AMEX Pandemic Bonus Category Clawbacks

[Save-n-Invest]

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@Remedios wrote:

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@Save-n-Invest wrote:

With current pandemic prices it's easy to do $1000.00 in a supermarket. Prior to this I have had all kinds of nonsense with Amex on BCE/BCP in the same two supermarkets that code as supermarkets prior to, during and after Amex's foolishment. Foolshment is stupidity that would have to be upgraded to qualify as foolishness. 

I've learned not to bring it here as the apologist do endess posts on how I have sinned against Amex. Groceries in a suprmatket that code as  a supermarket. 

Amex could shoot someone on 5th Avenue - - - no wait, I have that mixed up with something else.

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I'm the furthest person here from Amexapolologists, but...

Groceries code as groceries

Cash equivalents code as cash equivalents 

Level 3 data tells them who bought cheese, and who got pretty shiny Visas.

So, unless people started eating Visa gift cards, those are not groceries. 

Though, in 2020, that wouldn't be surprising.  

Perhaps they didn't want to attract murder hornets because they were carrying food. 

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Eating Visa cards. Interesting. I just buy food and household items. I love the folks who love their Amex cards. It's good when someone has  the card that works well for them. Amex works well for me until something jumps the tracks. A few phone calls usually get things right again. 

I don't recall the name of the community member but the post was that cardholder was out of the country. Something caused sudden high water. Hotel room flooded. Hotel could not assist with alternate accomodations. Poster was not able to get another room. Poster went to the rental vehicle to find it flooded to the floorboards. 

Poster called Amex cs with the dilemma. Amex secured approptiate accomodations and assisted in other ways. That is *very* impressive. I can certainly understand why people would be loyal when they were in distress and Amex steeped up. I would carry that card for the rest of my life. I may prepay the AF and/or  leave testamentary letter to bury me with the card in my pocket. I wouldn't go anywhere without it!!

[Loquat]

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@UpperNwGuy wrote:

Sooner or later, Amex will update its software to read the level three data as the transaction is being processed, and that will prevent points from being awarded for gift card purchases.  In other words, if I were to go to the supermarket and buy $50 of food and a $100 gift card, I would only receive points for the $50, not for the $150 total.  Once that happens, they will no longer need the RAT team.

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I'd be shocked if something of such is ever implemented.   Amex knows that folks are going to game the system...and if they don't then they're fools.  The gift card game isn't new, the game has been played for many years.

  There's a fine line between both Amex and the Consumer.  If Amex tries to really crack down on reward abuse they know they stand to lose a lot of $$$ in annual fees as the average family (not speaking of business use) doesn't need a card that allows for $25k in grocery/dining spend therefore most who can't game it via gift cards would cancel and moved to something more reasonable like the $95 EveryDay Preferred that caps grocery at $6k...and even then folks would drum up small charges to trigger the 50% bonus.

Consumers have to walk the fine line between what is and isn't acceptable to Amex's gaming tolerance...and Amex has to be mindful not to crack down too hard as they stand to lose a lot of folks...after all, it takes a lot of "normal" spend before you break even on the $250 Amex Gold...and no one really cares about the $100 airline credit since that can't be gamed anymore.  

[notmyrealname23]

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@VPExecutive wrote:

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@hawkins wrote:

When a person pends $1000 at a grocery store for example I can kind of understand why Amex would frown upon that. LOL.

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There's nothing saying you can't spend $1,000 at the grocery store and keep your points. Amex seems to think otherwise. 

Amex's games are stupid and ridiculous. Period. 

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"Eligible purchases do NOT include fees or interest charges, balance transfers, cash advances, purchases of travelers checks, purchases or reloading of prepaid cards, purchases of gift cards, person-to-person payments, or purchases of other cash equivalents."

Says it RIGHT in the promotion T&Cs. People were trying to buy grocery gift cards and manufacture spend their way to Hilton Lifetime Diamond. It's no surprise AMEX isn't playing that game, and neither is Hilton.

[notmyrealname23]

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@Loquat wrote:

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and no one really cares about the $100 airline credit since that can't be gamed anymore.  

