The FatWallet site and its Forums had been around for decades and led to a wealth of good for the miles and points community, churners, manufactured spenders, and frequent travelers alike.
FatWallet was sold to Ebates (now Rakuten) in 2011, and then in 2017, Rakuten (the parent of Ebates) closed FatWallet.
- By WIFR Newsroom
- Published: Sep. 25, 2017 at 1:57 PM EDT
BELOIT, Wis. (WIFR) – FatWallet has announced that after 18 years they will be closing for good.
On September 22nd, 2017, the General Manager of FatWallet, Ryan Washatka, announced that the website will be shutting down. There are no details yet as to why the website is closing as well as no date set for the closure.
Founder Tim Storm posted this on his Facebook in regards to the news, “I heard the news today… oh boy. When I sold FatWallet in 2011, I told myself that I sold the right to complain about whatever happened after that. I’m immensely proud of what we built – and sad to hear that it will be shutting down very, very soon. I’ve not been involved at all in the last 6 years, but my heart is with everyone that played a part, either with me, or after me. It was a hell of a ride.”
The forums went with the closure, but there was a mad dash near the end to save the forums and their troves of knowledge.
News Articles
My History with FWF
Back in 2012, I was reaching the limits of what my computer could do as far as mining Bitcoin. I decided to buy an ASIC machine; they were new and extremely fast.
I went to the bank to get a loan and was denied for having no credit. Enter the FatWallet Forums.
I spent the next 5 years building out my credit and enjoying the perks of Manufactured Spending and Churning.
I never did get that ASIC machine, but I did manage an 825 credit score at my peak with $48k in unused credit limit while working a minimum wage ($7.25/hr) job.
The Old Plan
My plan was originally to upload the entire archive; however, I hadn’t actually looked at the files I saved until recently.
What I’ve got isn’t really useful, to be honest.
The good threads were stickied, but those are not recognizable in the hundreds of thousands of HTML files I have in my possession. Several members seemed to go above and beyond the usual points and miles game.
I don’t recall them exactly, but I remember the profile image, Go Go Gadget, and the name SuckisStaples.
There were certainly others, but after 8 years, I’ve forgotten so much.
I did find a Reddit thread where several archive projects were undertaken, but those data sets appear to be different from what I had saved. I don’t recall where I got my files. I sort of thought they came from a thread on the forums themselves.
The New Plan
My new plan is to create a hierarchical page structure of the more prolific posters with separate pages for each member. The database files included in my archive categorize posts by “ID, Title, Author, and Date.”
I could also search the database for specific topics and then check the HTML files individually for any relevant content, but that could take a while. Much of the thread content is fast-paced back-and-forth chat between users. No large, robust blocks of text.
An issue I’ve encountered is that Pages cannot be categorized or have tags associated with them. If I choose to use a Post format, I can have both navigation options, but I lose the parent/child structure that Pages use.
I also worry that uploading several thousand posts with content not entirely relevant to my current site will cause an issue with search engines.
I may go with a hybrid structure where posters have Pages, and general topics are in Post format. That way, I can utilize a subset of tags and a single category for the majority of content.
The Finance forum contains over 62k threads. It took me 8 years just to start this project. I hold no illusions about whether I’ll manage to finish it.
The Navigation Plan
Update 10/31/25: I have gotten several individual finance threads posted with the prefix ‘FWF.‘
The investment rental property thread was massive and could not be posted in its entirety. I put together the most relevant parts and have uploaded the original file to Mirae Market for download.
Update 10/16/25: Not gonna lie, I got seriously distracted. I changed my mind on how the archive will be navigated. The column plan is now scrapped. I’ll drop some buttons below instead.
Fat Wallet Refugee 
FatWallet (archived)
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