Gaming the system is everyone’s dream. Tricks, tips, loopholes, back-door solutions to problems, or rewards that are normally time-consuming, costly, or difficult to obtain. As the digital world becomes more advanced, these sorts of phenomena are becoming rarer every day. But every once in a while, a new one pops up, and the people who are in the know win big time.
That’s what happened on November 24th when a group of people reportedly discovered a way to game General Motors’ Rewards points system, allegedly racking up millions of points to purchase car accessories, merch like clothing, and even cover car payments.
The loophole, which has since been closed, reportedly allowed people to earn points by repeatedly completing simple tasks on one of GM’s websites, then transferring those points to their GM account to cash them in.
Someone Screwed Up
First, let me explain how GM’s point system works. It’s a loyalty program, as you’d find with most major credit cards, where you can earn points by spending money on stuff like service at GM dealerships, warranties, subscriptions, accessories, and car payments. Like most credit card reward systems, you can turn around and redeem these points in exchange for accessories, service, or, if you have a loan through GM Financial, car payments, according to the program’s website.
You don’t have to spend money to earn GM Rewards points. According to this page on GM’s financial site, you can earn points by doing something as simple as downloading the app, opting for paperless billing, signing up for auto pay, or getting text alerts. Every 100 points is worth $1 in GM’s reward redemption system.
Here’s where the loophole comes in. Recently, GM launched a “Route 2 GM Rewards” promotional website that allowed people to accumulate points by interacting with the site by performing simple tasks. According to Resell Calendar, the site that broke the news, these tasks weren’t anything challenging or time-consuming:
The rewards platform included various promotional actions users could complete for free points. These weren’t referral bonuses or anything requiring actual purchases. They were simple promotional tasks like watching videos, completing surveys, or engaging with GM content. Nothing complicated. The whole process took about five minutes.
If you go to the site now, you’re met with a generic error message:
Resell Calendar says these tasks could only be completed once per account, and netted 13,000 to 16,000 points in total (worth $130 to $160). But fatally for GM, this standalone website reportedly had no way of verifying who was completing the tasks—anyone with an email could simply sign up and start earning points. It didn’t have to be connected to a GM Rewards account. At the same time, those points could allegedly be instantly transferred to other accounts, with no limits on transfer time or amount.
This reportedly allowed users to create numerous accounts on the site with different emails, meaning they could complete the easy tasks over and over again, printing a steady stream of free points that could be transferred to a single GM Rewards account of their choosing.
The Fallout
Here’s where things get juicy. Once people discovered the loophole’s existence, they were off to the races, racking up points and cashing them in, according to numerous posts to X. A Nov. 24 post giving instructions on how to exploit the loophole published by user thedealsguy_ has been viewed by over 1 million accounts as of this writing:
FREE GM REWARD POINTS ????
GM system is giving out free points for doing simple tasks. Doing them all can net you some serious rewards points that can be used for various GM products like car accessories and Vehicle Financing
1. MAKE AN ACCOUNThttps://t.co/AtvbfHytCJ
2. GO… pic.twitter.com/3ADwXcKuao
— thedealsguy (@thedealsguy_) November 24, 2025
Under this post are numerous replies from people claiming to have successfully exploited GM’s loophole. Users claimed to have obtained stuff like batteries, jumper packs, and clothing at either a deeply discounted price or entirely for free by redeeming points earned through the trick:
In addition to merch, people with cars financed by GM claimed to have used the points to partially pay off their car loans. One person says they knocked $127 off their loan thanks to the scheme (I’ve reached out to them to see if that points credit has since been rescinded by GM, or if it still stands). One screenshot making the rounds online, shared by Resell Calendar to X, seems to show someone using over 5.9 million points (nearly $60,000) to pay off the remainder of a Cadillac Escalade V loan:
Someone is getting fired pic.twitter.com/6T4aSQYh2H
— Resell News ???? (@resellnews) November 25, 2025
Whether that particular screenshot is real or not is anyone’s guess. While I wouldn’t put it past someone to lock in and create dozens of accounts to rack up enough points to cover a $60,000 car loan, it feels a tiny bit too good to be true. Resell Calendar didn’t reply to my inquiry about the screenshot’s source, and a GM spokesperson told me over the phone that it’s not sharing any specifics about the loophole, so it’s impossible to truly confirm if someone used this scheme to dig themselves out of five figures of debt. Seeing how expensive cars are getting these days, I definitely want to believe it.
The company did, at least, confirm to me that people were gaming the system. Here’s its full statement:
We are aware of misuse of the Route to GM Rewards promotion, which has resulted in its pause as we determine next steps.
If you’re mad about missing your chance to potentially pay off that Silverado in your driveway for free, you shouldn’t be too hard on yourself. GM quickly realized what was going on that day and appeared to have shut down the site before more people caught wind of the exploit. As early as later that night on the 24th, people were posting to X that the trick was no longer available. So if you were able to benefit in any way, consider yourself extremely lucky.
The Latest In A Long Line Of Loopholes
GM’s Points slip is one of dozens of corporate promotional loopholes that have been discovered over the years. Like I said in the beginning, this stuff is pretty rare, so when it does happen, it always makes big news.
My personal favorites involve airline miles. In 1999, a man named David Phillips discovered he could turn 25-cent cups of Healthy Choice pudding into 500 airline miles through a promotion the brand was running. So he bought 12,150 cups for a total of $3,140 and turned them into over 1.2 million miles—enough for lifetime AAdvantage Gold status with American Airlines and 31 round-trip tickets to Europe. He was even able to write off $815 on his taxes because he donated the pudding to the local Salvation Army.
Then there was the U.S. Mint’s dollar coin debacle in the early 2010s. In an effort to get more dollar coins into circulation, it offered people the chance to buy the coins at face value and have them shipped directly to their house for free. People soon discovered they could use their credit cards to buy the coins, earning airline miles in the process. They’d simply return the coins to their bank and pay off the balance every month, meaning they were essentially getting points for free. This loophole was eventually closed in 2011, when the Mint stopped accepting credit card payments for the coins.
It’s not just points where these kinds of exploits appear. Writing this post reminded me that back in 2013, Papa John’s held a promotion for the Super Bowl, where you could win a free one-topping pizza if you guessed the coin toss correctly. All you had to do was enter an email, so people unsurprisingly took advantage. Looking into it led me to this Reddit thread, where a user claimed to have created 60 emails—half guessing heads, and the other half guessing tails—to guarantee 30 free pizzas. Legendary.
Top graphic images: General Motors; iOS
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