Originally Posted by
Majuki
Many on here optimize spend for bonus categories, including buying gift cards at one merchant where there is a bonus to use at a merchants where there wouldn't be a bonus. The risks with doing this are twofold. First, the terms and conditions with most cards state that gift cards are ineligible for earning reward points. Second, the large dollar amount is behavior consistent with those who are reselling gift cards, so your large purchases could be misconstrued. The occasional gift card from an office supply store on a card with office supply stores as a category bonus may blend into the mix, but if that represents the bulk of purchases on the card I would say that will likely put your account under manual review.
Interesting.
Does it really say that you cannot earn 5x bonus on gc? Where does it say that?
I know is says that on portal and indeed you will rarely get the portal to mistakenly award you their points on top of the 5x but I didn't know they said you can't do it for regular gc purchase. Can you refer me where they say that? I feel that is something they can easily block if they indeed don't want you to do it...
On your 2nd point of large spend triggering manual review, I intend on trying to not be too griddy. So online home depot orders for store pick up, which represent about 30% of expenses, I will use portal+freedom to go to 3.5. I will also try to minimize gc purchasing where I am not far off form the 5x... travel I will use CSR instead of GC (uber gc, airbnb gc, delta gc, and so on). But if they do review and contact me about my spending I will tell them the truth. I have learned that I can do this and earn more miles so I will like to work harder by buying gc vs pay with cc to earn those mile. If they say that is a no-no I will go from there.