Max Out Deals: Earn Rewards on US Credit Cards

Buying groups are my favorite way to manufacture spend on my US credit cards simply for the fact that they are a straightforward way to generate large amounts of spend in a short period of time. However, when I started using buying groups, I found that there was limited information out there and I was left to figure a lot of it out on my own.

Buying groups can be overwhelming for those just starting out. With that in mind, I wanted to lessen the barrier to entry to an underappreciated manufactured spending method in addition to showcasing one of the newest and emerging groups in the United States.

Max Out Deals is one of the major players in the buying group world, so it only makes sense to walk through how to sign up and use this service to help you meet your US minimum spending requirements.

Let’s dive into everything you need to know about Max Out Deals and how you can get started with your first buying group purchase.

Max Out Deals Overview

Max Out Deals is a major player in the buying group scene in the United States with almost 20,000 active members and over $15,000,000 in monthly purchases. Buying groups, like Max Out Deals, are a great and legitimate way to generate a large volume of miles and points through credit card spending.

Learn More About Buying Groups: Manufactured Spend with Buying Groups

Many buying group colleagues and I have recently been purchasing for Max Out Deals and we have been very impressed with the platform in terms of deals. If you want to get started with Max Out Deals, follow the steps below to successfully complete your first buying group order.

Signing Up for Max Out Deals

If you want to get started with buying groups, you can sign up for Max Out Deals here.

If you are Canadian, it is ok to enter your Canadian personal details. If you wish, you could enter the details that are tied to your US credit card accounts or US mail forwarder; it makes no difference.

Upon signing up, you will need to ensure that you have a US bank account available to deposit your payments into. Max Out Deals currently supports eChecks and ACH deposits for payment. If you don’t yet have a US bank account, stop, and learn more about the best US bank accounts for Canadians.

If you want to use eChecks, double-check that you are able to mobile deposit checks and understand any limits/restrictions that may be in place for your financial institution. For example, TD US allows you to only deposit $5,000 USD daily or $20,000 USD monthly, whereas with RBC US you can deposit up to $25,000 USD in a 3-day period. Certain banks may also not allow you to mobile deposit from a Canadian IP address.

ACH (or automated clearing house) bank payments are the most convenient payment method and what I would suggest you use. With ACH payments, the payment will be deposited in your US bank account when processed which cuts out the need to deal with any sort of paper cheques.

To set up ACH payments, log into your Max Out Deals account and click “ACH Payments” on the sidebar. From here, you will need to enter your US bank account details:

• US Account Number
• Routing Number
• Account Type (Checking or Savings)
• Name of Account Holder

Max Out Deals will send a test deposit to your bank account so you will need to monitor for that deposit. Once the test deposit is received, log in to Max Out Deals to confirm the amount deposited. Once validated, you will now be able to request and receive ACH payouts.

I highly recommend using ACH as your payment method so you can skip the step of having to print and mobile deposit a check and instead have the money deposited automatically to your bank account. There are also no holds on the deposit when using ACH, which means you can pay off your credit card balance even sooner.

Committing & Making a Purchase on Max Out Deals

Once you are signed up, you are ready to make your first dropship purchase to Max Out Deals. There is a specific order of operations that needs to be followed: you must first commit to the deal before purchasing the item and shipping it to the buying group.

Committing to Purchase

When you are ready to make your first purchase, navigate to the “Deals” tab to see all active deals. At the top of the deals tab, you can switch between “On Sale Now” which shows deals that are at cost or with commission, and “Below Cost” which are deals that are paying less than what you will spend on the purchase. While it is only natural to gravitate towards the at cost deals, below cost can be a good avenue if you desperately need to meet a minimum spending requirement, provided you can do it at a more reasonable cost of 1-3%.

Within each deal, you can see the retail price, what commission (if any) is being paid, and the total you will be reimbursed. You will also be able to see the retailers that have that product on sale.

In the below screenshot, Max Out Deals is buying Apple AirPods 4, which retail at a price of $99 USD and they are paying $99 per unit.

Once you have selected the product you want to order, you will need to click the “Commit” button. Upon clicking that button, it will show the deal capacity and open up a text field for you to enter a numerical value identifying how many of that specific product you will be dropshipping. From there, click save.

Typically, you will want to commit to the deal before ordering to ensure that everything will go smoothly. Deals usually have limited space, and as such, you should always commit first to double-check that Max Out Deals is still accepting that particular item. You can also reduce your commitment amount if needed, for example, if an order is cancelled.

In the below screenshot, I have committed to sending 2 Apple AirPods 4 units to Max Out Deals. The user limit is 50, meaning one user can commit to sending up to 50 units.

If I decided I wanted to ship additional units, I would simply be able to increase the commitment number and click “Save“, as there is still deal capacity remaining. In the below screenshot, the deal has been 61.08% filled, so there is still room to increase my commitment.

Of note, committing to the item and amount you are sending is imperative as it is within the buying group’s right to refuse the shipment or payout at a lower price if you are sending non-committed items. Additionally, if you make a purchase and the order is canceled, you can always go in and reduce your committed amount.

