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I remember someone called concorduser back in a couple of years ago.
Ron.
@LS2982 wrote:
@Ron1 wrote:A couple of things will trigger FR such as use it thru paypal, funding debit/pre-paid card and funding serve/bluebird account.
Ron.
Has anyone here got an FR for that??
That just seems really petty.
no. most likely he confused fraud prevention with FR.
Well, if one passes the FR, then you can continue to buy whatever you'd like and load vanilla gift cards to your heart's content within the confines of your income. Amex is mostly trying to accomplish three things when FR'ing cashlike transactions: (1) to make sure you have the money and income to support such purchases; (2) to ensure there isn't some kind of money laundering; (3) and, finally, to stop the artificial acquisition of MR or SPG points which dilutes its value.
Unlike Chase, who will just close your account without any recourse, Amex will allow you to continue within the limits of your income if you pass the FR. However, if you continue unabated, you will be FR'ed again next year; and, the year after. If one is willing to put up with the hassle of an FR, Amex will allow you to continue with your "cashlike" purchases, so long as they're convinced your income supports it and no fraud or money landering is going on.
@Ron1 wrote:A couple of things will trigger FR such as use it thru paypal, funding debit/pre-paid card and funding serve/bluebird account.
Ron.
Hogwash!!!
Does buying gift cards count in the same category as VR? How about a Visa gift card? A lot of people seem to use BCE/BCP for this purpose.
@bluedog1 wrote:Does buying gift cards count in the same category as VR? How about a Visa gift card? A lot of people seem to use BCE/BCP for this purpose.
I think the 6K cap was Amex's solution to this
@Sevenfeet wrote:
@ilovelisa wrote:
How does AMEX know what you purchased at CVS?? Do they call CVS to get a copy of the receipt? It would seem to me that the only thing they would be able to see is the transaction amount, date, time.That's easy. Most major retailers post what you purchased directly to the credit card company in the transaction description and match that to a specific product category. The data they collect is invaluable...it's used from everything like determining customer cash back and points rewards to larger analytics like broad purchasing trends that are bought by marketers and companies who need to measure the markets. And the labor department uses it to determine leading economic indicators...and other countries do the same thing.
At what level are you talking about? So, if I go to my local supermarket and buy, say, 3 cans of Brand X kidney beans, brand y Earl Grey Tea (50 count) ..... $500 in amazon gift cards...... one brand k 2lb white rice long grain
is all the info, purchase by purchase, passed to Amex?
Customer cash back is said to be determined soley by the merchant classification and amount spent. Itemizing everything seems to raise privacy concerns to me, but I can see arguments that of course the store knows anyway, and I am asking the credit card company to pay for the purchase etc.
But I am a little unbelieving because then it would very easy for certain items to be denied for rewards, and I haven't heard that happening. ("Sorry, silver6054, your $500 amazon gift card purchase counts as a cash equivalent and is thus not eligible for the 6% cash back. However, we have counted it towards your $6000 annual cap")
@bs6054 wrote:
@bluedog1 wrote:Does buying gift cards count in the same category as VR? How about a Visa gift card? A lot of people seem to use BCE/BCP for this purpose.
I think the 6K cap was Amex's solution to this
Right, and also it's stipulated in the T&C where "prepaid and reloadable gift cards" do not count towards the 6%. With the cap now at $6K, I doubt Amex cares how you reach the maximum.
Before the hard maximum, there were reports of isloated cases where some exhorbitant supermarket purchases lead to Amex requesting from cardmembers receipts showing the purchases indeed qualifies for the 6%, but I'd imagine this practice will cease with the hard limit imposed.
@bs6054 wrote:
At what level are you talking about? So, if I go to my local supermarket and buy, say, 3 cans of Brand X kidney beans, brand y Earl Grey Tea (50 count) ..... $500 in amazon gift cards...... one brand k 2lb white rice long grain
is all the info, purchase by purchase, passed to Amex?
My understanding is that if they wanted to access your itemized purchases, they could do so by request. I'm not sure if that request is through the merchant or through their payment processing system.
Even if they could access, they would rather contact the cardmember becuase of the potential privacy issue breach as you've stipulated.
@bs6054 wrote:
@Sevenfeet wrote:
@ilovelisa wrote:
How does AMEX know what you purchased at CVS?? Do they call CVS to get a copy of the receipt? It would seem to me that the only thing they would be able to see is the transaction amount, date, time.That's easy. Most major retailers post what you purchased directly to the credit card company in the transaction description and match that to a specific product category. The data they collect is invaluable...it's used from everything like determining customer cash back and points rewards to larger analytics like broad purchasing trends that are bought by marketers and companies who need to measure the markets. And the labor department uses it to determine leading economic indicators...and other countries do the same thing.
At what level are you talking about? So, if I go to my local supermarket and buy, say, 3 cans of Brand X kidney beans, brand y Earl Grey Tea (50 count) ..... $500 in amazon gift cards...... one brand k 2lb white rice long grain
is all the info, purchase by purchase, passed to Amex?
Customer cash back is said to be determined soley by the merchant classification and amount spent. Itemizing everything seems to raise privacy concerns to me, but I can see arguments that of course the store knows anyway, and I am asking the credit card company to pay for the purchase etc.
But I am a little unbelieving because then it would very easy for certain items to be denied for rewards, and I haven't heard that happening. ("Sorry, silver6054, your $500 amazon gift card purchase counts as a cash equivalent and is thus not eligible for the 6% cash back. However, we have counted it towards your $6000 annual cap")
I got this information directly from AMEX people who do analytics. In some cases, they get information right down to SKUs, however, that is not the case in every instance.