases and don’t move money around super quickly. Take it easy, go through the steps and get comfortable. And have fun!

57 Comments

  1. Is Paypal My Cash one and the same with “Paypal Reloads” that are cash only at CVS?

    1. It wasn’t when I opened it, but that was more than a decade ago. The Paypal Business Debit 1% card has been around forever,

      I opened one with a pseudonym 14 years ago…

  3. I do not understand your calculations for the Barclay Arrival card above. Could you go into more detail here? Thanks so much.

  4. Have you tried this technique with a Bluebird account on the receiving end? BB is not a true debit card, which is why I ask.

  5. I tried my H&R Block emerald card (tried debit card # and banking info) and I could not deposit the $2 Square Cash sent me. Does it have to be a real debit card or bank to be able to receive the money sent from Square Cash?

  8. How long and how often have you been doing that? I am asking because based on my experience anything involving Square does not scale well. I have been unable to successfully transfer $500 more than once or twice per month. Each time I tried to scale it up they reverse my transaction. They have been so consistent doing it that I completely gave up on them. So, PayPal is less of an issue here. What was your experience?

  10. I’m stuck at the top of the post. A 5x card with a five hundred dollar gift card purchase would only be 2.50. It would tale a thousand dollar purchase to earn the five dollars, so not a profit until you get to the second step. Sorry. Please clarify a bit, as I can’t get my head around the math at this point. Thanks.

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  14. All great questions! Like I said, start small and scale up. It’s important to test these things out and I can only share my own experience (or what I hear through the grapevine).

    @Steverinie. I am not sure what the memo refers to specifically, but people have had mixed luck buying them as CVS.

    @Marty Ryan: I am calculating $4031 spent a month at 2.2% cash back = $88.70. You then add in the $1.05 earned for each of the 8 cards and reach $97.

    @SoCalStew I have not tried it with a Bluebird card. I will try it.

    @ChessMaster1 I am not sure, though that may be it. That it has to be a real bank account and not a prepaid card.

    @Gary Steigher Credit cards actually will just label it a drugstore purchase. It’s exactly like Vanilla Reloads (which are sadly no longer available with credit cards).

    @Eugene I started using Square the last week of March and moved around $2000 in March and and $5000 in April. I am not sure how much of an issue there will be, but I always send money to people other than myself (who also don’t live with me).

    @Trudy @MileageUpdate Glad you worked out the numbers and coffee always helps :)

        1. Applying now (from within my PayPal account). Here is what they say when clicking the “Why?” button for why they need SS#:

          Federal law requires us to collect your name, address, date of birth, and Social Security number. We’ll use this to help confirm your identity and request your consumer credit report (it won’t impact your credit score).

          So they are doing a soft pull (it seems if my understanding is correct) but not a hard pull…

  16. When Square Cash came out in October 2013, I was using it on my BofA Alaska debit card. Unfortunately, Square shut me down. I don’t recall how much I did but I was near the weekly limit for 3 consecutive weeks, so I did somewhere between $7500-$10K in a month.

    Of course, there are ways around a shutdown (read: open new email account). PayPal debit has an intrinsic limit built into it since you can only load $4,000 a month with these types of prepaid cards (yes, there are other ways to reload to Paypal, although these other products are technically cash-only as well), so you can only really be sending $4K/month with Square Cash.

    Good presentation at CLT this weekend — it reminded me about Square Cash and using PayPal in this method.

  17. I’ve read that Paypal is very quick to shut down accounts. Even some bloggers wrote about it.
    http://freequentflyerbook.com/blog/2013/8/15/shut-down-by-paypal
    http://millionmilesecrets.com/2013/03/13/paypal-suspends-my-account/
    http://thepointsguy.com/2012/11/there-are-more-flavors-than-vanilla-maximizing-miles-and-points-with-green-dot-paypal/

    I would love to utilize your techniques. I’ve done the VR and now the Ink Staples Portal route but this is another great idea. However I’m a bit skittish after reading about many getting warnings and closings from Paypal.

