Go Back  FlyerTalk Forums > Miles&Points > Credit, Debit and Prepaid Card Programs > Manufactured Spending
Reload this Page >

Cashback on Amex GC through TopCashBack, BigCrumbs, etc.

Community
Wiki Posts
Search
Old Oct 25, 2013, 7:07 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: ericdabbs
Please read the wiki before posting a question.

UPDATE 01/17/15

BeFrugal: 1.5%
Big Crumbs: 0.9%
TopCashBack: 1.5%


For other cash back or airline portals, check here: http://www.cashbackmonitor.com/Cashb...erican+express

Public Service Announcement: Do NOT use fee-free codes if you want portal cashback / miles. CB/Miles will post and then be clawed back.

FAQ

Will it post as a cash advance (CA)?

Citi - Yes.

Cards from Chase, BoA, FIA, Barclay, AMEX, CapitalOne, US Bank, Discover, HSBC, etc., have posted as purchase. PNC Visa Cashbuilder - posts as purchase but does not earn CC rewards

Note: Some issuers (Discover, US Bank, etc.) will decline the authorization if it exceeds your CA limit. This does NOT mean it will post as CA. It simply means you need to lower the purchase amount below your CA limit for authorization, but it ultimately posts as a purchase.

How do I set PIN on AMEX Gift Cards and use as debit to load Bluebird, buy MOs, etc.
You cannot set PIN or use them as debit to load Bluebird, buy MOs, etc. You can only use them as credit where AMEX is accepted.

How do I cash out AMEX Gift Cards?
Use manufactured spend techniques (load RB, buy Visa/MC GCs, VRs, AP, AFT, etc.) or normal spend where AMEX is accepted.

Why buy AMEX Gift Cards then?
To reduce the cost of manufactured spend, to mask your manufactured spend (i.e unusual high spend at Target or CVS), earn additional cash back on spend, or meet minimum spend targets faster.

Next day shipping that isn't?
The next day shipping is from when they ship the cards to UPS, which can be as long as 10 days from the order submission if you order personalized cards (more recently this has been under a week). For next day shipping, you are notified late night (once your card finishes processing, see above) and the package arrive that same morning before 10:30AM in your area.

What is with the charge disappearing from my credit card?
Once the order is placed you will see a pending charge on your CC account. Quite often once the card ships this pending is removed but does not show as a charge. Don't panic (or celebrate) it will show up as a charge within a day or so.

Personalized GCs?
Either Biz or Personal GCs can be personalized with your name. This helps when shaky cashiers who demand to see your card are prevalent. These take approximately 4 biz days to arrive compared to the non personalized which arrives as quickly as the next day.

UPS Tracking?
If you logged in to your AMEX account when placing the order you can get tracking info by logging in to your AMEX account and clicking on cards > gift cards > order history > order details. Unfortunately tracking information may not appear until well after your order has shipped so it's best to sign up for UPS My Choice to get faster tracking info and reroute your package if needed. Since UPS may drop your package off at the door if you're not home, it will be useful to know when your package will arrive.

The portal terms indicate that coupon codes will invalidate cash back. Is this true?
Yes (as of July 2014)

What are the purchase limits? (Updated Dec 2014)
10K personal every 14 days
100K business every 14 days

Do declined orders count toward the purchase limits?
YMMV

Do fees and shipping count toward the purchase limits?
No

Why was my purchase declined by AMEX?
There are several possibilities:
- Your billing address does not match 100% with what the credit card company has on file. This could be anything from apt/suite/condo # on the wrong line to zip code requiring 9 digits instead of 5. If your first purchase does not go through, call your bank or login to your acct to verify that this matches what you used.
- You have gone over the $10k every 14 day limit on personal gift card purchase.
- Even if you are sure the first two are correct as you have ordered before on that card and it's been more than 14 days, you might still get declined. No one has any idea why.
- You placed a business order and you don't really have a business (at some point AMEX does a background check for a valid business) or you have exceeded the 14 day limit for business orders.

My order was declined but my credit card still shows a pending authorization. How long until this falls off and my credit line is freed up?
I typically takes 1 week for the pending authorization to fall off after a declined order.

Can I order from the business side using a personal card? Or does it need to be a business card?
You can use whatever credit card you want to pay for business or personal orders. About the only restriction is you can't use an AMEX GC to buy another AMEX GC.

How long will it take the portal to track my order and confirm the pending cash back or points?
For non-Cartera portals (TCB, BC, Befrugal, etc) your order will usually track within a day or two.
For Cartera portals (Barclay Reward Boost, Lucky Rewards, USAA, Alaska, Delta) it will take 3-4 weeks to track.

My orders are not tracking. How can I maximize the chances the portal will track my order properly?
Use a browser you do not normally use (Chrome, Firefox, Opera), reset all browser settings to defaults, clear all browser cookies, disable all browser add-ons, and close/re-start your browser before navigating to the portal and placing your order. Do NOT use promotional coupon codes. The vast majority of tracking issues result from use of coupon codes, a bad browser cookie, improperly configured browser settings, or add-ons that interfere with cookie tracking.
Print Wikipost

Cashback on Amex GC through TopCashBack, BigCrumbs, etc.

Thread Tools
 
Search this Thread
 
Old Sep 24, 2014, 2:37 pm
  #8731  
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Programs: Hyatt Globalist No More..., Hyatt Explorist, Hilton Diamond, SPG Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 4,375
Originally Posted by bigugly
Good point, this would be a big plus for any high volume spenders.