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I'm guessing you don't fly Southwest or Alaska? AMEX reimburses small ticket charges in conjunction with Southwest Travel Funds or Alaska My Wallet just fine in my experience.

[NRB525]

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@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

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@NRB525 wrote:

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It's actually Starbucks, using the Starbucks app, reloaded with an AMEX Gold card offer of 10% back for Starbucks reloads. I wonder if that gets clawed?

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From a standalone starbucks, or one in a supermarket coding as groceries....

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The coffe? Stand alone Starbucks, paid with the Starbucks card. 
The funds reload? The promos in AMEX always have you do that through the Starbucks app, so it's all electronic. No cashier / store involved.

It hasn't been mentioned in a while, but running funds through a Starbucks card is an excellent stacking method. The Stars rewards aren't as valuable as they once were, but a periodic free drip coffee is a decent benefit.  

[Anonymous]

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@UpperNwGuy wrote:

Sooner or later, Amex will update its software to read the level three data as the transaction is being processed, and that will prevent points from being awarded for gift card purchases.  In other words, if I were to go to the supermarket and buy $50 of food and a $100 gift card, I would only receive points for the $50, not for the $150 total.  Once that happens, they will no longer need the RAT team.

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It would be nice if thay were able to do this, then I could feel  more comfortable about buying an occasional GC with my groceries. However, the then they might also see half my purchase wasn't even in the consuming category. At what point do we need policing on what's considered gorcery or not? What if I also buy condoms, vitamins, bedding, towles etc. along with my food? Are they only going to give me my 6% towards the food items? lol That then begs the question what i'd earn on the other items, the standard % for that card?

At first I though "oh no, anoter Amex Clawback", then when I read the reasons it made sense. Some joking about groceries actually costing that much aside, i do feel that while it may be more expensive than 6 months ago. If Amex suddenly sees a 2X-3X increase in that category something has to be fishy. It's not like they didn't expect people to use said "Offers", or maybe they didn't and finally saw that it was costing hem too much, and needed a way to reign it in. That's all speculative though, and i think the have cause to pull back some of these points.

SUB abuse isn't new, and I'm sure they've honed their team enough to be able to detect it when people do. Some will think they're fair and some will not. One thing to keep in mind is that you're playing by house rules, so I wouldn't expect to be a winner when "caught" cheating.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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It would be nice if thay were able to do this, then I could feel  more comfortable about buying an occasional GC with my groceries. However, the then they might also see half my purchase wasn't even in the consuming category. At what point do we need policing on what's considered gorcery or not? What if I also buy condoms, vitamins, bedding, towles etc. along with my food? Are they only going to give me my 6% towards the food items? lol That then begs the question what i'd earn on the other items, the standard % for that card?

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While it is possible that there would be a slippery slope, I don't think that is likely.   The rule, would be something like "grocery rewards on purchases made at stores coding as groceries, with the exception of items expressly excluded in the T&Cs", such as prepaid cards and money orders.

[AverageJoesCredit]

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@Save-n-Invest wrote:

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@Remedios wrote:

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@Save-n-Invest wrote:

With current pandemic prices it's easy to do $1000.00 in a supermarket. Prior to this I have had all kinds of nonsense with Amex on BCE/BCP in the same two supermarkets that code as supermarkets prior to, during and after Amex's foolishment. Foolshment is stupidity that would have to be upgraded to qualify as foolishness. 

I've learned not to bring it here as the apologist do endess posts on how I have sinned against Amex. Groceries in a suprmatket that code as  a supermarket. 

Amex could shoot someone on 5th Avenue - - - no wait, I have that mixed up with something else.

---

I'm the furthest person here from Amexapolologists, but...

Groceries code as groceries

Cash equivalents code as cash equivalents 

Level 3 data tells them who bought cheese, and who got pretty shiny Visas.

So, unless people started eating Visa gift cards, those are not groceries. 

Though, in 2020, that wouldn't be surprising.  

Perhaps they didn't want to attract murder hornets because they were carrying food. 

