I know I spend a lot of money at Amazon.com and was considering just buying $2,000 in gift cards there, which I can probably spend in a year, to help clear a bonus. Does this work?

Yeah, this will work. I purchase gift cards often when I need to meet a spending requirement. I usually go to the grocery store cause I can buy gift cards for almost anywhere, they sometimes come with a discount on future shopping trips (ie. buy $50 GC, save $10 on next shopping trip), and many cards such as Amex Gold Card give me 2pts per $1 spend.

I've used Apple gift cards to keep accounts active, so I suppose an Amazon gift card would work too.

should not be a problem..

Some grocery stores also have rewards albeit sometimes with minimums. If you buy $2k, my local grocery store will give me 4000 points for that, or $40 as a grocery gc at the end of the quarter (double points for gc purchase, sometimes 4x during the holidays).

Yes, it will work just fine. For those who shop often at Costco, keep in mind that Costco offers its own cash cards (which can be purchased from costco.com - using Visa, Mastercard, or American Express credit cards). This is a quick and easy way to cover spending requirements for credit card bonus miles/points. But note: "You must be a Costco member to purchase...Costco Cash Cards." However: "Members and non-members may use the cash cards to shop at any Costco location or at costco.com."

What I've done in the past to meet a spending threshold is purchase GCs from the supermarket Gelsons. They also sell GCs for many other retailers: Home Depot, Crate & Barrel, Barnes and Noble, Nordstroms, ITunes, Bed Bath and Beyond, Starbucks, CPK's etc, etc. So with my one Gelsons' GC I can use it for groceries there, but also can use it to purchase other GCs - so I know without doubt I'll be able to use up the balance.

Many supermarkets and drugstore chains sell other retailers GCs. You'd just want to doublecheck with the store b4 purchasing its GC that you'll be allowed to use their GC to purchase other retailers' GCs. Gelsons is the one I have experience with.

Interesting. If I use my AmEx Costco card do I get a 1% rebate for buying the cash card and then
another 1% when I use it to make a purchase at Costco?

Yea the grocery store purchases are grea and you get discounts on gas in many locations. YMMV

A friend of mine did this to make sure he was able to hit the spend on the BA cards he and his wife got. Every time he went grocery shopping he'd throw in an extra $100 GC. Worked well and he and his wife both hit the spend and got their miles.

Does buying gift cards do anything but speed up spending?

Once you have the GC, it ties up your cash until you use it. When you do, you are not using your CC for whatever spending would help you then.

It seems like the FT version of borrowing.

What am I missing?

just buy a $2000 suit from nordtroms or anywhere and return it after the billing cycle and the miles post

People use gift cards to help hit the minimum spend requirements that a lot of cards have. Many cards will have an offer of spend X within Y days to get a bonus of Z miles. Sometimes if people are concerned about hitting X before their Y number of days is up they can use gift cards to make sure they hit that amount so they don't lose out on the bonus miles.

It gets compounded when you are doing multiple offers. $2500 in 90 days isn't too hard for me to reach but when I'm also trying to hit $4k on another card and $1500 on another and $500 on another within the same time span that's where gift cards can help out, I can reach all the minimum spend I need to so I get my bonus miles and then spend the gift cards later on.

fyi...safeways has a promotion right now..spend 50$ on select gift cards and get 10$ off your purchase...check your local store weekly ad

http://www.laohana.com/mike-deals-of...e-safeway.html