    Do you have any reservations about this MS? What is your take on the risk?

    1. All account freezes I have heard about involve people moving money out too quickly, transferring to their own bank accounts or using their Paypal accounts exclusively for these cards. If you read those posts, they cite cases where one of those three happens. I make sure to do none of these and everyone I personally know who uses their Paypal accounts for mixed transactions, transfers the Paypal Cash among other people and has money sitting there hasn’t had problems. That’s not to say it’s guaranteed to stay save, the trick is to not do this in an extremely “obvious” way. That said, the consequence of having a Paypal account closes is not high – I’ll have one less Paypal account and, although they may hold the funds for a bit after a closure, I will get them back at some point.

      1. I Just Want to know That how to Transfer Money from Visitors2cash.com to Paypal i need help in this help me…

  19. Congrats and all that stuff Ms Prof, but lets get to the heart of the matter, as MMS and Frequent Miler will tell you I’m a retiree with not much to do but fly and spend. I’d drop a million bucks on Amex gift cards just to get the 3x Alaska and 1 x MR . That’s 4 MILLLION POINTS. In one quick trade. Then off to Official Payments Corp because we all know 4 million miles are worth 10x more than the 20k fee. ON ANY DAY.
    The real question that should have come out of that DO is how Schlappig is going to get to the UAE with a PIG SITTING RIGHT THERE AT THE END OF HIS NAME . Also, the question, why are Daily Mail Online Readers so darn whiney? I read all 200 or so of those comments before I had to head out to Joel-Robuchon for a quick 26 course snack, and you’d think Britain has gone commie. I’m just sharing here….like you asked, prof.
    Well, today’s retiree discovery was that Cathay Pacific has suddenly gotten permission to unbundle airfares and quote one price…….then add 20% on checkout……..Look, nevermind they have the cheapest business class fare in the World that FM or Gary or Lucky or one of you great guys or gals pointed me to some time ago from The Maldives to the USA for $2500 roundtrip, flying 26,500 miles , probably just because I like my mileage runs long and simple so I don’t get lost in more than 2 countries per run, and I can get to Executive Platinum in 4 days of flying, I’m still buying and turning them in to DOT. The fine is only $26,500 per day. Maybe I’ll get my 20% back because it sure makes sense to charge 3100 to fly roundtrip to LAX but 2500 to ORD.(with FUEL SURCHARGES…not kidding it actually says fuel surcharges on the ticket.. . Oh, and this way maybe I get the $200 from AMEX before they have to give me back the $492 in fuel surcharges and 99 in unknown taxes).

    Too many other thought s best left for the next psych appt. Japan next week, then China, then South America, Australia, If it weren’t for all the great bloggers and all the great advice I’d still have my Chase credit cards.
    Cheers.

    1. How can we connect traderprofit? My dad is a retiree doing the mileage thing and I think he’d like to know you.

  20. I tried to add my Paypal business debit card and received a “Card Failed, Card not supported” Am I doing something wrong I tried several times. Another debit card worked fine

    1. A few people reported this as well. I am not having any trouble and it worked for a few readers too. I don’t have an explanation for this yet, but did see people reported not being able to use the Paypal cards a while ago with Square Cash.

      1. No longer accepts my PayPal debit card either. Wish there was a work around, because I had been using it successfully for a few months prior to today.

      2. I just joined two days ago and transferred $250 and it worked fine. Today I wanted to transfer and it is showing that the PayPal Debit card is not a valid card

  21. Oy!!! I hope the paypal debit will works. Should’ve read today’s comment before buying the cards. -___________-“

  22. Tried today for the first time…it says Card Not Supported…

    Does it still work for you Miles Prof?