I haven't been buying AGC, so I missed the lack of activation fee. Since I can't get AFT, I would be left with using AGC for buying other GCs and for normal spend, and unless I need reach an intro spending bonus quickly, or unless there is a huge portal bonus, it will not make sense for me since currently I have a vast supply of easy 5x without fooling with AGC.
Not really. Unless you have business EIN, you are stuck to the $5k - 14 day limit. The high spenders are doing that and more PER DAY. But as others have said, still good to mask constant GC purchases.
cdancer20 is offline  
Old Sep 24, 2014, 7:21 pm
  #8732  
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: IND
Programs: Hilton Dia, Hyatt Glbl, Marriott Lftm Plat, National EE
Posts: 316
Originally Posted by ZzzzX
Buy a large AGC, use it for spending. The charge on your CC account appears once instead of oh, I dunno, 10 back-to-back charges of $50x.95 at cvs.
Why does everyone keep talking about $50x.xx charges at cvs? Am I the only person that knows you can buy more than one at a time?

I am truly curious if there is some unknown reason to buy them 1 per transaction...

Gloob
gloobnib is offline  
Old Sep 24, 2014, 9:09 pm
  #8733  
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: SFO
Programs: OZ *G; HH Diamond;
Posts: 1,644
Originally Posted by gloobnib
Originally Posted by ZzzzX
Buy a large AGC, use it for spending. The charge on your CC account appears once instead of oh, I dunno, 10 back-to-back charges of $50x.95 at cvs.
Why does everyone keep talking about $50x.xx charges at cvs? Am I the only person that knows you can buy more than one at a time?

I am truly curious if there is some unknown reason to buy them 1 per transaction...

Gloob
Buying one at a time does not trigger ID scan, which enables you to buy more than $5K per day.
geclub1 is offline  
Old Sep 25, 2014, 5:12 am
  #8734  
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: IND
Programs: Hilton Dia, Hyatt Glbl, Marriott Lftm Plat, National EE
Posts: 316
Originally Posted by geclub1
Buying one at a time does not trigger ID scan, which enables you to buy more than $5K per day.
TYVM. I now see how that could be useful to some, but for me the bottleneck is on the liquidation side, not the acquisition side.
gloobnib is offline  
Old Sep 25, 2014, 7:47 am
  #8735  
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 226
Originally Posted by gloobnib
TYVM. I now see how that could be useful to some, but for me the bottleneck is on the liquidation side, not the acquisition side.
Those problems are easier overcome
dboston1 is offline  
Old Sep 25, 2014, 7:55 am
  #8736  
Suspended
 
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 2,998
Originally Posted by dboston1
Those problems are easier overcome
If only this were actually true
Stoughton is offline  
Old Sep 25, 2014, 8:52 am
  #8737  
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 226
Originally Posted by Stoughton
If only this were actually true
Don't get me wrong, I'm maxing out my liquidation channels, but I'm finding it harder and harder to get GCs/reloads at places with a category bonus in my area.
dboston1 is offline  
Old Sep 25, 2014, 9:04 am
  #8738  
Suspended
 
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 2,998
Originally Posted by dboston1
Don't get me wrong, I'm maxing out my liquidation channels, but I'm finding it harder and harder to get GCs/reloads at places with a category bonus in my area.
Here it's just the opposite - In a few hours time, I could rack up $20k in cat bonus cards easily, if not more, and do so daily. But getting rid of them could take days.
Stoughton is offline  
Old Sep 25, 2014, 9:40 am
  #8739  
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 202
Originally Posted by gloobnib
Why does everyone keep talking about $50x.xx charges at cvs? Am I the only person that knows you can buy more than one at a time?

I am truly curious if there is some unknown reason to buy them 1 per transaction...

Gloob
At all of the WMs in my area the VGC must be purchased one at a time. There are no CVS in my area.
fluffyCat is offline  
Old Sep 25, 2014, 7:14 pm
  #8740  
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 252
We should boycott AGCs until they come back with the portals. No reason to buy these until then in my opinion. Let's put some pressure on them
andres17 is offline  
Old Sep 25, 2014, 7:22 pm
  #8741  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Upper Sternistan
Posts: 10,047
Originally Posted by andres17
We should boycott AGCs until they come back with the portals. No reason to buy these until then in my opinion. Let's put some pressure on them
If you aren't willing to lose money on us, we won't buy your product!

Should work.
josephstern is offline  
Old Sep 25, 2014, 8:28 pm
  #8742  
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 866
Originally Posted by andres17
We should boycott AGCs until they come back with the portals. No reason to buy these until then in my opinion. Let's put some pressure on them
Are you still buying them with no portal bonus? Why??
Father-of-3 is offline  
Old Sep 25, 2014, 8:49 pm
  #8743  
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: DFW
Programs: WN A+, AA, HYATT DIAMOND, SPG
Posts: 1,125
Originally Posted by josephstern
If you aren't willing to lose money on us, we won't buy your product!

Should work.
Truly.

The losses from the MSers had to be staggering.
mile ho is offline  
Old Sep 25, 2014, 10:22 pm
  #8744  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Upper Sternistan
Posts: 10,047
Originally Posted by mile ho
Truly.

The losses from the MSers had to be staggering.
Agreed.

And yet, I sincerely believe they'll be back.

Some companies read these forums and take actions. Amex pretty clearly doesn't. They're just too big.
josephstern is offline  
Old Sep 25, 2014, 10:40 pm
  #8745  
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 314
what do you guys think the members from FT would be doing in agc at the highest levels ? about 10 mil a day ?
su9062 is offline  


Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.