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Has anyone ever thought about trying to get 6% cashback on everypurchase by buying one of those visa/mc gift cards from their grocery store and using that for purchases?? I just thought of it I dont think id ever do it but i wonder if Amex catches stuff like that at the register.
Those gift cards typically have activation fees that would just about nullify any cashback bonus. You can get store gift cards though that don't have any extra fees. I don't know if/when Amex would start to care about buying excessive gift cards.
heck you could even get a store gift card for the grocery store you bought it at... but really i think i might get some restaurant gift cards for myself.
I don't think there's anything wrong with it, but buying lots of gift cards could get you on Amex's radar. Especially if Amex sees lots of grocery purchases that are like $50 or $100 even. Just make sure that you know you'll fully use up the gift card without buying stuff you wouldn't otherwise.
@Anonymous wrote:I don't think there's anything wrong with it, but buying lots of gift cards could get you on Amex's radar.
Heh, then I guess I'm on their radar. I just got my BCP, and bought $700 worth of gift cards just in the past week. As far as the earlier comment about the activation fees, that's only on the MC/Visa/Amex gift cards. If you get a gift card for a store, there's no fee. Kroger has a promotion going on right now where you get 4x the points on gift card purchases. So buy $500 in gift cards, and that's worth $2 off per gallon of gas, for up to 35 gallons. My car won't hold that much, so I bring along extra fuel cans. Maximizes my savings, and makes it so I don't have to go to the station so often.
@Anonymous, $500 in gift cards = $70 in savings at the pump, plus I get 6% CB at a store where I'd otherwise only get 2%, so that's another $20 savings. I had a project to do that required a bunch of lumber at Lowes, so getting the gift cards @ Kroger saved 18% vs. using my 2% CB card at Lowes.
If I have BCP what I would do is to buy Chevron GC at my local Safeway store. My local Safeway hands out 10 cents per gallon gas discount for every $100 spending per month. So not only do I get 6% CB on Chevron gas, I also get 10 cents per gallon discount at my local Safeway pump.
Don't they charge gift cards as cash advances? This pretty much kills any benefit of getting a giftcard to 'work' the system. Also I don't agree with this policy btw, because in most cases gift cards can't be exchanged for cash and they don't earn any type of interest and in the case of store gift cards they are limited to a certain shop.
Starting Score: EX: 736 FAKO | TU: 757 FICO | EQ 730 FICO Current Score: EX: 736 FAKO | TU: 750 FICO | EQ 730 FICO Goal Score: EX: 750 FICO | TU: 750 FICO | EQ: 750 FICO | |
In my wallet: $16,000 $8,000 |
@HenryJumbo wrote:Don't they charge gift cards as cash advances? This pretty much kills any benefit of getting a giftcard to 'work' the system. Also I don't agree with this policy btw, because in most cases gift cards can't be exchanged for cash and they don't earn any type of interest and in the case of store gift cards they are limited to a certain shop.
I've purchased gift cards before and they were treated as regular purchases...
@HenryJumbo wrote:Don't they charge gift cards as cash advances? This pretty much kills any benefit of getting a giftcard to 'work' the system. Also I don't agree with this policy btw, because in most cases gift cards can't be exchanged for cash and they don't earn any type of interest and in the case of store gift cards they are limited to a certain shop.
No. I've had my BCP for a good while now and there is no difference between buying regular groceries and gift cards. NONE. 6% back and no negative of any kind. Just don't by Visa/MC/Amex gift cards because many of those have an activation fee. Store/Retail/Restaurant/Movie cards do not.
@HenryJumbo wrote:Don't they charge gift cards as cash advances? This pretty much kills any benefit of getting a giftcard to 'work' the system. Also I don't agree with this policy btw, because in most cases gift cards can't be exchanged for cash and they don't earn any type of interest and in the case of store gift cards they are limited to a certain shop.
Most GC is charged as purchase.
Giftcard CAN be exchanged for cash. Plastic Jungle and Cardpool are just two examples of it.
Which is why sometime you can use GC like Walmart to do rapid GC churning with minimal loss (to meet spending requirement). Walmart GC on average sells for 96% of their face value. So $100 Walmart GC gets you $96 of cash.