BigCrumbs special 2.25% stacking Credit Card rebate on Amex Gift Cards expires October 19!

[Menta33]

BigCrumbs is running a special on American Express Gift Cards that runs through tomorrow, October 19. The deal is 2.25% rebate (instead of normal 1.75%) with an extra 0.125% going to your referral (hopefully that is my referral). This is a great deal, you can order up to $5,000 in any 14 day period using a regular credit card or up to $10,000 if using an american express card to purchase, or $5K on other than Amex followed by $5K on Amex.

 

For myself, I used my 2% Priceline card to purchase $5,000 in gift cards. Shipping is $8.95 and card fees of $3.95 each for a $3,000 and $2,000 card ($3,000 is the maximum denomination offered) makes total costs of $16.85. The Big Crumbs rebate is $112.50 and the Priceline rebate is $100, giving a net profit thus far of $195.65, or just under 4%! You can do smaller amounts than $5,000, but the rebate goes down due to the fees eating away at it.

 

Be aware that your credit card company may flag your purchase for possible fraud and decline your charge and you will have to speak to them to clear it up before trying to make the purchase a second time successfully, Barclay's Bank did this in my case for my Priceline card. If you are turned down later in the process (Amex is very picky on your address exactly matching your billing address) you will have to wait 14 days to try again because the $5,000 counts towards your quota if rejected after getting credit card approval for the purchase.

 

You receive the gift cards in 2 days via UPS. You then need to call up and register each card with the number on the back of the gift card so you can attach a name and address to the gift cards so you can make online purchases.

 

Once registered, you can drain your cards in one of several ways with various amounts of friction on your gain.

1. Pay your rent at WilliamPaid as I posted here on the forums. This costs 2.95% leaving a net profit of $48.15 or almost 1% plus you just paid your rent with a credit card and can earn 500 miles on Delta SkyMiles (worth about $5). You can also try and convince William Paid to grandfather you at 2.45% and make $73.15 or almost 1.5%.
2. Pay yourself cash with PayPal. This costs 2.9% leaving a net profit of $50.35 or a bit over 1%.
3. Pay yourself cash with GoogleWallet. This costs 2.9% leaving a net profit of $50.35 or a bit over 1%.
4. Pay for everyday purchases instead of your normal rebate card that you used to buy the cards in the first place. This costs the rebate you would get anyway on your normal rebate card, of Priceline 2% in my case, leaving a net profit of $95.65 or almost 2%, giving me a total rebate of 4% on everyday purchases.

If you want to try and stretch things you can get free shipping by doing the free trial Amex Gift card offers of annual fee for free shipping that you can cancel within 3 months saving your shipping of $8.95. You can also try and use coupon codes on Amex for no fee or no shipping, however, be forewarned, BigCrumbs claims you lose your rebate if you do this, however, I have successfully used codes in the past, so YMMV.

 

All in all, this is a bit of work to do the first time and you have to be careful not to make any errors, however, once you've done it, it goes quicker the next time and it an effective way to stack your rebate card with an extra boost of 1% to 2% above your normal rebate. Note, they do take Discover, so those that qualify for the 3% JCB card are talking a 5% rebate!

 

If you appreciate this notice and decide to sign up for Big Crumbs (if you are not already a member) then please use my referral link so I get credit for referring you joining: http://home.bigcrumbs.com/WilliamKF

 

Regardless, find someone to refer if not me, because it costs you nothing and benefits the person you refer.

 

Thanks!

Edited October 18, 2013 by Menta33

[Fuerza]

Can I use Discover I need to rake in this quarters 5% Cashback for online shopping. Lol

[Menta33]

Can I use Discover I need to rake in this quarters 5% Cashback for online shopping. Lol

 

Yes, Discover is accepted.

[miakayuuki]

I tried to signup a couple of times using your link and all I ever get is.

 

Internal Error T201. Please re-submit your application. If the problem persists, please use the Help link to contact Member Services.

 

Any clues what is up?

[miakayuuki]

Problem solved, apparently you need to have Adobe Flash installed and ensure you are not blocking Flash Objects on this site or the new account page will fail.

[miakayuuki]

One question, would purchasing a $3000 Amex Gift Card using my Amex Platinum meet my $3000 spend requirements for my new account bonus on my Amex Card?

[CTSoxFan]

One question, would purchasing a $3000 Amex Gift Card using my Amex Platinum meet my $3000 spend requirements for my new account bonus on my Amex Card?

 

It should. It isn't like a BT or cash advance, they don't know you are not buying it as a gift...

Edited October 19, 2013 by CTSoxFan

[cv91915]

 

One question, would purchasing a $3000 Amex Gift Card using my Amex Platinum meet my $3000 spend requirements for my new account bonus on my Amex Card?

 

It should. It isn't like a BT or cash advance, they don't know you are not buying it as a gift...

 

 

I had the same impulse since I have 8k in spending to do on my new Amex SPG and Amex Hilton Surpass cards, but one of my go-to points blogs suggests otherwise. I mean, if you use your Amex to buy Amex gift cards do you think Amex won't know what you bought?

