TampaDude

Yeah, they figured you were a high risk to hammer the card and then dump it before the $95 AF hits. I know I am. 😎

Yup...the doors are closing left and right. Just this afternoon, I hit the remaining Walmart in my town that still let me buy Green Dots at $500 a pop with a CC. Ran the card as usual and it auto-cancelled the transaction. The register printed a small receipt that basically stated I had to use cash or debit. CCs were okay there a week ago, but no longer. They must have updated their software. Guess I'll have to start widening my hunt in order to feed my freebie machine.

Well screw that, then...I'm calling Amex right now and cancelling my Plat! j/k 😂

Heh, yeah...I've had that happen before. I got some Green Dots and of course I checked them in the parking lot just to make sure they loaded properly and weren't drained, and the first one came back with "Invalid Card Number". I about flipped out. It was a Saturday, so I figured it might just take a while before the card was added to their system. About 20 minutes later, all was well. Guess you gotta give them some time to be visible online, especially on weekends and holidays when the computers are extra busy. Another thing I've noticed is that not all Walmarts are the same. One will let you buy Green Dots at $500 a pop with no problems, but another store just a few miles away will not. I know it has to be some ad hoc policy at certain stores, because when they do let me use a CC, it gets approved no problem. I even had one manager try to tell me that "their system" won't accept CCs for VGC purchases, and then I just said, "Oh, really? Go ahead and run it." BOOM! APPROVED! Have a nice day! BTW, don't get too greedy. I had one of my CCs shut down hard for buying too many VGCs. I logged in to my account one day, and it was closed, with no warning at all. Was a solid 5-figure CL with a perfect payment history, too. That pissed me off, but that's okay, I have plenty of others to keep me warm. 😎

Looks like a decent card. Pros: $300 SUB 3% on gas, dining, tolls, Netflix, etc., etc. Cellphone protection and other perks Cons: It's Amex, not Visa or MC Unfortunately, I burned WF in the past, so I'm probably BL. Anyone have data points on WF's BL?

DW got back in after only 8 years. She burned them for about $7K, too. There is always hope.

Amex is subprime?

No, thanks.

Thanks! I'll let you guys know what happens.

Do you have any other Amex charge cards? Based on recent observation, if you downgrade to a green card, within a few months you will receive an offer to upgrade it to Platinum for 60k MRs for $5k spend. I just bought two $100 AA gift cards to use the $200 airline benefit on the Plat. Will they reverse any reimbursement if I downgrade? Should I wait at least one billing cycle or what?

Deciding whether to keep the Platinum...hmmmm...

An oxyacetylene torch would do the trick.

I have a feeling that it's getting more difficult to do the Visa Gift Card ==> MO ==> Deposit thing, not just because of M$, but also because it's a way to get around the cash advance APR and limits on a CC. Let's say you have a CC with a $10K purchase limit but only a $2K cash advance limit, and the purchase APR is low (0% for 12 months promo or something), and the cash advance APR is 20+%. Let's say you needed $5K in cash. The M$ method (VGC ==> MO ==> Deposit) would allow you to extract $5K in cash from your CC instead of only $2K, and at 0% for 12 months instead of 20+% plus cash advance fees. Thoughts???

4% on dining. Might be worth a look for us because we eat out a lot.

So...their advice includes making all your payments on time and keeping utilization low...wow, serious newsflash...