Making/Leveraging $10K Amex Biz Spend
 

I am considering trying to take advantage of the Amex Biz card offer that just appeared, which requires spending $10,000 in 4 months.

Given the other cards I have recently applied for, I'm not in a position to meet that kind of spend requirement just now.

Is there any opportunity to use the card to buy gift cards or prepaid cards, for which I might get an additional bonus at certain stores that qualify for the Amex Biz card? It would be quite joyful if I could, for example, buy a generic gift/prepaid card at an office supply store for $10,000 (or 10 $1,000 cards) and get double points, then sit on those cards for a few months and use them once I've met the spending requirements on my other pending cards.

I am assuming that when you say, "I'm not in a position to meet that kind of spend requirement just now", you actually mean that you don't have any need to buy $10K worth of stuff; not that you are financially constrained (otherwise buying and sitting on $10K worth of gift cards wouldn't make sense).

If you pay US taxes, you can use your AMEX card to make estimated payments. The service charge is around 2.3%, give or take. If you overpay then you can get a refund when you file.

I have paid estimated with my Visa and gotten miles. Haven't tried AMEX so I can't say whether they treat this as a purchase or cash advance. Others probably have some experience with this and maybe they'll chime in.

Yes, I just don't need $10K of stuff in the next few months. I actually kind of do, but a lot of it will be overseas.

One option is to just trust that there will be another 75K bonus later in the year. They have had them about every 2-3 months, and being on FT every day, there is little chance I could miss it.

I was at the grocery store today and saw gift cards for up to $500 for a $5.95 fee. So that would cost 1.2% to move spending around, compared to double that to create new spending by doing the tax thing. About a wash.

Right now I'm thinking I'll just wait. But the promo lasts for another week.

I just discovered that Costco sells 10% off prepaid cards for AA. If you plan to fly $11K worth on AA in the foreseeable future, you could buy a bunch of those cards and save over $1k in the process.

... and given Costco's return policy,
you could likely return some of them later in the year if not needed.

It was not any part of a "strategy",
but I bought a few Hyatt gift certs at Costco some time ago,
and when I realized I would not use them effectively, returned them.

But it was only maybe $100, not $10K. :D
One famous FTer was banned for doing this with diamonds ! :eek: