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Here’s how the deal works: Buy coins from the US mint at face value online using your credit card. The mint is quite generous, and is offering free shipping on direct ship orders. Since these coins are actual currency, they can then be turned in at your bank. Pay off the credit card with the coins, and repeat. There are some credit cards offering 2% cash back on purchases, which on a $5,000 would net you $100 in credit card cash back (Charles Schwab, Fidelity Retirement Rewards cards). Rinse and repeat for a nice income stream.

All good things must come to an end. For those of you who made money on this deal, congratulations. However, be careful. Some credit card issuers are now classifying this as a “cash equivalent” transaction, in which cash advance fees and rates apply. The fees and lack of a grace period are likely a deal breaker. Don’t call the credit card company to find out how the purchase will be categorized. Test the waters with a small initial purchase, where any possible fees will be small. Then, look at your account ledger to see if the transaction posted as a purchase or cash advance.

Transunion is charging to place a credit freeze on your file. The charges to add, lift, or remove a credit freeze vary by state and can be found here. Some states even have differing charges based on your age. Here’s an idea. Make them free…But if they were free, it would hurt TransUnion’s business model.  We wouldn’t want to hurt a credit reporting agency’s business model in an effort to help consumers against fraud, would we?

As my daily spender, I use the Chase Freedom credit card. It earns me 3% on many of the things I buy most. Without warning, I received two shiny new cards in the mail stating now I have the Chase Exclusives Freedom card. Upon further investigation, I found there is almost no difference between my old chase freedom card and my new one…except the chase exclusives does not report a credit limit – which may hurt your FICO score.

Not all cardholders got the same deal. It seems because I had a Chase checking account, I received the exclusives card. Those that didn’t have a chase checking account got “upgraded” to a version of the card with an annual fee. If people were smart enough to use this card as their daily spender because it offered just about the best benefits around, they’re probably smart enough to change their card or cancel it all together before the annual fee is charged. They have a while to decide to keep the card, however. The annual fee is waived for the first year.