Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is happening now! Follow us as Greg, Nick, and Stephen compete to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines before November 23rd. Who will complete the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
TopCashBack now offers cash back for American Express Gift Cards.
One convenient way to meet credit card spend requirements quickly is to buy gift cards. American Express gift cards, in particular, are convenient because they can be purchased online through cash back portals, so that you actually profit a bit when making the purchase. You can then use those gift cards at any place that takes Amex for payment.
TopCashBack currently offers 1.5% cash back for American Express gift cards, which slightly beats BigCrumbs, which currently offers 1.4% cash back. Some people do better with BigCrumbs by setting up accounts for their relatives and referring themselves. Each referrer gets .2% cash back, and the referrer of the referrer also gets .2% cash back. So, it’s possible to get as much as 1.8% cash back from BigCrumbs, but this clearly violates their terms & conditions. Personally, I wouldn’t do this, as it crosses my ethical line.
There are two versions of the American Express gift card shop. One is intended for personal use and one for business. Only the personal one is available through TopCashBack, but both are available through BigCrumbs. (Edit: both personal and business cards are available through both portals). The personal site limits orders to $5000 per month whereas the business site limits orders to $75000 per month.
On Friday, last week, I tested out TopCashBack by going through their portal to buy a $3000 Amex gift card. Two days later, 1.5% cash back showed up in my TopCashBack account as pending:
It is not unusual (with any cash back portal) for it to take a few months before the cash back becomes payable. It will be interesting to see how long this one takes.
If you’re interested in saving money buying gift cards via TopCashBack, here’s how…
1. Log into TopCashBack
Search for American Express Prepaid and Gift Cards. Click “Get Cashback Now”.
![image_thumb[13]](https://frequentmiler.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/image_thumb13.png)
2. Buy gift cards
In order to minimize fees, I recommend buying fewer, larger gift cards. The limit, per card, is $3000. Also, coupons are usually available to reduce gift card shipping fees. For example, you can reduce shipping charges by $5.95 by using the promo code AFLQ12013.
If you buy more than one gift card, you might do better to use a code that removes each card’s $3.95 fee. Try code EMSVCA.
Pay with the best rewards credit card available, but do not pay with a Citibank card as Citi treats these purchases as cash advances. If you’re unsure about whether your credit card company will treat these as regular purchases, call to set your cash advance limit to zero before purchasing gift cards.
3. Calculate Savings
Let’s show an example: If you go through TopCashBack and buy a $3000 gift card using the shipping promo code shown above, you will pay a total of $3006.95. Then, you should get $45 back from TopCashBack. Your profit, then, would be $45 – $6.95 = $38.05. As a percentage, the cash back gives you a savings of 1.27%.
About Prepaid Cards
American Express offers free prepaid reloadable cards through their site. Since, TopCashBack advertises $10 back for prepaid cards, I went through the portal and ordered a prepaid card to see if I would get $10 for free. So far, this “purchase” hasn’t shown up in my TopCashBack account, but I’ll let you know if or when it does.
Related posts and links
- TopCashBack referral link
- Big News at BigCrumbs
- BigCrumbs referral link
- Pay Federal Taxes via Credit Card for Free
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
sccatalyst: I plan to test it to see if cash back is given for bigger purchases despite the stated limit.
May need to update this. Topcashback now has a limit on gift cards of $500.
Hi,
Any luck with the discount code recently? I keep getting “We’re sorry, but the Promotion code you entered is not valid or has expired. Please check to make sure that you entered the correct Code.” even though it’s supposed to be good thru April.
Nikki: I haven’t tried in a while. Anyone else?
Picmeup: I don’t know how long it takes for the points to show up. I thought they would show up immediately after the statement closed, but that didn’t happen for me. We’ll have to wait and see.
@FM
I have made some purchases (not AMEX GCs) and first statement has been generated. But my MR points earned shows zero. That’s why I was wondering if you start earning MR points after initial 3K purchase. Good to hear that by that time I would have 103K points. Do the MR points post after payment is made? or is there a usual delay?
Picmeup: You should get points both for the first $3K in purchases and the 100K bonus. That’s the way it normally works anyway.
My wife’s 100K points showed up today, so the $3K spend on gift cards did count!
TMicro: I’d recommend sending Amex a private message asking for the points since you’ve satisfied the spend.
@Picmeup
There have been some reports on FlyerTalk about people that have bought Amex GC’s and it has counted towards the minimum spend. No luck for me though.
@FM, @TMicro, others
I suspect that you won’t get any points on these purchases for first 3000 in purchases (since you get 100K points for that). You’ll start getting points on purchases after that.
Have you tried calling AMEX to check about bonus requirements completion?
FM, any update on whether the $3000 Amex GC counted towards minimum spend with the Platinum? Thanks. -TMicro
TMicro: It’s looking less and less likely. Still no points in my wife’s account.
LW: No, so far, I haven’t seen any points for that purchase so I’m beginning to worry that Amex won’t count the gift card purchase. I hope I’m wrong!
FM,
Did you get 100k from buying Amex gift card from Amex using Platinum?? I still don’t see anything in my account. Just checking.
Thanks.
LW
B-Rad: Thanks for the correction!
FM:
Above, your comment says “Johnnycomeslate: Yes, you get $20 off $100 at OfficeMax by buying 2 $50 OfficeMax gift cards (through Saturday Jan 19)”
The $20 off is from buying 2 $50 MASTERCARDS, not OfficeMax gift cards.
Everyone else:
I can confirm that the office max mastercard promo is alive and well. I went last night, picked up 2 $50 gift cards and the total was $89.90 (used ink bold for the extra points). Under the t&c on the actual ad, it says one per household, but after I bought the first two, I immediately went back to the rack to pickup 2 more and the total came to @89.90 again. So, I picked up $200 worth of mastercards for under $180, plus another ~$20 in UR points, depending on how your value them. All in all, a great day and worth the trip. As a side not, the racks were well stocked with $50 mastercard gift card, but I imagine this will change tomorrow with FM’s post. Get out this evening!
[…] More cash back for Amex gift cards […]
I have one 1000-dollar American Express gift card. Is it okay to use them to buy Vanilla Reload cards?
If so, can I pay separately for the fees so that I can buy two 500 Vanilla Reload dollar cards in one American Express gift card?
Thank you.
Jon Chan: Yes, you can pay the fees separately or you can ask for $496.05 to be loaded onto each card, then the total will come to exactly $1000