Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
Earlier this morning I published a Quick Deal stating that TopCashBack was offering 2.25% cash back for Amex Business Gift Cards. Then, I received a Tweet from Matt from Saverocity telling me to “check the terms!”. He was referring to this new restriction:
Please note: Business Gift Cards or Consumer Gift Cards over $200.00 are not eligible for cash back. (Only Gift Cards with $25, $50, $100, $200 denominations are eligible for cash back.
And, to be clear that this wasn’t a mistake, when I clicked through from TopCashBack to Amex Gift Cards, I was presented with this message:
Just so you know…
Important Message: Business Gift Cards or Consumer Gift Cards over $200.00 are not eligible for cash back. (Only Gift Cards with $25, $50, $100, $200 denominations are eligible for cash back.)
Please Note: By clicking the continue button you acknowledge this important change, and understand that we are unable to accept claims for any cash back that does not track for Gift Cards purchased in denominations higher than $200.
Don’t buy
Amex gift cards have a $3.95 fee, each. With $200 denominations, that’s nearly a 2% fee. If you pay for shipping as well, then you’ll be losing money by buying these gift cards. My recommendation, as long as this new restriction is in place: DON’T BUY.
Information not yet known
- Is this $200 restriction limited to today’s increased rates?
- Will other portals add this restriction?
To be continued…
Never Miss a Quick Deal, Subscribe here.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
[…] you’re pretty much losing all your portal cash back. Frequent Miler already has some analysis on it, and I agree that this makes it a […]
[…] But, maybe, not. Reader, ed, reminded me that Amex often removes their gift cards from portals around this time every…: […]
On Simply Best Coupons the terms and conditions have now changed to meet TCB. I bought a month’s worth of cards from Simply Best Coupons yesterday and they are still tracking on the pending page at 1.5%.
[…] of 2.25% cashback on Amex gift cards. This time though something is different. (Hat tip to Frequent Miler and reader Jim for letting me know.) Unlike with previous promotions where cards up to $2,000 in […]
Another deal dead. I guess topically have to find something else tho blog about. Good thing you discovered Plastiq.
american express GC are now missing at be frugal and simply best coupons
Time to load up on other portals to hold me over for a while….
I’m assuming if you order now before other portals change their terms, you’ll still get the 1.5% cash back?
We’ll see. I just ordered a couple cards and took a screenshot of the confirmation, terms, at date & time on my computer if I get any pushback.
I already have the 1.5% cashback showing up as “pending”. I’m in for $14k
I wouldn’t rely on the terms at other portals. Portals won’t pay out unless AMEX pays them. If AMEX really did send out new terms to all the portals you can probably stick a fork in this until December. Time to start killing off the next best MS opportunity. 🙁
Where’s the “oh well they’ll be another deal” crowd at? Too bad the people publicizing these deals do care if they live or die only that you click their links to get paid. MS lives, MS dies. Bloggers get paid for clicking their links. Sad part is that so many think this is helping them not hurting them
UPDATE: I’ve now heard directly from TopCashBack. Apparently Amex sent out the new terms to all portals early this morning. TCB is simply the first to publish the changed terms. I expect that we’ll see the new terms appear on the other portals later today or tomorrow.
.
As ed wrote, above, Amex messes around with this stuff every year around this time. And then they setup new rules about a month later. Sometimes the new rules are good, sometimes bad. So, there’s a good chance that things will restore to some new “normal” in a month or two.
Guess it’s almost time to take my annual month off from AGC orders. See you all around October 1st.
Gonna be longer than a month more like “see you all when you find a new gig”
Unless I am missing something, it looks like Simply Best Coupons still has the same terms and conditions and doesn’t mention anything about limits of $200 denoms.
“No cash back Business Original Gold – $3K and Consumer Original Gold – $3K cards” That’s still the only restriction. It’s not 2.25% like TCB but it’s still worth it.
@Mahesh – It could make some methods more difficult by requiring split transactions – I normally liquidate a $2K card in one swipe. I doubt my vendor has any interest in doing (much less paying for) ten $200 swipes.
Thanks Jem! I almost have no such place where I can liquidate huge amount debit card. I’m still sitting on $200 in amex giftcard and I have never done the amex giftcard purchase again 🙂
I havent seen this posted on any blog so far, Amex might have closed this door for most now, but they have opened loading “serve” account with any credit card again. Last month I tried loading from Visa and it worked just fine. @Greg The Frequent Miler did you know this?
I knew that Visa/MC cards continued to work on Serve with Softcard, but I haven’t heard that it works with regular old Serve. Which do you have?
This is normally the season when Amex places limits or even removes all cb from these portal orders. Last year there was no cb from any portal for any denoms for about 2 months which last year began weeks earlier than now. I’ve deemed this dreaded season as AGC Dead Zone when the trade winds die dramatically. Slow ms sailing for a bit, but hopefully will return to better seas by October or sooner. This is a phenomenon much more dreaded by me than El Nino.
Just check my purchase history. Last purchase active purchasing until August 28th. Then dead zone. Next purchase was October 27th.
except this is removing from cashback sites its lowering the threshold to $200
We confirmed it is across all shopping portals. Restrictions set by Amex 🙁
Can I ask how you confirmed this? I messaged with SBC and they said they were not aware of any change in terms planned before their 8/25 promotion.
Most Cashback sites are small operations. They dont get around to instantaneously updating T&Cs. Here is the rule. They dont get paid, you dont get paid. And they aint getting paid anymore on above 200 gcs. But dont worry all another deal will come along. Continue you whistling past the MS graveyard.
Glad I saw this. I was just about to purchase. Thanks for the quick warning.
Can someonw tell me why limiting it to 200 creates new problem with liquidating these cards?
It isn’t liquidating a $200 card that’s the problem. It’s that the cash back doesn’t cover all the fees to purchase the card, let alone the fees for Visa GCs to liquidate them.
Yes! I dont know why I dint think of that 🙂 Thanks for letting me know!
I havent seen this posted on any blog so far, Amex might have closed this door for most now, but they have opened loading “serve” account with any credit card again. Last month I tried loading from Visa and it worked just fine. @Greg The Frequent Miler did you know this?
do u even MS?
Shame on me… I jumped on this right away and didn’t read the terms. Lesson learned.
Just call and cancel.
I will. I called right away this morning and was told “since my purchase was already approved” I had to wait 2 days and call back again. At that point they can cancel and do a refund for the amount charged.