The double skymiles offer is targeted and not specific to tax payments http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=805086

Don't know about this promo (I wasn't targeted and haven't seen the T&C) but very often there's a cap associated with Amex promos.

I received a similar reply to my request. I also have a platinum card. I have been considering canceling it anyway, this just makes it really easy.

Do let them know you are canceling because they are no longer offering uncapped double miles for tax payments, indeed they have offered you no double miles opportunity of any sort, though they have seen fit to offere it to others. And do say that the card isn't worth $140/year, especially as they strip away benefits.

hiyo, I would be interested if they offer you any type of customer retention promotions to know what that was. Sometimes they can be pretty generous to keep a member.

Does anyone know with the UA Visa Platinum, if you have two cards do you pay a fee on both or is it just once for the account?

I have carried a SPG AMEX card for 21 years. I was not targeted for any double points tax payment offer.

I called them today to ask if they were offering a double points promotion for tax payments and they indicated that only with the Delta AMEX card.

I indicated that Chase was offering this promotion and I would rather stay loyal to AMEX. I politely asked if they would consider my 21 years of loyalty to their company. The rep asked how much the charge would be and I indicated that it would be $4000.

The rep placed me on hold and returned with great news! She indicated that SPG AMEX appreciated my 21 years of loyal business and she could give me an additonal 4000 courtesy starpoints if I charged my IRS payment on the card. This essentially provides me with the double points promotion.

Thank you very much SPG AMEX!!

That is good news, and maybe worth a call. However, SPG has only been around about 9 years. You could not have had an SPG Amex for 21 of those 9 years.

Oops sorry, you are correct. I have been an AMEX customer for 21 years. I switched over from my gold card when the SPG card was released.

Yesterday I called MP Visa customer service and after confirming I was not targeted for the double miles, I asked if I qualified for any retention incentives. The very nice CSR said I "qualified" for a quarter point interest rate reduction and 4000 bonus MP miles. The interest rate reduction happened immediately, the miles have not yet appeared in my account.

My wife just called on her platinum MP Visa and got the quarter point reduction and the promise of 1000 miles deposited to her MP account. She is a general member and I am Premier this year, maybe explaining the disparity...?

Her CSR said it's a good idea to call periodically to see what "promotions" are available.

Have you been paying $0 (1K for a couple of years or more), $60 (or maybe $80, 1K for less than a couple of years), or $140 (not a 1K, or more than one Chase Platinum Visa account)? A "quarter point interest rate reduction" (from some absurdly high current rate, and only useful if you let balances roll) and
4K RDM (not EQM) will keep you "loyal" for another year, no matter that you weren't targeted for the double miles "pay-your-taxes" deal, nor given it when you asked for it?

And thank you very much for sharing! 4K of bonus SPG for paying taxes is less than the 5K of bonus SPG one could get last year, but much better than the 0K of bonus SPG n the absence of such a special concession in response to your request. (I wonder whether they would have been willing to give you a 10K bonus if you had said you wanted to pay $10K in taxes.)

Thank you very much Onefreetraveler!
 

Just called Amex and was told that we did not have ANY tax bonus offered on any of our 7 different SPG, DL and MR Amex products. Ouch!

I took Onefreetravelers idea and asked for a bonus, was told I could get 3,000 SPG points which I graciously accepted. The payment we need to make right now is only a few hundred bucks I think so this is at least 5:1 on this, and I am stoked. Funny, so often I have to call Amex OVER and OVER to get bonus miles I am do for DL Amex promos, now there is no promo and (knock on wood til they actually come) I got some points. I have a UA Chase but would far rather earn SPG points.

Thanks for this - just received the following email reply (I made sure they knew I was dissappointed I hadn't been targeted for this, and that this should be offered to everyone!)

"Dear jumpdogjump:

Thank you for our inquiry regarding your Mileage Plus
credit card account.

The 2008 tax promotion runs till May 31, 2008. To earn
double miles make your tax payment through
www.chasepayyourtaxes.com/ual. There is a 15,000 bonus
mile cap and the bonus miles will post 10-12 weeks after
May 31, 2008.

You may wish to contact us at the number below to discuss
this further. We are available to assist you 24 hours a
day, seven days a week.

Thank you,

(name withheld)
E-mail Customer Service Representative

1-800-436-7927"

SO - If you want the dbl. UAL miles up to 15,000 - looks like the email and phone call can work!

NOTE - during my phone call, the CSR said I was eligible, not everyone is - maybe people who complain are - btw, I have a lowly MP signature visa

I called SPG Amex after I submit my payment. And they won't give me double or match the amount. They only gave me 500 points. I should have called them before putting on this card. Oh well.

