Amex ED/ EDP. How are you maximizing your 20-30 transactions?

[creditFiend]

Hello Everyone!

I recently acquired my EDP, & only did 21 transactions for my first statement.  It was not a full 30 days but I was a little bummed not to meet the transaction requirement in order to receive my bonus after my statement cut.  Anyways, I am on a mission to meet my required transactions at least every other month or so.  Of course EVERY month would be great!  So far this month (working on my 2nd statement..  I'm at (22) transactions.  I'm thinking I will make 30 this time!!! 

This is a thread to give valid ideas or suggestions on maxmizing the required transactions for the end of statement bonuses.  I'm sure several of you have different tactics that maybe another person has not thought of to achieve this goal.  I'm hoping we can get some good ideas from this!!

Me:  Instead of buying gas weekly, I now buy twice a week

        I break my cell phone bill into (4) payments weekly, instead of one lump payment monthly.

        I use Amazon digital (1.99) episodes once a month or so.

        I buy needed groceries weekly

        & I pay any montly bill I can, online. (that do not charge fees to use)

[chalupaman]

Just made my 20th purchase this month for my ED card. Using it at school to get stuff from the vending machine sometimes has really helped actually on top of paying for other stuff, especially bigger purchases. Ran about a little over 300 dollars through it.

I never thought about breaking up my cellphone payment like what you did but I'm gonna start doing that to really take advantage of the swipes.

[mongstradamus]

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@chalupaman wrote:

Just made my 20th purchase this month for my ED card. Using it at school to get stuff from the vending machine sometimes has really helped actually on top of paying for other stuff, especially bigger purchases. Ran about a little over 300 dollars through it.

I never thought about breaking up my cellphone payment like what you did but I'm gonna start doing that to really take advantage of the swipes.

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can't you buy .50 amazon gift cards, if you are short on swipes. 

[chalupaman]

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@mongstradamus wrote:

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@chalupaman wrote:

Just made my 20th purchase this month for my ED card. Using it at school to get stuff from the vending machine sometimes has really helped actually on top of paying for other stuff, especially bigger purchases. Ran about a little over 300 dollars through it.

I never thought about breaking up my cellphone payment like what you did but I'm gonna start doing that to really take advantage of the swipes.

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can't you buy .50 amazon gift cards, if you are short on swipes. 

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Maybe but I'm very wary of using a credit card to buy gift cards like that, especially with all the FR horror stories.

[mongstradamus]

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@chalupaman wrote:

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@mongstradamus wrote:

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@chalupaman wrote:

Just made my 20th purchase this month for my ED card. Using it at school to get stuff from the vending machine sometimes has really helped actually on top of paying for other stuff, especially bigger purchases. Ran about a little over 300 dollars through it.

I never thought about breaking up my cellphone payment like what you did but I'm gonna start doing that to really take advantage of the swipes.

---

can't you buy .50 amazon gift cards, if you are short on swipes. 

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Maybe but I'm very wary of using a credit card to buy gift cards like that, especially with all the FR horror stories.

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yeah i understand that , but its just an option 

[creditFiend]

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@chalupaman wrote:

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@mongstradamus wrote:

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@chalupaman wrote:

Just made my 20th purchase this month for my ED card. Using it at school to get stuff from the vending machine sometimes has really helped actually on top of paying for other stuff, especially bigger purchases. Ran about a little over 300 dollars through it.

I never thought about breaking up my cellphone payment like what you did but I'm gonna start doing that to really take advantage of the swipes.

---

can't you buy .50 amazon gift cards, if you are short on swipes. 

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Maybe but I'm very wary of using a credit card to buy gift cards like that, especially with all the FR horror stories.

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I'm leery too.  Maybe someone who has done this can chime in to confirm that this will not trigger any negativity with Amex.

[Anonymous]

Some people certainly ran into this with Chase, with the old 10+10 Freedom bonus, some guy had a bill with 300+ pages of microtransactions, each earning 10c.  He got shut down.

Some slight difference though, that was making money whereas this is just trying to meet a threshold, but probably good to avoid if possible.

A common suggestion is self-checkout groceries.  You can buy one thing at a time, making it fairly easy to reach the target.

[creditFiend]

Self checkout. Good suggestion! I will try that on occasion.
Looking forward to hearing other ideas from more members.
Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Just as an aside: if you are not heavily into MR through other cards, if you can't meet 30 transactions a month every month, the EDP may not be worth the AF.

[creditFiend]

Agreed. I thought I could meet the 30; but I find that a few places I frequent do not take Amex. I can meet 20 transactions for the ED; so more than likely I'll PC to the ED before the 2nd annual fee hit next year. I have already met the spend requirement & received my sign up bonus which has paid my annual fee this year. Thanks @longtimelurker
Still looking to hear from others.