Manufactured Spending Acronyms: Unlocking a Secret Lingo
Date Published
If you’ve been on any Manufactured Spending forums (esp Reddit’s r/churning), you’ll notice immediately that people in this hobby LOVE their acronyms: VGC, OD/OM, NLL, etc. It makes us sound cool. Heck I’ve even been guilty of this myself (trying to be cool). But this makes it overwhelming and intimidating for newcomers to the space. So without further ado, here is the dictionary of all the MS terms you’ll ever need.
A through G
ABG / ABP: Amex Biz Gold / Amex Biz Plat
One of our favorite cards to sign up for, since they give such juicy sign-up bonuses.
ACH: Automated Clearing House
How most people send money between bank accounts.
AF: Annual Fee
Annual fee on a credit card.
Amex BBP: Amex Blue Business Plus
Not much to say.
AU: Authorized User
Add an authorized user to your credit card.
BAU: Business-as-usual
Usually to let someone know that a MS play continues to work.
BIN: Bank Identification Number
The first 6-8 digits on a card. Typically we use this as a way of identifying “types” of gift cards. Rules about where you can and can’t use a gift card are generally based on the BIN.
CB: Cashback
CC: Credit Card
Yep.
CD: Certificate of Deposit
Some credit unions will allow you to buy these by credit card.
CIC: Chase Ink Cash
A great card to churn.
CU: Credit Union
Most MSers like to have their money in smaller, local credit unions for various reasons.
CVV: Card Verification Value
That pesky 3-digit number on the back of your card you have to type in sometimes when making online transactions.
DP: Datapoint
eMCGC: Electronic MasterCard Gift Card
Not much to say.
FM: Frequent Miler
An awesome website for keeping up with the latest in the points world.
FNC: Free night credit
Ways to get this depend on the hotel brand. Some give these for owning a co-branded credit card, hitting a certain amount of nights stayed, etc.
GC: Gift Card
Our bread and butter.
M through P
MC: MasterCard
MCC: Merchant Category Code
Whenever you make a transaction, there is an associated MCC code that tells the card issuer about what category of item was purchased (e.g. dining, fuel, financial services, etc). In our case, this is relevant when (a) when we are chasing a category bonus on a credit card, the MCC must code as that category, and (b) some gift/debit cards prevent certain MCCs (like financial services (e.g. money orders) from being transacted.
MS: Manufactured Spending
MO
Money Order. Read this post for more.
MUC: Multi-use Card
A debit card that can be re-used multiple times. Typically used in reference to a specific fintech that offers debit cards that are locked to a specific merchant. This is in contrast to a 1-time card, which can only be used once.
OD/OM: Office Depot / Office Max
You’ll often find Visa gift cards on sale for no fee at these stores. This is a common gift card bought by MSers.
P1/P2/P3: Player 1/2/3
A common way to refer to our poor spouses/family/friends who let us get credit cards in their name.
PBP: Pay-by-phone (i.e. typically referencing paying a Credit Card bill via a Debit Card)
This could be used to pay your credit card bill using your Visa gift card. Realistically, most PBP services don’t allow gift card BINs these days, so you’ll have to be a little more creative..
POID: Something-Something-ID
Generally references IDs attached to Amex sign-up links / offers.
PP: PayPal
Not much to say here.
PPBP: PayPal Bill Pay
A bill payment service - for paying things like Credit Cards, Loans, Utilities, etc, using a debit or gift card. As of 2024, most of the MS-friendly bill payment targets are gone. Again, you may need to be creative here.
S through W
SCO: Self-checkout
Not much to say here.
SS: SecureSpend
A type of gift card.
SUB: Sign-up Bonus
A bonus given for signing up for a credit card, typically after hitting some spending requirement. Bonus usually comes in the form of points or cash.
USPS: US Postal Service
You can buy money orders here.
VGC / eVGC: Visa Gift Card / Electronic Visa Gift Card
Yep.
WAGS: Walgreens
Not much to be said here!
WM/WMT (NM): Walmart / Walmart Neighborhood Market
Not much to say here. Interesting tidbit, Walmart Neighborhood Market may code as a grocery store when purchasing gift cards..
WUBP: Western Union Bill Pay
Another bill payment service. See PayPal Bill Pay above. This is generally referencing the in-person MS method of going to Walgreens and using their Western Union Bill Pay service. Great for gift cards, and you can swipe multiple in a single transaction.