The world of frequent flyer miles collection is constantly changing. Always has been. Always will be.

A guy on Flyertalk with the screen name of dumdum (sorry I meant drumdrum) seems to be real proud of the fact that wording has been added to the order details page on the US Mint Direct Shipping purchases, that says these transactions may now be considered cash equivalent transactions and may not qualify for award points or miles through your credit card company. He supposedly got his congressman to have it added.

Well I don’t have much confidence in dumdum and you know how I feel about politicians, but suppose, just suppose that they are going to code these as cash equivalent transactions????

The Mint has no say in how a credit card company distribute their awards. It may all be smoke and mirrors. It could be just a warning to try to fend off points and miles orders. How will we find out? Order more coins.

There has been speculation that even dollar amount transactions say $2500 as a typical number, may trigger a special coding. Order a cheap $3 commemorative and make you order total $2503.

Although they call it a cash equivalent transaction, some, including me at first, were afraid it would trigger a 3% cash advance fee and interest starting on the day of purchase. Set your cash advance limit on your credit card to $0.00. (some credit card companies may refuse. Todd and others tell me he can not lower it on his Ame card)

Use your mileage earning debit card for coin purchases. Sure it takes some cash to do it but the rate of return far exceeds what you’d earn in a bank account. Please don’t be dumdum enough to use a debit card from the same bank you are depositing your coins to.

I really doubt that dumdum and his congressional colleague have closed all the loopholes. I’m not going to post my suggested fixes on the big forum boards for all to see, but working together, we can and will find a way to combat the potential changes to the program if any.

And if they close the loopholes we find, so be it. There will always be another deal. There always has been and always will be.

Please report in only your successes. Examples:

“My order went through as a purchase with my cash advance limit set at $0.00 and the points posted.”

“My debit card purchase posted the points/miles to my account”

“I ordered a $3 coin with my direct ship purchase and it all posted as a purchase and my points posted”

As the blog grows (and it exploded last week after being quoted in another blog and Consumerist article), it becomes harder for me to answer every email, every day.

But, working together we can keep the most current information available to all readers. Please try to limit coin comments to what is working for you in this time of transition.

Thanks to all.