gumercindo

I called the retention number on my spg biz and got nothing. AF due next month and admittedly, I haven't charged much since November.,

patoot10

I got the SPG recently and won't be able to hit $3,000 minimum spend without buying Visa Gift Cards. What's the best way to buy it and make sure that it's counting towards minimum spend and earning 1 point per dollar given that Amex is getting harder to do MS with ?

Thanks,

lumangoy

buy it at grocery and mix in with you grocery so it's not obvious.

they most likely will not know you bought VGCs

buschoi

You can prepay your utility and phone bills. You can also make a tax payment (property tax, income tax estimated tax payment, etc.) with a fee most ilkely, but the sign-up bonus is worth it. I would not recommend getting GCs. AMEX may be receiving level 3 data from the transactions and may exclude GC purchases from sign-up bonus. There are people who did NOT receive the AMEX Plat sign-up bonus for buying GCs, even mixing them with regular grocery shopping.

sdsearch

To clarify: I presume these were Visa/MC/Amex gift cards, not store gift cards, and that it's Visa/MC/Amex gift cards that you're not recommending getting.

Modest value store gift cards would seem a lot safer (and since they have no activation fees, there's no problem with buying more smaller ones instead of one or two big ones.). For example, buy Amazon gift cards to use on Amazon purchases (after the 3 month period for minimum spend expires).

However, the one thing you especially don't want to do with "grocery hiding" is to repeat about the same amount of high purchase and over. Amex may or may not look at one grocery store purchase of $508.93 to see if it contains a $500 Visa/MC/Amex git card. But I would guess they're much more likely to look at it if they see that all you bought was $508.93 followed by $509.21 followed by $507.42. That's sort of pattern is a dead giveaway, even before looking at Level 3 data, that you're trying to hide Visa/MC/Amex gift card purchases (and trying to get the whole signup bonus from not much more than hidden Visa/MC/Amex gift card purchases).

buschoi

I can't find any solid data points about which gift cards are excluded, but AMEX's T&Cs say:

"Purchases to meet the Threshold Amount do NOT include fees or interest charges, balance transfers, cash advances, purchases of traveler's checks, purchases or reloading of prepaid cards, purchases of gift cards, person-to-person payments, or purchases of any cash equivalents."

We know AMEX does not enforce its own T&Cs sometimes, but if the sign-up bonus does not post, they can conveniently refer to the T&Cs and claim no gift card is allowed at all. One data point I saw was that AMEX knew people were buying GCs on eBay (i.e. PPDG and SVM) and did not honor the sign-up bonus. We don't know what AMEX knows.

I am finishing up my last $500 of the $5,000 spend with the AMEX Plat Mercedes Benz, and I am doing it the slow way with normal purchases and bills and stay far away from gift cards. My risk tolerance is relatively low though, so others may possibly do something different and still qualify for the bonus.

sdsearch

That's easier to do when you can plan ahead and know what spend you can do "naturally" before you apply for cards that you can apply for "just about anytime".

It's a little trickier when suddenly something comes around like all these things about the Marriott-Starwood merger (which was originally said to not happen until 1 Jan 2019, but suddenly earlier this month it got pushed ahead to 1 Aug 2018) and all of a sudden there's a need to apply for a card before either it goes away or the signup bonus goes away (in fact, the signup bonus for the SPG cards has already changed by now from points to cash credit!). Then you might have thousands more you need to spend than you had counted on (before you suddenly applied for that card in a panic)!

It also depends on what you did earlier. For example, since Chase Freedom had its 5x in Q1 2018 for internet and communications, I paid a couple months ahead on that to max out that bonus. Well, that means it's now going to be a couple months more before I'll have any more internet or communications bills. (And some places don't let me pay more ahead if I've already got a credit showing on my account.)

ChuckMango

Def after the change, no sense to hold on to it imho

javabytes

I will probably keep mine, as the annual free night can more than offset the AF. Only difference is I will sock drawer it and won’t put any spend on it.

DiMAn0684

A lot of people share this sentiment, but do folks really not finding free night + AMEX offers + all the other minor perks you get with the card worth $95? I agree that putting spend on it will not be as lucrative after Aug 1, but usually and up spending more than the AF for 1 night at the hotel.

mhdena

Many Amex cardholders in the general population don't even know Amex offers exist.

So I imagine many will follow the herd.

I've saved $695 on Business SPG, and $565 Personal in the past couple of years. And have had the Business version six months less!

I'm keeping mine at least until after I acquire the certs, and if the free nights make sense, and AOs continue, indefinitely.

mia

Others think that all Offers appear on all cards, and do not see incremental value of a fee-paid card. While it's true that most offers appear on more than one card, there is no longer a way to force an offer to appear on a specific card.

ChuckMango

That is I guess dependant on your travel patterns, but good point.

PaulMSN

My annual fee appeared on the current Starwood AmEx statement, and I considered canceling, since I won't receive a free night, but then I remembered that I completed an offer of statement credit for spend which won't post until July, so that locks me into a renewal. I'll probably continue to renew for the free night. AmEx has been pretty good to me in the last year, actually, with a free Fire tablet and this offer that nets me a $200 statement credit for $10,000 spend. Maybe they'll continue to be nice.

Added: They offered me a $75 credit for $2000 spend in 3 months, so if I make the spend I'll come out $10 ahead and will be able to get a free night for renewing next year.

CDO

Is the change happening on billing cycle or hard date of 8/1?