 

http://thepointsguy.com/2013/05/no-fees-on-amex-gift-cards-for-graduation-and-fathers-day/

 

Excerpt for the lazy:

 

I have ordered these gift cards with Amex charge cards in the past and I’ve never had an issue with it being questioned or being coded as a cash advance, though some credit card companies like Citi, will charge them as cash advances, so be sure to do a test order before getting carried away. On my Amex statements these purchases show up as “Business Services – Other Services.” I’ve earned Amex points when buying them, but several TPG readers have reported that Amex won’t count these purchases towards meeting spend requirements- if anyone can comment about their experiences doing so, that would be great.

[Menta33]

For what it is worth, you can see the benefit I got over here in my Priceline CLI.

 

And I'll add Barclay's does not code them as cash advances, but as normal purchases.

Edited October 23, 2013 by Menta33

[BobWang]

What was your major again?

[Menta33]

What was your major again?

EE&CS

[Menta33]

I noticed that BigCrumbs is still running a special, now it is at 2% (instead of 2.25%), still a good deal though.

[chugs102]

Menta,

 

You do any of the other manufactured spending techniques? I'm trying to learn more about it so I can generate spending and earn some miles.

[CTSoxFan]

Menta,

 

You do any of the other manufactured spending techniques? I'm trying to learn more about it so I can generate spending and earn some miles.

 

Here is an easy and free one I use...requires a second person, although I just use my spouse for it. Amazon payments will allow you to transfer up to $1,000 a month with no fees to someone via a CC. So what I do is just send the money from me to my wife, and then just deposit it into our checking account. It isn't much, but is useful for meeting minimum spend requirements or for being able to turn Visa GCs (like the ones I get for Penfed rewards) into cash.

[Menta33]

Amex is now coding Gift Card purchases as Cash Advances!!!

 

After doing many Gift Card purchases in the past, I picked up on the big crumbs 2.25% reinstatement special and purchased $5K a few days ago. Today, my Barclay's 2% rebate card showed a 5% cash advance fee! I called Barclay's and they said the purchase was coded as a cash advance by American Express. They instructed me to call Amex at (866) 268-0582 and ask them to recode the purchase as a purchase instead of a cash advance to be consistent with how they have coded it in the past. Barclay's also stated that if Amex would not cooperate to call them back and they would assist further. I'm on the phone with Amex now and have escalated to a supervisor as the first line CSR was not helpful.

[Menta33]

Here is an easy and free one I use...requires a second person, although I just use my spouse for it. Amazon payments will allow you to transfer up to $1,000 a month with no fees to someone via a CC. So what I do is just send the money from me to my wife, and then just deposit it into our checking account. It isn't much, but is useful for meeting minimum spend requirements or for being able to turn Visa GCs (like the ones I get for Penfed rewards) into cash.

+++++1

 

Thanks!

[Menta33]

As posted elsewhere also, Barclays Bank (Priceline card) began treating Amex Gift Card purchases as cash advances in October 2013, however, not all card issuers are doing this. For example, NFCU still treats them as purchases. Check with your card issuer before diving in!

 

At the moment, Big Crumbs is running a special, (please use my referral link,) no purchase fees if you use the code FPVALAF and the rebate is presently 2.1% (referral gets 0.35%), stacking this with my NFCU 1.5% gives me a total 3.6%!

 

Plus, as discussed, you can unwind these for rent payments (William Paid) or amazon payment network payments (to spouse free below $1,000/month), trading back some of the rebate in fees, but not stepping on your normal rebates, giving you added rebate to your normal reachable rebates.

[Menta33]

Actually that's now $500/month for free at Amazon.

[CTSoxFan]

Actually that's now $500/month for free at Amazon.

 

Just checked my account, I am still at $1000...hopefully it stays that way.

[Menta33]

 

Actually that's now $500/month for free at Amazon.

 

Just checked my account, I am still at $1000...hopefully it stays that way.

 

 

I was just going my what their website said, have not tried to exceed $500. Do you know if you are warned on sending if there will be a fee?

[CTSoxFan]

As far as I can tell, you can only send $1000 via CC. Anything above has to come from bank account. If you look under edit your account info you can see your limits.

[Fuerza]

I hate how these cards are liquidated! It's more hassle than it seems worth.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Menta33]

As far as I can tell, you can only send $1000 via CC. Anything above has to come from bank account. If you look under edit your account info you can see your limits.

 

Ahh, I guess I am at $1,000 too!

[Menta33]

BigCrumbs has a special right now at 3.5% rebate for Amex Gift cards, a great deal if you can use them, just be sure your card's bank will not treat as cash advance (as Barclays Bank did for me), I've used NFCU rebate card successfully recently for purchasing these.

[cv91915]

BigCrumbs has a special right now at 3.5% rebate for Amex Gift cards, a great deal if you can use them, just be sure your card's bank will not treat as cash advance (as Barclays Bank did for me), I've used NFCU rebate card successfully recently for purchasing these.

I got the email from BC earlier today. These Amex gift cards seem like a huge pain to liquidate... Although I think you can add the funds from an Amex gift card to an Amex by Target, and then withdraw at an ATM. but the fees along the way...