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. (2015)

Old Jan 25, 2015, 12:48 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: XP1
Please read the wiki before posting a question.

UPDATE: 08/21/2015

Lucky Rewards: 1% Personal; 2% Business
TopCashBack: 1.5% Personal; 2.25% business (11/10 only)
BeFrugal: 2.25% personal & business
Simply Best Coupons: 1.5% personal & business
Ebates: 1%
USAA 1% Personal; 2% Business

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 or free shipping codes if you want portal cashback / miles. CB/Miles will post and then be clawed back.

As of 1/29 most portals have added new terms that denominations over $2000 are not eligible for cashback.

As of 8/21/15 many portals have added new terms that denominations over $200 are not eligible for cashback. As smart as we all are we have no idea if this will be enforced on PERSONALIZED (Keyword: Personalized) orders. It has been CONFIRMED that they will NOT pay out on non-personalized orders.



FAQ

Will it post as a cash advance (CA)?
Citi AA Visa/Amex posted as purchase (7/2015)
Citi Dividend Amex posted as purchase (01/09/2016)
Citi Double Cash posted as purchase (7/8/2015, 8/11/2015)
Citi Exec posted as purchase
Citi HHonors posted as purchase (2/17/15, 5/4/15)
Citi Prestige posted as purchase (5/20/15)
Citi Thank You Premier posted as purchase (7/2015)

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 (buy Visa/MC GCs, 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 http://www.ups.com/mychoice/ 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.

Do I have to sign for the package?
Rule of thumb, YMMV:
- Non-personalized orders $4k or less will just be left at your door.
- Non-personalized orders $5k or greater must be signed for in person. These cannot be routed to a UPS store or customer center for pickup. UPS will attempt a delivery 3 consecutive business days. If you are not available to sign for the package, it will be returned to Amex.
- Personalized orders of any amount will just be left at your door. These orders can be routed to a UPS store or customer center for pickup.

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 June 2015)
Regular
100K personal every 14 days (Portals still state 10K personal every 14 days, however confirmations by FT'ers suggest this is not enforced).
100K business every 14 days

Personalized/Custom
5K personal per order
75K business per order

Portal Limits
Most CB portals state that they only payout out on cards worth $2,000 or less. In other words, if you buy a $3,000 card you will not get cash back from the portals (per their terms). You may buy multiple $2,000 cards in a single order and be fine. Several people have reported success buying up to $2999 per card, but YMMV.

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. (This limit may no longer apply as of April 2015)
- 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.
- You don't have enough longevity ordering AMEX gift cards. Some have noticed a much higher decline rate the first year (2013) even with all information correct, compared to two years later, 2015, if ordering regularly (several orders monthly). (added 7/5/15)

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.

Can I load Serve/RB/BB with an AGC?
No. AGCs process as credit. They do not function like a VGC w/debit.

Why am I getting 1.5% instead of 2.25%?
Be sure you're clicking through and buying the business version. The consumer one pays 1.5%.

This thread is a continuation of http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manuf...s-etc-648.html
Print Wikipost

Cashback on Amex GC through TopCashBack, BigCrumbs, etc. (2015)

Old Jan 1, 2015, 1:50 am
  #1  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Upper Sternistan
Posts: 9,958
Cashback on Amex GC through TopCashBack, BigCrumbs, etc. (2015)

Orders are getting approved FAST right now. Nice.
josephstern is offline  
Old Jan 1, 2015, 7:22 am
  #2  
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 245
Topcashback dropped down to 1.5% around 9am (tried to slide one more order in but was too late). BF and BC still show 0.
nmp0 is offline  
Old Jan 1, 2015, 7:26 am
  #3  
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Chicago
Programs: United MileagePlus, Hyatt Platinum
Posts: 148
Got my $1,000 AGC right before the deadline this morning so it would count for 2015 spend!
Travel4Points is offline  
Old Jan 1, 2015, 7:40 am
  #4  
 
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 198
Hey guys...I max out on Amex gift cards for myself and my wife. If I subscribe to the "Premium Shipping" option, do I have to have two premium shipping accounts, one for myself and another for my wife or would it work to just have one premium shipping account in which two social security numbers are being used to purchase the cards?
MSerforfun is offline  
Old Jan 1, 2015, 11:15 am
  #5  
 
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 503
Originally Posted by nmp0
Topcashback dropped down to 1.5% around 9am (tried to slide one more order in but was too late). BF and BC still show 0.
Last time AGCs came back after a hiatus, TCB had them exclusively for 24 hours. I'd bet we'll see, at least, BF back tomorrow.
ILGfly is offline  
Old Jan 1, 2015, 11:42 am
  #6  
 
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Fort Myers, FL
Programs: Hilton Gold, SPG & IHG Plat, & every airline program that I can join
Posts: 2,279
Originally Posted by skitch23
Hope you are mixing in some business cards with that $20k.
Per the T&C's on tcb:
Squeaked in another $6K Last night, $6K personal, $20K business