SPG Amex
 

Just got off the phone with a CSR @ Amex. I told her I would like to pay my taxes with this card, if I could get double points, she "checked" and came right back and said nothing available this year. She didn't offer anything and I didn't ask for anything. I did tell her I would prefer to use this card for payment, but that I did have another CC that I would use, if SPG Amex wasn't going to offer double points.

Were you surprised that they didn't press any points on you?

Great link, thanks! ^ Hopefully that will work without the need for a CS call.

Too bad SF does not accept visa for property tax payments, only MC. :td:

I called up AMEX SPG just now. Asked if they had any bonuses for paying my taxes; she of course said no. I told her Chase currently has a bonus going on and that I wanted to charge it on my AMEX instead. Also told her to take into consideration my 12 years with AMEX. She put me on hold and came back to tell me she was going to give me 1,500 pts. I made the mistake of not telling her I was gonna pay 22K in taxes BEFORE she put me on hold. Maybe I would have gotten more. Anyhow, better than nothing. Thanks to the poster that recommended this.

I have posted some of this thought in another thread on miles, but here's something to ponder... maybe the tax/mile experts here have insight and would like to discuss and break it down:

I know from experience that if you overpay the IRS they often send you a check back at some point and all that may happen is that you basically may just lose a bit of interest on that money because it wasnt in your own bank for the time. I think it's policy that they send you the check as refund payment, in fact.

The question is, how much and how long is it out there and does that matter?

Why I ask this has to do with miles, of course:
Using a credit card to pay for taxes does incur a fee although for many, this is OK because the miles you earn are well worth it anyway, and it gives you time to scramble for the funds, etc. So I am all for it, and this thread even shows where bonuses or other ideas can lessen the blow of any fees being paid to pay taxes with a CC, but I belileve using a debit card to pay your taxes does NOT incur such fees.

Am I right about that one? I think so but am just double checking here.

(I know I am right with respect to paying most town property taxes with a debit vs a credit card, but I dunno about IRS and state taxes, really. That's why I need clarification on the matter.)

So, anyway, if I am right--and there is no fee, what if you paid your taxes with a mileage earning debit card and purposely overpaid to get more miles knowing that you'd essentially get CASH BACK when they give you that check?

(BTW, BofA still has one debit card that works for PIN-based transactions for mileage earnings on Alaska Airlines and US Air--and their partners are AA & NWA and UA respectively so it's viable for many here eventhough it earns .5 mile per $1 spent)

In the end, you could, say, overpay on purpose by $500 or $5,000 or $10,000 and end up looking like gold to the Feds but also come away with a hefty chunk O miles when they send you a check to give back your overpayment! You cash it and voila!

Thoughts?????
:DMM

I think you could overpay, but you might want to ask your accountant if it raises your audit risk, and consider for yourself whether the risk is worth it. I would think a small overpayment would be harmless and large one might be a red flag.

I got my refunds within a few weeks of filing, but I don't think you can count on that. You could ask a tax professional the likelihood of getting your refund within a month v. 2 months v. longer.

I think any competent accountant would tell a client that they are wasting potential earned interest overpaying taxes to earn miles. Mine was disappointed enough that I paid the fee to pay with a CC. If he didn't give this kind of advice, I'd think he's a bad accountant. Perhaps chasing the miles isn't the wisest thing from a financial perspective. But it's fun and we all have our hobbies.

I get my refund in about 10 days so lost interest isn't really an issue.

I think if I were to do this I would have had to have sent in some prepaid overpayment a little while ago. I expect a refund this year so the only reason I would pay would have been in case I were late on my taxes. I kinda was since I only just last week gave all my stuff to my tax accountant. He will have it ready to e file this week though so I am all set. (Lots went on in the MM household preventing me from doing things sooner--ie, new baby, etc :)) So the pipedream of mile earnings by prepaying some huge amount is only just that. My financial advisor, however, is intrigued by my interest in miles. She always advises that people go for interest and avoid paying fees, but she says, hey, if you can find a way, all the power to ya! The tax guy likes hearing the ideas too but I think neither of them are going to tell me to DO such things while sitting in their offices. I just hope they do them on their own time at least because I hate it when I meet smart people who dont know about miles or how to take advantage of what's already out there. ie, if you see someone paying for something that could have been paid for with a mileage earning credit card.

To divert for a second, oh how many times have I seen some guy in line at Home Depot paying $600 in cash for stuff as I stand in line behind him wishing I could say, Hey dude, let me pay for that on my card here and you hand me the cash but you get the receipt... :D

Of course, if stuff like this happens to a great extent, maybe there'd be tax ramifications down the line (if it were say, $60,000)

SF Property Taxes
 

Boraxo.

SF does accept Amex for property tax, but you have to call it in to their automated payment center. You can find the info on their Assessors website. I use my SPG Amex. Good luck.

