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Several cash back and mile-earning portals offer rebates/miles for shopping for American Express gift cards. The best current cash-back offer is via BigCrumbs, which is now offering 2.1% cash back (and .35% cash back to the person who referred you to BigCrumbs, and .35% to the person who referred that person). They are also offering a code to remove card fees (but you’ll still have to pay for shipping): FPVALAF.
In case you’re interested, here are the current rates from some other portals (the best mile-earning option currently is the Arrival card 2X, which translates to 2.22% towards travel):
- EBates: 2%
- TopCashBack: 2%
- Barclays Arrival Rewards Boost: 2X miles (requires Arrival card)
- Alaska Mileage Plan: 1X
- Delta SkyMiles: 1X
The last time BigCrumbs raised their Amex gift card rates, other portals soon followed. Will we see others go to 3% and 3X soon? I hope so!
Important notes:
- Amex gift cards do not have PINs. They cannot be used to load Bluebird cards.
- Some credit card companies (such as Citibank) charge cash advance fees when purchasing these online. Last I checked, Chase, Amex, and Barclays were safe. I can’t vouch for others.
- Portals often state that using codes not found on their site will invalidate cash back / miles earned. This has not been my experience. I use codes for free gift cards every time.
- Some portals restrict the top card amount to $500. You can easily circumvent this by logging into your Amex account (after clicking through from the portal) and then you’ll see values up to $3000. Yes, you should still get cash back or miles (that has been my experience).
- Cash back can take several months to go from pending to payable.
- Miles often take several weeks or even a month or more to post, but then appear immediately in your mileage account.
See also:How to spend down Amex gift cards Links to sign up for cash back portals (and other things), can be found here.
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does anyone know the expiration date on the 2.1% CB
They’ve actually just upped the cash back to 3.5% (see my most recent Quick Deal). I don’t know how long that will last either.
I thought I posted my comment, but apparently it didn’t work. Do you know what the limit on the gc’s is? I can’t seem to buy more than $5000. Is it weekly, monthly, 30 days?
I’m not sure. See this post: http://boardingarea.com/frequentmiler/2013/04/16/learning-amex-gift-card-rules-the-hard-way/
I did this with TopCashBack in December as well. However, mine IS appearing to work. I currently have $269.52 in the “Confirmed” category.
I actually paid the fee to buy VR with my Amex GC, then loaded to BB. Once I did it, though, I thought it was a good way to get flagged. Won’t do it again. Too risky for me, though I apparently made it through unscathed.
Why do you think this would get flagged?
Thanks for this, I used your link! Can I still use these gift cards at a CVS to buy reloadables or the Visa/Mastercard GC like you suggest in the “spend down Amex gc” article? Thanks in advance.
Yep, that should work. Some cashiers may not like it, though. So test this out before you go really big with it.
This is YMMV. Did not work when I bought these through TopCashBack in December. I used a no-fee coupon.
I’m sorry to hear that. I bought many times in December through TCB and was always paid. Maybe I was just very lucky!