JudyJFLA

I now need a room at Walmart for BB and Serve loads after buying all the remaining $500 gift cards at $4.84@ They were hiding them last week!!
JudyJFLA is offline  
Old Jan 1, 2015, 7:29 pm
  #7  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: NC
Programs: AAConciergeKey/1MM, DL DM/2 MM, UA Gold,Hilton Diamond, IHG Plat, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 11,914
I have read the Sticky, but cannot find any Visa GCs that reload to Bluebird online. I bought tons of Amex GCs, but need to churn them into something that reloads to Bluebird online. Any help would be appreciated, this mega thread is daunting.
SkyTeam777 is offline  
Old Jan 1, 2015, 7:49 pm
  #8  
Suspended
 
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 2,998
Originally Posted by SkyTeam777
I have read the Sticky, but cannot find any Visa GCs that reload to Bluebird online. I bought tons of Amex GCs, but need to churn them into something that reloads to Bluebird online. Any help would be appreciated, this mega thread is daunting.
I recommend you read the Bluebird thread, starting with the Wiki

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manuf...er-checks.html
Stoughton is offline  
Old Jan 1, 2015, 9:03 pm
  #9  
 
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Sacramento, CA
Posts: 437
I've never bought a custom message business card before. I put my name on the "line 2" of the business card. Will it look like the personal card with your name embossed on it? Also, what is expedited shipping? Never seen that option before.
vinhboy is offline  
Old Jan 1, 2015, 9:54 pm
  #10  
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: IND
Programs: AA Platinum Pro, Hyatt Diamond, Hilton Diamond, IHG Platinum, National Exec Elite
Posts: 586
Originally Posted by vinhboy
I've never bought a custom message business card before. I put my name on the "line 2" of the business card. Will it look like the personal card with your name embossed on it? Also, what is expedited shipping? Never seen that option before.
Expedited shipping costs $99/year. For this fee, you can get as many cards as you want shipped overnight for "free". It's well worth it if you intend to purchase many cards.

I believe when you first sign up for it, you get a 3 month trial for free.

I'm not sure what the Biz cards look like. I've only ordered personal so far. I hope they look similar to the personal ones that I put my name on.
frekwentflier is offline  
Old Jan 2, 2015, 12:44 am
  #11  
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Midwest
Programs: AA LT Gold 1MM ,Hyatt Explorist,Marriott Platinum,HHonors Diamond
Posts: 364
Originally Posted by vinhboy
I've never bought a custom message business card before. I put my name on the "line 2" of the business card. Will it look like the personal card with your name embossed on it?
Yes
OHijAAzi73 is offline  
Old Jan 2, 2015, 2:41 am
  #12  
 
Join Date: Nov 2014
Posts: 46
I purchased the premium shipping plan and placed multiple orders using different credit cards totaling more than 20k on business cards. I have received emails about an hour ago, all of the orders were cancelled I have placed one order with them before so I thought I should be able to place multiple orders without any issues. What's worse is that the wiki says it takes about a week for the hold to be lifted!@!

Your order was not fulfilled for the following reasons: We could not verify your order information and cannot approve your order at this time.

If you have any questions about this Card order you may call us at 866-268-0582 and reference order #xxxxx. If you feel that this was caused in error, please contact your credit card issuer to validate your billing address and card security code information. Afterwards, please resubmit your Card order.
I smell BS here. Are they making it up to deny the extra CB? If they tried to verify the info they could have verified it with the card issuers and it would have been ok. I can't imagine that multiple card issuers just denied them all. All orders showed pending authorization on cards. Did anyone else have any cancellations?
nooobFlyer is offline  
Old Jan 2, 2015, 5:48 am
  #13  
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 1,273
Originally Posted by frekwentflier
Expedited shipping costs $99/year. For this fee, you can get as many cards as you want shipped overnight for "free". It's well worth it if you intend to purchase many cards.

I believe when you first sign up for it, you get a 3 month trial for free.

I'm not sure what the Biz cards look like. I've only ordered personal so far. I hope they look similar to the personal ones that I put my name on.
"Overnight" that may take a week....
ZzzzX is offline  
Old Jan 2, 2015, 7:48 am
  #14  
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 148
Originally Posted by nooobFlyer
I purchased the premium shipping plan and placed multiple orders using different credit cards totaling more than 20k on business cards. I have received emails about an hour ago, all of the orders were cancelled I have placed one order with them before so I thought I should be able to place multiple orders without any issues. What's worse is that the wiki says it takes about a week for the hold to be lifted!@!



I smell BS here. Are they making it up to deny the extra CB? If they tried to verify the info they could have verified it with the card issuers and it would have been ok. I can't imagine that multiple card issuers just denied them all. All orders showed pending authorization on cards. Did anyone else have any cancellations?

Did you order business amex or personal? Personal is limited to 10k every 14 days. If you ordered business cards, do you own a real business?
kenshinluo is offline  
Old Jan 2, 2015, 7:58 am
  #15  
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 76
Originally Posted by frudd38
Anyone know how long portal points for VX takes to post? Order from 12/19 still shows nothing.

Edit: Sorry just saw the Wiki, but further search shows VX is non Cartera.
Ordered 12/21, still not showing for me as well. Any updates?
fakemadrid is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

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.