Originally Posted by
bklgafly
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.
Chase doesn't specifically exclude gift cards like some other issuers, but they have broad discretion in the sense that if they think you are gaming them they have the ability to close your accounts.
If you are using the portal plus Freedom Unlimited, that is as intended and won't present any concerns. My point was assuming you were going into an office supply store, buying gift cards that could be used at Home Depot for the 5x on the Ink and then using those gift cards for yourself (not reselling them). If you are doing this, you might not receive that courtesy call from the issuer. They will simply shut down the account since your behavior matches people who are engaged in true MS.