Delta Amex - making spend for miles...

[RockinRay]

My wife and I both recently got these cards and we need to make a $500 spend on each quickly for a 30k miles bonus...

I have read through the terms and it appears that you cannot purchase gift cards - is this correct? We thought about buying a tank of gas and them purchasing $300 to $500 in pre-paid gas cards. Would this work?

Any tricks anyone can share with me???

Thanks for any replies - we need to make this spend fast and I want to do it the easiset way...

[jamesdwi]

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@RockinRay wrote:

My wife and I both recently got these cards and we need to make a $500 spend on each quickly for a 30k miles bonus...

I have read through the terms and it appears that you cannot purchase gift cards - is this correct? We thought about buying a tank of gas and them purchasing $300 to $500 in pre-paid gas cards. Would this work?

Any tricks anyone can share with me???

Thanks for any replies - we need to make this spend fast and I want to do it the easiset way...

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Cable/Satelite Bill

Cellphone bill

Most Grocery Stores

Auto/Home/Life Insurance

Gasoline

Other utility bills if you are willing to accept the convience fees

Birthday and Aniversary gift

Car Maintiance that will be necessary in the near future

the top 4 alone should easily get you $500, 

[Walt_K]

If you buy Amex gift cards from their site or something like that, they can see that and it probably won't count.  If you go to the grocery store and buy a gift card, I don't think they'll be able to see that.  It should show up as a normal grocery purchase.  Lots of other tricks out there as well.  There are posts detailing them on millionmilesecrets.com, probably some of the other travel blogs as well.  And I'm sure there are threads about this on milepoint and flyertalk.

I haven't looked into Amazon payments in a while, but they were allowing you to send up to $1000 per month by credit card with no fees.  But they'll shut your account down if you try to send $500 to your wife and then she sends $500 right back.  Or at least, you're running a risk that they will.  But if there are any people you pay in cash or check, e.g., daycare, lawnservice, etc., see if they accept Amazon payments.  That might be a way to boost your cc spend.

[OhioCPA]

I thought the issue with gift cards was you couldn't count Amex gift cards toward the spend. I don't see why purchasing gas or other gift cards at the grocery store would be a problem.

[searchingfor67]

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@Walt_K wrote:

If you buy Amex gift cards from their site or something like that, they can see that and it probably won't count.  If you go to the grocery store and buy a gift card, I don't think they'll be able to see that.  It should show up as a normal grocery purchase.  Lots of other tricks out there as well.  There are posts detailing them on millionmilesecrets.com, probably some of the other travel blogs as well.  And I'm sure there are threads about this on milepoint and flyertalk.

I haven't looked into Amazon payments in a while, but they were allowing you to send up to $1000 per month by credit card with no fees.  But they'll shut your account down if you try to send $500 to your wife and then she sends $500 right back.  Or at least, you're running a risk that they will.  But if there are any people you pay in cash or check, e.g., daycare, lawnservice, etc., see if they accept Amazon payments.  That might be a way to boost your cc spend.

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Not trying to hijack the thread, but are you saying that one could theoretically purchase gift cards at a grocery store, and then use those gift cards at Walmart for groceries?

[OhioCPA]

I buy Shell gas cards at Kroger. This gets me Kroger fuel points and 3% on my BCE. Not sure I have seen Walmart cards at Kroger.

[searchingfor67]

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@OhioCPA wrote:

I buy Shell gas cards at Kroger. This gets me Kroger fuel points and 3% on my BCE. Not sure I have seen Walmart cards at Kroger.

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Great! Thanks for replying...That is exactly what I'm going to do. We don't have a Krogers near by, but I will be using my BCE at the local Giant Eagle for there fuel perks, while simultaneously earning 3% back for groceries. I will then use them at Walmart to purchase groceries....

[RockinRay]

Thanks for the replies!

We are trying to make this spend as fast as we can so we can get the 30k miles posted as quickly as possible. We have reservations that are being held for us the week before Christmas when we are taking a cruise. Delta will hold / extend the reservations until the end of this month. So, we are in a big time hurry... Problem is, everything is paid. 

I think we can get Delta to extend the reservations, I was hoping to make / pay the spend before the statement cuts for speed. It just may not happen!

[OhioCPA]

I am not sure how the Delta card works, but once I hit the spend on my Hilton Honors card Amex deposited the points in my HHonors account. I didn't have to wait until the statement cut to get the points.

[RockinRay]

I'm hoping it works this way - not sure though.

Normally, a spend would not be an issue - but in this case, we need to move qucikly. I do not want to give up 4 reservations - this is saving us $1800 in airfare.

Great problem to be in. Need to spend the money and have no where to spend it!  If I were not in a time crunch, I would pay bills next month with them and be done with it...