I know the feeling. I was excited a couple of weeks ago when I returned something to my supermarket which I'd paid using a credit card and the cashier hands me back a $5 note :D

On a seperate note, more in tune with this thread, I called American Express and asked if I could get bonus miles for paying my taxes using the SPG card and they declined. No bonus miles for paying taxes this year.

I just called Chase and the CSR told me this was still targeted and that I was not eligible. Fyi, I have a Platinum card. The Chase CSR said that United was the one who determined who to target (I'm quite skeptical of this given everything I read).

I also just called and tried this with SPG AMEX but with no luck. I'll keep trying until April 15th but maybe I was too late!

I share your skepticism. Hard for me to see this as a UA decision rather than a Chase one.

I called Chase today to ask about double miles for using my lowly Gold Mileage Plus VISA to pay property taxes, due April 10th. The agent said no, but he would put a request in and it would take 1-2 weeks to hear back :(. I suppose I will call AMEX just for fun and ask about using my SPG card. Otherwise, I guess I will just write a check!

It may have been already posted (man this is a long thread), but here is the link Amex emailed me today about taxes:


http://tax.americanexpress.com/?offe...int-prop-email

That page doesn't appear to say anything about bonus points. Unless my eyes are failing me, it just notes that you'll get MR points at the standard one-point-per-dollar rate when you pay taxes.

Has anyone had any luck with getting a Chase bonus for CO for paying taxes? Seems like Chase is offering UA to 'non-targeted' customers when asked; but has anyone tried for CO bonus miles with or without success? Thanks.

Received Double MR offer on 04/07
 

Not sure if this has been discussed(I went back a few pages but couldn't find anything) but I recently received offer of double MR points on my Biz Amex Gold Card .
Procrastinating can be a good thing ;)

With or without a cap?

Bonus points are capped at 100,000 total

The fine print indicates that a convenience fee of 2.49% applies.

I very much doubt ehlfg was unaware of the 2.49% "convenience fee," which has been discussed at exhaustive length here. ehlfg was questioning whether there were any "bonus" miles/points were to be had, reducing the effective cost to perhaps only 1.245 cpm/cpp, or whether there were only "regular" miles/points, leaving the cost at 2.49 cpm/cpp.

What gives, are you any more charming than I am? I called Amex this afternoon to see if I could get bonus points for using my biz Gold card to pay taxes, and much as I wheedled, I was told "no" several times by several different Amex reps, though always very politely. (I don't know whether Amex starts with better recruits or just prepares its people better, but I do think they have a higher caliber of phone reps than just about any other company I have occasion to deal with.) They seemed not to care that they had told my fellow FTer sfducati he could pay his taxes with the card and get up to 100K MR. (sfducati, you're not putting us on about the 100K cap, are you?)

Anyway, I didn't leave completely empty-handed. The rep who addressed my question as an SPG Amex one did drop 3K into my SPG account to assuage my hurt feelings, and the biz Gold people came up with 2.5K MR to keep me, though I have never used the card and will cancel it at some point if I don't start feeling some love from them soon.

My wife and I both have Amex Business Gold and we received letters offering double points for paying our taxes online (2.49% charge). The way I view this, I'm getting 80+ points per dollar spent (0.01245 cpp). I'm gonna pay the tax bill anyway but this way for a nominal fee I get some points out of it.

Can you normally pick up 10,000 MR points for $120?

Congratulations. Would like to know how you and your wife were both "targeted" for the offer, but that of course is Amex's secret, one they don't share. Someone quoted Amex bragging about how sophisticated their systems are, letting them knew their customers very well from the data they have on us and get the greatest return on the offers they make.

The credit cards may be willing to give something away upfront to snag us and our business, e.g., enrollment miles, but do they ever have "loss leaders" later to encourage more business? Hard for me to believe that Amex (or Chase with their "target" double miles for tax payment offers) loses money on these deals, but their margins must be pretty thin given that Official Payments has to get its share of the vigorish. (Unlike those who are selling us goods or services with a mark up or profit built into the price, Official Payments can't be getting any discount for the feds and other tax authorities they are collecting for, so profits must come from that 2.49% convenience fee.) The float must be a huge factor in the costs, since we can pay off our taxes now and not pay the credit card company (Amex or Chase) for up to 6 weeks from the time of the charge. And in the end it is 1.245 cpp or cpm to us, and 1.245 cents to be divided between the credit card company and Official Payments.

I don't expect anyone knows this story in detail from the credit card issuer's perspective, but can anyone imagine how it avails them to offer double miles or points for tax payments, but offer it only to those they "target"? Why would it be in their interests to offer it to some (whom?), but not to everyone? Thoughts?

:D
I cannot really tell you why I was targeted-I signed up for the card in Oct 2007, so perhaps they're targeting me because I'm a "newbie" and they want to make sure I renew it later this year :p

Do you need the bonus ID? I can post it later today..
Good for you! Atleast you did end up getting something :)