American Express Membership Rewards - Visa Gift Card Puchase Using Amex

Hi all,

If I buy a Visa gift card at my local rite aid, will i count as a normal purchase that earns MR points or cash advance? Want to give a substantial gift to a friend for their recent help and wouldn't mind getting some MR points in the process.

Thanks!

It will be treated as purchase like other purchases at rite aid.
But 100 dollar gift card sells for $105.95, so you are paying 6 dollars in purchase fee. If you have Simon mall close by they sell visa gift card for 2 dollar fee for up to $500 dollar gift card.

You might want to look at Simon mall if one is close by.

btw. The visa gift card purchase at simon mall also treated as purchase.

btw. The visa gift card purchase at simon mall also treated as purchase.


Thanks for the valuable info. Much appreciated!

Gift card amount will be $1,000, so any other "cheaper sources" people can share are welcome.

whats the highest you can get on a Visa gift card? i posted a month or two back trying to figure a way to get MR points for paying my college tuition (they only take visa/MC) if theres a way i can buy a visa GC for $35k......id like to earn those points!

Before you do this, take a look at GiftCertificates.com - they have a jillion gift card possibilities AND are subject to point multipliers at various online bonus point malls - you'll score 3000 Skymiles if you buy the card through Delta's online mall, for example.

Here's a list of which airlines and programs offer multipliers for that site:

http://www.evreward.com/store/go/985

GC.com used to be an Amex BPM partner, meaning you'd have got up to 4,000 MR for your purchase - but unfortunately they were dropped last year sometime.

Their customer service can be a little dodgy - seems like FTer oldpenny had some issues - but I've used them several times with no trouble at all.

(Also, if you can swing buying a gift card for just one store - say, REI or Old Navy - buy it through the vendor's own website, but go through Amex Bonuspointsmall.com first. You'll get 4:1, 3:1, 2:1, depending on what flavor Amex you have.)