@Fico2Go wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I'm being the devils advocate here. Does AMEX actually FR you for purchasing gift cards? Or, do they FR you because you spent up to your credit limit purchasing GC? Looking into purchasing a new mac, and well to be honest the urge to purchase Apple GC at my local supermarket is becoming to tempting.
Also what percent of people do you truly believe AMEX FR's? By these boards it appears its everyone. However, I highly doubt this and would personally contend it couldn't be much more than 3%. Basically for AMEX to FR you they have to believe they are at serious risk.
Reasons:
1. It costs some serious cash to request the 4506T from the IRS for every customer
2. They miss out on spending during the evaluation period
3. They are likely upsetting someone, and hurting their brand image as a result
Now, obviously if AMEX believes their is a strategic bankruptcy in play those three risks/costs are chunk change to Amex. However, to do it to every customer would imply that Amex would soon be going out of business.
For those of you who got FR for purchasing GC with your AMEX card I am extremely interested to hear from you. I am also highly interested in learning from those who purchase at least 500 dollars worth of GC a pop at the grocery store.
OP, if for example your income is $50K a year and you are charging 30K a month, OF COURSE amex will FR sooner or later.
If all of your transactions show only GCs of course Amex will FR sooner or later.
If you are making minimum payments month after month, OF COURSE amex will FR you sooner or later.
I regularly buy $500 GCs and I enjoy earning cashback from Amex as well as concurrent bonuses offered by the merchants. For example, for awhile I was receiving 50Cent discount per gallon of gas purchased at a local station. I was paying $0 for gas while everyone was paying $3.50 a gallon. Just last week I earned $100 in cash per $500 GC purchased at a local grocery store. IN FACT, THE $100 REWARDS APPLIED ONLY TO PURCHASES OF GIFTCARDS. Needless to say I purchased dozens of GCs between last week and today.
Now on the negative side, I have heard of people having their AMEX cards cancelled this past month for uncertain reasons. Many tend to point finger to MS and GC purchasing. But I respectfully disagree. I would argue that the majority of the cancelled accounts were from people with spending habits not in alignment with reported income. Or, cancelled due to excessively similar purchases from CVS in particular.
Well true. My reported income with Amex is 18,200. I am afterall a full time college student, so earning meaningful money currently is rather difficult. Thats why I have long acknowledged the chances of getting the full 6k for this year would be tough... 6k purchsaes in one month with that annual income + new card member. Just trying to figure out how to structure it. I'm thinking of doing 500 gift card purchases every week till the new year. Paying in full before my statement cuts on Christmas Eve, and hoping that will leave me in AMEX's good graces for my 3x CLI on January 4th. Talk about a limited amount of time to structure this properly 
and hope my last soft pull will be good.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Open123 wrote:
@longtimelurker wrote:
@Open123 wrote:Absent of other factors, you should be able to use the BCP liberally for any GC purchases up to $6K.
For other Amex cards, the risks increase (most notably BCE Blue Cash, SPG, and Bus Golds) when cashlike GCs are purchased in very high amounts. By high, I mean north of at least $2 or $3K. At $10k or higher, the risks would likely increase another factor.
Glad of the edit, I was going to ask why BCE was riskier than BCP! Not sure what your amounts mean though, most people shutdown had high monthly spends (or rather rewards) not necessarily buying large amounts of cards at once (which has become harder anyway)
There's a minor risk of FR when purchasing cashlike GCs in amounts of $2K - $3K at a time. The risks become higher when purchasing around $10K per month. Not sure if those parameters have changed, but it was I had noticed several months ago. Haven't kept up with recent data points.
I don't think it's a high risk on the BCP, since Amex really couldn't care less with the cap in place. To this day, I've never seen a BCP/BCE trigger an FR.
First, I appreciate the informed feedback. However, I am sure the BCP/BCE can trigger an FR. If a charge card can, so can an account were your allowed to carry a balance. I also don't know if AMEX could care less. If you have 40k in income and start purchasing 10k in giftcards in a month, I'm sure AMEX cares. If they don't they would be tiddering on exiting the stage. I just suppose in this scenario it wouldn't be the purchased goods themselves/rewards they would be concerned about. Stating the obvious here I know, but I'm sure they've triggered FR you just have not heard of them because charge cards are considerably more common for FR.
This thread is very confusing to me.
Why would you purchase 10k in giftcards if the limit is 6k?
And why would they shut down if you pay your bills?
Can they see that all youre buying is GC? and why does it matter if there is a limit?
And buying GC from cvs, why does that matter? why would u do that anyway there is no bonus?
This whole thread I just do not understand and I have read each post...