Making a Purchase

Once you have selected a deal and committed to it, the next logical step is to make the purchase. Since we are ordering to a US address, we will need to log into or create an Amazon.com account. If it is your first time logging into Amazon.com on a Canadian account, it may say the item is undeliverable. This will adjust once you add a US shipping address to your account as mentioned below.

Note: TopCashBack offers 8-10% cash back on purchases of Amazon items, such as Kindle, Firesticks, Echos, and more. If you are buying on Amazon, this is an easy way to generate additional cash back for no effort. Sign up for TopCashBack here.

Before we add the shipping address, it is important to note that the key to buying groups is to drop ship your items to a tax-exempt state, such as Delaware (DE). Max Out Deals currently has three addresses that can be shipped to, with two of them being tax-exempt:

It is highly recommended that you include your USER ID # in your shipping details when dropshipping items to Max Out Deals, as it will provide an additional piece of information for the workers who are scanning your deliveries.

Once you have set up Max Out Deal’s address, you will need to set your billing address. For this, use the same details that you have set up on your US credit card accounts. Amazon does not care if your shipping and billing addresses are different.

When you are starting out with buying groups, I recommend everyone start with Amazon as your main retailer since they are a bit less concerned about drop-shipping; thus, there is no need to “jig” the address, and there is a better chance that your order will not be cancelled. Even better, you can also operate many Amazon accounts at once with minimal risk if you get creative, making it easy to purchase multiples of the quantity allowed per account.

Other retailers, such as Target, Best Buy, and Walmart, tend to be less passive when it comes to drop-shipping products to buying groups. They will actively cancel orders and ban accounts if you are ordering to a flagged address. There are ways around this with some creativity involving jigging the address, but I will leave that up to you to figure out yourself 😉

Post-Purchase & Getting Paid

Once you have made your purchase, it’s time to move on to the second part of the process: order tracking and getting paid.

Order Management

Once your order has shipped, you will receive an email from Amazon and you will be able to view the tracking number attached to the order in your Amazon recent orders. Items may ship using UPS, USPS, or Amazon’s shipping service.

Once the tracking number is available, you need to copy it and open the “Order Management” tab in Max Out Deals. In the “Order Management” tab, you want to click “Show Import Wizard” at the bottom, which will open a window on the right-hand side of the screen. This is where you will want to paste the tracking number and click “Submit”. This will generate a new row on this screen, which will show the tracking number and the current status.

Once tracking numbers are added and items are checked in, this tab will start to look like the below:

While you have included your ID # in the shipping details, adding the tracking number to order management is a failproof method to ensure that your order is properly attributed to your account. You should do this for every individual shipment as part of your process.

I also have a basic Google spreadsheet that I use to keep track of what products I am shipping to which buying group, the quantity, and the price I paid versus the price that I will be paid. This helps me stay on top of how many products I am waiting to be checked in and ensures that I am not missing anything.

I cannot understate the importance of having a high attention to detail with this manufactured spending method to ensure nothing falls through the cracks throughout the buying group process. Losing track of an order can decimate your margins.

Shipment Check-In & Payment

At this point, your item has shipped, and you have entered the tracking number in “Order Management”. Now, all there is to do is wait for the package to be delivered.

Typically, once it is delivered you can expect to wait a few business days or slightly longer (depending on the current warehouse load) for the package to be checked in, depending on the overall buying group load (e.g. shipping around Prime Day or Black Friday may result in a longer time for the package to be checked-in).

Once checked in and verified, the shipment will show up in your “Receiving” tab, and you will receive an email.

Once your items have been received, you can request payment immediately, provided your balance is over $50 USD. To do so, navigate to the “Request Payment” tab and submit the desired payment amount as well as the payment method you would like to use.

Once payment is requested, you can expect to wait anywhere from a few business days to a week or two for payment to be processed (as it is done in batches). If you want to know the current “paid up to date”, visit the Max Out Deals homepage while logged in as they have a banner with the latest payment date.

Once payment is issued, you will receive an email and payment will show as completed under the “Payments” tab.

From there, you need to just wait for the ACH payment to hit your US bank account, or you can download and deposit the eCheck into your US bank account.

Conclusion

Finding a new manufactured spending method can be difficult, but buying groups are far from a secret and have been existing right in front of us, waiting to be taken advantage of. While it can take a few purchases to get up to speed in the understanding of the buying group process, the juice is worth the squeeze, as you can easily print credit card points through meeting minimum spending requirements quickly.

I’ve been using Max Out Deals for a while to meet my minimum spending requirements on US credit cards and have personally spent almost $19,000 USD with minimal effort. Max Out Deals always has a plethora of deals, both at cost and below cost, making it a great option if you have a high spending requirement you are working on.

Many Frugal Flyer readers have joined Max Out Deals since we posted this guide and have completed over $1,000,000 USD in total purchases. If you want to get started with buying groups to build your miles and points balances, you can sign up for Max Out Deals here.

If you have any questions about the process, Max Out Deals, or buying groups in general, drop us a comment, and I would be happy to share my expertise.