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Any Potential Problems with Amassing a Huge Amazon GC balance?

Any Potential Problems with Amassing a Huge Amazon GC balance?

Old Aug 25, 2018, 5:09 pm
  #31  
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Originally Posted by aacharya
No, RNE is not asking 'and how?'. he is exclaiming "and how!'

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/and_how
In this case, why RNE even needed/bothered to start a thread if he already KNEW what he would spend his large stash? Plus it seems his stash is built up over time, like, 2 or more years.
In other words, his speed of spend is way behind his speed of piling up - hence he worries about account closure. Simply does not make sense if you can burn thru many thousands in a year, why would you have such large balance, AND worry about account closure?
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Old Aug 25, 2018, 5:41 pm
  #32  
 
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I have a little under $1k total in two different Amazon accounts and will be glad for some GC reselling deals to empty it out.

Don’t forget family needs to know about the balances and account information in case something happens to you.
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Old Aug 26, 2018, 10:06 am
  #33  
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Originally Posted by Mamibear
FWIW, here's some interesting discussions related to amazon closing accounts with huge balance: https://forum.elliott.org/forums/amazon.83/
As I feared. Thanks for that very pertinent input.
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Old Aug 31, 2018, 8:08 am
  #34  
 
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Originally Posted by RNE
As I feared. Thanks for that very pertinent input.
you're welcome, I also learned a lot from reading those stories.

From many issues I've read, seems unfair for their balance to be confiscated based on mere suspicion of fraudulent activity and their accounts closed.
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Old Aug 31, 2018, 8:34 pm
  #35  
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I think there are many that keep a few k's, i would not worry unless you're doing shady stuff tbh
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Old Aug 31, 2018, 10:48 pm
  #36  
 
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Originally Posted by RNE
As I feared. Thanks for that very pertinent input.
The few examples I read from Mamibear's link sounds like from people who can't even explain clearly how they got the GCs to load into Amazon, from a friend, new account, etc.

I've had an Amazon account for almost 12 years, have an Amazon Chase card linked as well as other Freedom and Discover cards as well as Amex MR cards.

I've had as high as $2500 this year, which is now down to about $900.

I've had the same address on file with them, made returns, not excessively.

Sketchy behavior will lead to adverse actions, not the balance by itself. Same as the UR or MR balance you asked about. IMO.
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Old Sep 1, 2018, 10:03 am
  #37  
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Originally Posted by mhdena
Sketchy behavior will lead to adverse actions, not the balance by itself. Same as the UR or MR balance you asked about. IMO.
I hear ya. With a $10k+ Amazon balance at stake, instead of redeeming GCs right away, I'm stashing them in my sock drawer. Fortunately, I've met this quarter's max spend on all three cards so I'm done buying... until next quarter's "opium" is announced.

Doing the math: To maximize my 3 Freedom cards' bonus categories is $1500 x 3 = $4500 x 4 quarters = $18,000/year x 5 UR = 90,000 UR/year. Explains why my Amazon account is at 5 figures and my UR total is 7 figures.

RNE, having a monkey on my back.
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Old Sep 1, 2018, 10:06 am
  #38  
 
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Originally Posted by mhdena
The few examples I read from Mamibear's link sounds like from people who can't even explain clearly how they got the GCs to load into Amazon, from a friend, new account, etc.

I've had an Amazon account for almost 12 years, have an Amazon Chase card linked as well as other Freedom and Discover cards as well as Amex MR cards.

I've had as high as $2500 this year, which is now down to about $900.

I've had the same address on file with them, made returns, not excessively.

Sketchy behavior will lead to adverse actions, not the balance by itself. Same as the UR or MR balance you asked about. IMO.
Like any good internet forum, those who come on to complain are those who've had problems.

For the other probably 99% of us who have big Amazon balances (I just made an Office Depot trip on Thursday to re-up mine), we just ride along happily, getting 7.5% off all of our Amazon purchases without complaint.
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Old Sep 3, 2018, 9:21 pm
  #39  
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I dont think running a 5 digit balance to be suspicious in and of itself
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Old Sep 4, 2018, 9:33 am
  #40  
 
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I personally do not think you have any risk with Amazon. It does not sound like you have a liquidation method for amazon credits other than spending. I do think you should learn how to MS. If you are willing to do this and you have this bank roll, MS will be much, much more profitable. You should still buy Amazon gift cards, better yo get 5x on your real spend, but learn about manufactured spending. 1MM UR points is great to make, even better to use that amount annually.
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Old Nov 9, 2018, 9:33 am
  #41  
 
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mpd's new article is relevant to OP:

Amazon closed my account because of a high gift card balance Miles per Day

This company has become too big for its britches that they confiscate funds for whatever reasons and only if the customer is persistent is there a chance to get their accounts reinstated and/or get their funds back. I'm not sure if complaints against this company is covered by CFPB.
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Old Nov 9, 2018, 10:44 am
  #42  
 
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Just to be clear, that guy gets shutdown a LOT.

I'm not sure if there's more to his stories or if maybe with some reporting agency he has a big red X, but I don't typically extrapolate from his examples.
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Old Nov 9, 2018, 12:08 pm
  #43  
 
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Originally Posted by josephstern
Just to be clear, that guy gets shutdown a LOT.

I'm not sure if there's more to his stories or if maybe with some reporting agency he has a big red X, but I don't typically extrapolate from his examples.
Just looked for posts with shutdown on that site, and sure enough, quite a few in his history. This one gave me a laugh, back in 2016 being shutdown by Chase. He's all surprised but glosses over the fact that he spent $250k plus in ONE QUARTER. And that was sudden uptick from previous spending habits. I'm thinking, well duh. You'd think certain bloggers who do this for a living would be smarter about keeping their golden goose alive and well, but greed does them in.
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Old Nov 9, 2018, 12:30 pm
  #44  
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Originally Posted by Mamibear
The evidence in the article does not match the claim made in the headline. Amazon did not mention the amount of his balance, they questioned how he obtained the gift cards that he loaded to create the balance. That's very different.
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Old Nov 9, 2018, 12:44 pm
  #45  
 
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One really effective way to burn through this massive GC balance in case you think the account may get banned is to get gold ingots on Amazon and sell them in the open markets. The amount you lose will be tiny compared to the points you'd have racked up.
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