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Maximizing reward points on Arrival Card

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IWOL
Established Contributor

Maximizing reward points on Arrival Card

I noticed that you can get 2/points per $ on AMEX gift cards through the rewards boost with the Arrival card.

 

I was wondering if this makes sense to do with certain purchases that can be done like this.

 

So I purchase a $200 AMEX gift card through rewards boost which would give me 2 points from the mall and 2 points for the purchase using the card, 4 points per $ total.

 

I then use the Amex gift card to make a purchase through the rewards boost site  at Petco for $200 getting 5/points per $.

 

So effectively could get 9/points per $ doing it this way.

 

I do alot of online purchasing every month so I could effectively do this with any online purchases that takes amex and offer a boost reward in the Arrival mall.

 

 


Message 1 of 10
9 REPLIES 9
plasectomy
New Contributor

Re: Maximizing reward points on Arrival Card

Interesting question. I've always assumed that the points don't stack, but considering it's called "RewardsBoost," I'm thinking differently. I thought all of the 2:1 stores were just promotions that equate to the same 2:1 rate for all purchases. Either that or the 2:1 stores are for the non AF version.

Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master.
Message 2 of 10
IWOL
Established Contributor

Re: Maximizing reward points on Arrival Card

The points you get from the rewards boost mall do stack on top of any points you get directly form using the card. In fact you dont even have to us the Barclay card to get the boost rewards, you can use any card and you still get whatever extra points the vendor offers.


Message 3 of 10
DaveSignal
Valued Contributor

Re: Maximizing reward points on Arrival Card

+1.  I use rewards malls occasionally on all of my credit cards.  They are always in addition to the standard points that the card earns.

EX:694 TU:744 EQ:777
Amex ED $19.5k - BoA Travel Rewards $15k - CSP $5k - SDFCU EMV $15k - NFCU goRewards $20k - Barclays Arrival $6.5k
Message 4 of 10
plasectomy
New Contributor

Re: Maximizing reward points on Arrival Card

Thanks for the clarification. I like your RewardsBoost double dipping idea.

Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master.
Message 5 of 10
DaveSignal
Valued Contributor

Re: Maximizing reward points on Arrival Card


@IWOL wrote:

The points you get from the rewards boost mall do stack on top of any points you get directly form using the card. In fact you dont even have to us the Barclay card to get the boost rewards, you can use any card and you still get whatever extra points the vendor offers.


I wasn't aware that the Barclays mall worked that way.  Usually you need to use the lender's card through the lender's mall to get the bonus.  If Barclays does in fact allow any card, then you have found a way to obtain some extra bonus points.  I think that the extra transaction and trying to work with gift card balances makes it a little bit tedious, however. 

EX:694 TU:744 EQ:777
Amex ED $19.5k - BoA Travel Rewards $15k - CSP $5k - SDFCU EMV $15k - NFCU goRewards $20k - Barclays Arrival $6.5k
Message 6 of 10
IWOL
Established Contributor

Re: Maximizing reward points on Arrival Card

It can be tedious with the extra transactions but you could for example just purchase say $1000 worth of AMex gift cards and then use those for everyday purchases like groceries, drug stores or whatever and that would give you 4 points per dollar instead of the normal 2.

 

 


Message 7 of 10
lhcole77
Valued Contributor

Re: Maximizing reward points on Arrival Card


@IWOL wrote:

I noticed that you can get 2/points per $ on AMEX gift cards through the rewards boost with the Arrival card.

 

I was wondering if this makes sense to do with certain purchases that can be done like this.

 

So I purchase a $200 AMEX gift card through rewards boost which would give me 2 points from the mall and 2 points for the purchase using the card, 4 points per $ total.

 

I then use the Amex gift card to make a purchase through the rewards boost site  at Petco for $200 getting 5/points per $.

 

So effectively could get 9/points per $ doing it this way.

 

I do alot of online purchasing every month so I could effectively do this with any online purchases that takes amex and offer a boost reward in the Arrival mall.

 

 


This looks promising. Only caveat is that there is a $3.95 fee per AMEX gc purchase.

Message 8 of 10
DaveSignal
Valued Contributor

Re: Maximizing reward points on Arrival Card


@lhcole77 wrote:

This looks promising. Only caveat is that there is a $3.95 fee per AMEX gc purchase.


Right.  You would have to plan it out ahead of time so that the purchase amount and bonus points from whatever online store you want to buy from results in a net gain.  And you couldn't use the giftcard outside of RewardsBoost to benefit from extra points.  

 

So if you need $100 worth of dog food that RewardsBoost is giving 5 bonus points for at PetCo, you could buy a $100 Amex card from RewardsBoost which would net 4 points, then spend the $100 through RewardsBoost again using the Amex for 5 bonus points... so 9 points total per dollar = $9.  So the you have made $5.05 off of the dog food purchase.  Compared to skipping the Amex gift card altogether and just using the Barclays card, you would have made 2 points + 5 bonus points = 7 points per dollar = $7.   $7 > $5.05, so in this specific instance, you would be loosing money had you opted for the Amex gift card double transaction.   Now, if you had bought a $500 Amex gift card and then did a second RewardsBoost transaction with that for $500 in dog food, you would actually make about $6 over doing the whole thing normally with one transaction.

 

So there are more expensive purchases that would gain some money over just using the Barclays card once through RewardsBoost, but you would have to figure it out and the extra dollars gained would be minimal.  It is tedious and not something that most people would change their purchase schedules and pursue multiple transactions while managing gift card balances to achieve.  For me, the effort is not worth the few dollars gained.

EX:694 TU:744 EQ:777
Amex ED $19.5k - BoA Travel Rewards $15k - CSP $5k - SDFCU EMV $15k - NFCU goRewards $20k - Barclays Arrival $6.5k
Message 9 of 10
IWOL
Established Contributor

Re: Maximizing reward points on Arrival Card

Yes, I noticed the 3.95 fee per card plus you can only choose 2nd day air shipping which is 8.99 but you would still come out ahead, just not sure if its worth all the trouble.

 

Im not sure if purchasing say $3500 in Amex gift cards at one time could cause any problems with the card or if Barclays woudl have nay grounds not to award the bonus miles.

 

Ive looked at this for paying my property tax as well. My county takes AMEX and they charge a fee of 2.1% so I could purchase $10,200 worth of AMEX gift cards. That would amount to 40,800 points worth around $450 and it would cost me $215 in fees...so I would net around $235.

 

 

 

 


Message 10 of 10
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