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Buying American Express gift cards online is the first step in one of the most lucrative ways to manufacture spend. The goal of manufacturing spend is to run up credit card charges (in order to meet min spend requirements, get points, achieve big spend bonuses, etc.) and to get your money back (or most of it, anyway).
When buying Amex gift cards online, it is possible to get cash back by going through a cash back portal. Once you have the Amex gift cards, you can get your money back by using them to buy and cash out debit gift cards (see “Gift card PINs“), or to load and unload Target Amex cards (see “Using the Target Amex card to run up spend“), or to buy free after rebate items.
Choose a portal
BigCrumbs has offered cash back for Amex gift cards for years and has been very reliable. Currently, they offer 1.4% cash back. TopCashBack offers a slightly higher rate of 1.5% cash back, but many readers have reported having problems with their customer service. Personally, TopCashBack has worked well for me, but since the difference in payout is so small, it makes sense to go with the portal you feel more comfortable with.
Regarding TopCashBack, I reported in February that my January Amex gift card purchases had reached “Confirmed” status. I now have a quick update: my January purchases are now “Payable”, which means that I can request payment through an ACH transfer to my bank or via PayPal. My cash back became payable almost exactly 3 months from the original purchase date. This is a typical delay for cash back portals in general.
Use coupon codes
Many readers have reported success in getting cash back even if they used coupon codes to reduce gift card fees. The HustlerMoneyBlog reports that the following codes are available:
No Fee Gift Card Waiver Codes:
- ADMINDAYVM– valid through 5/31/13
- ADMINGIFT6– valid through 5/31/13
- EMTHANK1– valid through 4/30/13
- EMTHANK2– valid through 4/30/13
Each of the above codes should eliminate the $3.95 purchase fee that is usually charged with each card ordered.
Free Shipping Waiver Codes:
- ADMIN2013 – valid through 5/1/2013
This code should reduce your shipping charges by $5.95.
Usually Amex will let you use either a fee waiver code or a free shipping code, but not both. Also, sometimes Amex does not allow certain codes to be used with cash back portals. Please report your experience in the comments below.
Update: Cash Advance Fees
If your credit card company treats gift card purchases as cash advances, then don’t do this! The only bank I’m sure of that does this is Citibank. With Chase and Amex you should be fine. I don’t have personal experience with other banks, though. If you’re unsure, you can protect yourself by calling your bank and asking them to reduce or eliminate your cash advance limit.
Related Posts and Links
- FatWallet sets a high bar for cash back portals
- Amex Gift Cards, this and that
- Using the Target Amex card to run up spend
- TopCashBack sign-up referral link (I’ll receive a very small one-time commission if you signup with this link)
- BigCrumbs sign-up referral link (I’ll receive a very small commission each time you receive cash back if you signup with this link)
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Zac, I’ve never known Amex gift cards to have PINs. Here’s a post that might help: https://frequentmiler.com/2013/10/16/how-to-spend-down-amex-gift-cards/
I just bought 4 $500 Amex gift cards and I called to have a pin added and they said they don’t have pins anymore… I was going to load the money to my Amex bluebird card. Is there any other way to get the money off of these Amex’s without a pin?
Thanks!
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[…] Amex gift cards do not have PINs but you can use the Amex cards to buy Visa gift cards with PINs. David says. April 12 2013 at 951 am …boardingarea.com/…/2013/04/…/amex-gift-cards-update… […]
[…] Amex gift cards do not have PINs but you can use the Amex cards to buy Visa gift cards with PINs. David says. April 12 2013 at 951 am …boardingarea.com/…/2013/04/…/amex-gift-cards-update… […]
Those fee waiver codes do work anymore
FM: Thanks, that’s what I thought. I’m not sure it’s worth the 1.5% to me, for the additional risk and effort. Probably worth it, except for buying these gc’s with an AmEx card, which mayyy be an FR trigger.
@Dave, I’ve been having a hell of a time getting AMEX to accept a GC purchase on a Club Carlson card. US Bank blocks the purchase every stinkin’ time I try, then I call and have them stop blocking it and the order goes through but is cancelled within a day because AMEX “can’t verify my information.”
Anyone else have a similar experience?
@FM Thanks!
I tried 992 and the order went through. Cool! I guess I have to buy one GF at a time with my $1000 Amex gift cards then. I wish if I could buy more than one visa gift cards at the same time to save time and shipping charges.
Andy L: you can buy a $992 visa
HOw to buy Visa gift cards from GiftCardMall.com and pay with Amex gift cards???
I registered my Amex gift cards by calling their customer services to provide my name, address, phone number.
I then tried to use it to buy $1000 visa gift card on GiftcardMall.com but it doesn’t work. The Amex giftcard I have is a 1000 only but the visa giftcard cost more than 1000 because of the extras: visa card fee+shipping..Is there any trick that I dont’ know here?? Has anyone tried to do the same thing before? Please share@
Jen: yes, you can buy gift cards for yourself. I don’t think you need to create a separate Amex GC account.
Chris M: The Amex GC step is just a way to defray costs associated with buying and liquidating gift cards. You can certainly buy the Visa gcs directly. Even that is a pretty good deal!
Is there any reason not to just buy the visa gift cards directly, without adding this intermediate AmEx giftcard step?
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