---

Eating Visa cards. Interesting. I just buy food and household items. I love the folks who love their Amex cards. It's good when someone has  the card that works well for them. Amex works well for me until something jumps the tracks. A few phone calls usually get things right again. 

I don't recall the name of the community member but the post was that cardholder was out of the country. Something caused sudden high water. Hotel room flooded. Hotel could not assist with alternate accomodations. Poster was not able to get another room. Poster went to the rental vehicle to find it flooded to the floorboards. 

Poster called Amex cs with the dilemma. Amex secured approptiate accomodations and assisted in other ways. That is *very* impressive. I can certainly understand why people would be loyal when they were in distress and Amex steeped up. I would carry that card for the rest of my life. I may prepay the AF and/or  leave testamentary letter to bury me with the card in my pocket. I wouldn't go anywhere without it!!

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I believe that was Shadowfactor who i believe is big on churning. Awesome story as i remember it. 

[wasCB14]

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/American-Express-really-came-through-for-me-tonight/m-...

[Save-n-Invest]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@UpperNwGuy wrote:

Sooner or later, Amex will update its software to read the level three data as the transaction is being processed, and that will prevent points from being awarded for gift card purchases.  In other words, if I were to go to the supermarket and buy $50 of food and a $100 gift card, I would only receive points for the $50, not for the $150 total.  Once that happens, they will no longer need the RAT team.

---

It would be nice if thay were able to do this, then I could feel  more comfortable about buying an occasional GC with my groceries. However, the then they might also see half my purchase wasn't even in the consuming category. At what point do we need policing on what's considered gorcery or not? What if I also buy condoms, vitamins, bedding, towles etc. along with my food? Are they only going to give me my 6% towards the food items? lol That then begs the question what i'd earn on the other items, the standard % for that card?

At first I though "oh no, anoter Amex Clawback", then when I read the reasons it made sense. Some joking about groceries actually costing that much aside, i do feel that while it may be more expensive than 6 months ago. If Amex suddenly sees a 2X-3X increase in that category something has to be fishy. It's not like they didn't expect people to use said "Offers", or maybe they didn't and finally saw that it was costing hem too much, and needed a way to reign it in. That's all speculative though, and i think the have cause to pull back some of these points.

SUB abuse isn't new, and I'm sure they've honed their team enough to be able to detect it when people do. Some will think they're fair and some will not. One thing to keep in mind is that you're playing by house rules, so I wouldn't expect to be a winner when "caught" cheating.

RESPONSE

I am probably missing something here. I use BCE in the supermarket for items other than food. Household cleaning supplies, household paper supplies, an occasional kitchen utensil. Supermarket merchandise. The category is for supermarkets that code as such. I have no reason to prepay for items that I may or may not buy with gift cards. 

Supermarket prices did increase significantly. Eggs were more than $4 a dozen. TV news reports gave the excuse that restaurant cartons were 300 eggs. Consumer cartons were one or two dozen eggs. It was more expensive to package for consumers. Made no sense unless it was more cost effecient to put the eggs back in the chickens. Sunday I finally bought eggs again at $1.39/dozen. Some things I will not buy on principal. Eggs we can live without in this household.

Paper supplies when available have no price market at all. All sales are final due to the virus. We learn the price at home when we see the receipt. Plexiglass shields prevent the customer from being able to see the items as they ring up. Stores made all kinds of acomodations but did not reposition the screen for viewing to the angle for the customer to see. We are kept far away from that screen.

Recently paper goods normal prices have been marked as temporarily out of stock. It's easy to slide that tag over to see the regular price. There is plenty of temporarily out of stock merchandise on those shelves. Bounty crappy Kleenex size paper towels are $20.99 for the same package that sold as 2/$12 in March. Unless it's full sheet they would have to pay me to take that out of the store. 

This is supermarket merchandise per Amex terms. Prices are much higher. My grocery bill is much higher. Amex can episode all they want. It they do so at this time I see no reason to use BCE. I've never had a moment's issue with any other card issuer. Too many cards to play silly games with a fussy outfit.

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