Meeting Amex BGR Spend
 

Hi all!

I'm trying to meet 5k spend for the Amex BGR card. Under the offer terms, it states:

Eligible purchases are purchases of goods and services minus returns and other credits, and do not include fees or interest charges, cash advances, purchases of traveler’s checks, purchase or reloading of reloadable pre-paid cards, or purchases of other cash equivalents.

Does "purchases of other cash equivalents" include gift cards? Now that GCM is back for TCB, I'd like to purchase a couple of Visa GCs but obviously will refrain from doing so if Amex views this purchase as against their offer terms and doesn't credit me for the spend.

I'm probably overthinking this but would appreciate input.

Thank you!

I bought a lot of Amex GC's on Bigcrumbs and it was counted toward my min spend for this card.

I've always wondered this as well. American Express encourages the use of their credit cards to purchase American Express gift cards, so I've always thought that gift cards were not considered cash equivalents.

Most of the gift cards I buy don't have the same taste, texture, color or feel as cash. Certainly not equivalent.

What they say and what actually happens are two different things.

And what happens may include an invitation to dinner with Cardinal Fang. And he loved to serve stake for dinner.:p

Watch the volume or wait for the FR.

Those two lines have been included in Amex apps for a while now, but I can't remember reading about a single incident where someone reported not getting their points.

Coincidentally, someone else has the same question as you.
Does Amex consider gift cards to be cash equivalents?

People even have been flat out asked if they've been purchasing VR, but Amex hasn't clawed back anything.

Now what you really have to be careful about is what the ever wonderful AlohaDaveKenedy warned you about.
Watch the volume or you'll get a FR.