  25. Stopped working for me this week after working great the last few months. Thanks a lot for helping to kill a great trick with all of this extremely non-discreet publicity (“THE TRICK THAT WON MILE MADNESS!!!!!!!!!”). Square Cash and Paypal MyCash have both been around for awhile now, and despite the fact that Square Cash is not very scalable for racking up Alaska or Delta miles, it was ideal for draining a Paypal MC of 4K per month. Not any more. What will all of you Mile Madness bloggers blog about after you kill all the deals? Be more discreet and respect the game, please.

    1. In fairness, I never mentioned mile madness in this post at all and, at the seminar, made it clear that this was only a small part. I never claimed it won mile madness. When I gave my presentation, I said my secret to winning was being very efficient and scaling super simple strategies (mainly Vanilla Reloads, which are no longer available) and just getting a higher return in faster time than everyone else. I gave Paypal as a small example of what an efficient strategy is. People misunderstood it and misconstrued it as the full strategy… even though I was very clear on that. Moreover, losing 1% cash back on Square Cash shouldn’t matter much if you’re earning 5% cash back as you should be :)

      1. It’s not just the 1% cash back, though, it’s the ease of liquidation via SC. You have smartly emphasized “time spent” as an important variable to consider when evaluating MS strategies. Since withdrawing straight from PP to a bank account is very likely to lead to PP shutdowns, the SC exit strategy was an important final element in the chain. I already make enough time-consuming visits to WM, I didn’t need to add load to that bottleneck. If you have any alternate suggestions for PP MC debit liquidation, please advise….

        1. I will generally send money to others and have them withdraw to their bank accounts or vice versa. I’ve also been able to pay my Citibank bill by calling customer service and asking to pay with a debit card and have had the Paypal card work; this does process as a PIN transaction (even though they don’t ask for a PIN) and I wouldn’t do a large amount at once, but it is an option. There’s also Evolve, though that cuts into prepaid debit cards.

  26. Interesting method, can anybody speak to the potential of shutdowns? I’ve always had issues with anything concerning paypal + square, so I’d hate to combine the two.

  27. The official explanation from Square Cash is ” PayPal card is not linked to a transactional bank account and is no longer supported.”

  28. Hi. Thanks for this post and all the replies. I am sorry if I missed this but I was wondering if you didn’t mind sharing some more tips on purchasing the paypal My Cash cards with a credit card in NYC. I have been visiting CVS and Duane Reade stores and not able to use credit cards. Any guidance would be appreciated. Thanks!

    1. Unfortunately, you have all the tips I can give :) I have been doing the same thing as you and have found many drugstores in NYC that will sell them. Sometimes the cashier is confused by the word “My Cash” and thinks it’s cash only, but if they try it, it may frequently work.

      1. It’s over with PP My Cash. CVS is hard coded for no credit cards. WGN has been hard coded for over a year. You’ve had success with this recently?

  30. I have a question, do you think this idea would work with a Serve card? Instead of Square?

  31. If you visit the Paypal My Cash page, it lists 5 places you can buy these. I know there are others, but many of those are cash only. So, anyone care to share where they have had success with CC transactions? Since MP says she buys them in NYC at a drugstore, and we know CVS, WGN and Duane Reade are no goes, I’m guessing that Rite-Aid is where she is having success. ;)

    We don’t have Rite-Aid where I live, but we have Dollar General and Family General. Anyone have any luck at either place?

  32. You suggested linking the PayPal debit card to Square, but as you realized, they won’t allow that. however, you could use EVOLVE MONEY (https://pay.evolvemoney.com) and pay your bills, up to $1,000/day. I linked my bank account and devit card to my paypal account, then linked the paypal mastercard debit card to the paypal and bank accounts, and then payed bills with my paypal debit card. They should give you the 1/% bonus when paying bills.

    1. I have found that this is a great way to use the PP debit card, however in my experience I did not receive cash back through Evolve bill payments even though the charge is registered as a pin-less debit transaction by PP. However this was about 3 months ago when I last tried, so if anyone finds out differently, would like to know.

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