Hi. I am looking for advice from proven, real experience from Blue Cash Preferred Card holders about using your 6% cash back to buy lots of gift cards.
Has anyone run into problems with Amex for being too overzealous about it? I'm talking about buying hundreds of dollars worth...if not thousands...to buy stuff elsewhere. Yes, I figure tossing a few every month into your grocery cart isn't going to get any attention but I'm talking about practically using the card for mainly gift card purchasing. Is there any risk of red flags or Amex denying your cash back? Any experiences to share on this?
Disclosure: I ask this because I am practically LOOKING for a reason to get this card. Of all Amex's personal cards, it seems to be the only one that has any use for me...provided I can use it as a reliable gift card purchasing mechanism. I grocery shop at Walmart so the card has little value in that regard and I just got the PenFed Platinum so the 3% on gas doesn't do anything either. The 3% at department stores may be useful....prrovided I am in the store and not buying online, in which case, the bonus cash back through Chase Ultimate Rewards or Cap1 Perk Central will most often be better.
Please share your experiences. I want to know if I could likely draw the wrong attention from some monitoring at Amex...or the Supermarket...and not get the cash back after pulling the stunt too many times. Thanks.
Well, it wouldn't surprise me if Walmart had some policy for that. Tell me, does your card recognize Walmart Supercenters as a supermarket? I have never heard or read that Amex does. My Amex Plum marks my local SuperCenter as a discount store. Visa, OTOH, does recognize Walmart SC's as supermarkets....or at least my local one is marked that way. That;s something to keep in mind in Walmart since you have a BofA Visa.
The only experience I have doing this is buying a single $100 gift card at the grocery store along with our groceries -- I did not get the gift card just by itself. The total of the bill counted towards groceries online on my BCP.
I don't know what would happen if you bought only gift cards by themselves.
We have a Super--Walmart that has a grocery store but, BCP considers that a "discount store." Consequently, I used my Walmart-Discover card there.
I did find out this past weekend that our Smart & Final Warehouse type store counts as a "grocery store" on BCP and, I was thrilled to pieces about that!!! Also, I noticed that they are carrying gift cards there at Smart & Final too -- so, I am going to put more of this buying gift cards to a test and see what happens. I will report back later on!
Hey All!
I've used my BCP to buy GCs at Publix and Kroger and got 6% on both transactions. Please note it was also in conjunction with actual food purchases. I suppose you could use it strictly for this but BCP is capped at 6K annually for the 6%. Also, I'm not entirely positive that without the food purchase also, this scheme will work because it may then be classified as a cash transaction even at a grocery store.
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