AMEX Fee free Gift card thru Dec31
 

"To thank you for your interest in American Express, we have a special holiday gift for you. Order Gift Cards before 12/31/08 and receive 100% off the purchasing fee. Simply use promo code KP2008. And you can re-use this code for every order through 12/31/08."

I guess there is no practical way to convert these gift cards to cash, ( like we do with the Travel Checks ). and just pay the bill.

I'll give some cards this year, but I guess I can't justify hitting it too hard.

Any other ideas.

Not only that, but the promotion only covers the fee - not shipping. So, you end up paying about the same as if you bought the card in a grocery store (where you would pay the fee but not shipping)

You charge these gift cards to a credit card upon online checkout, correct? Is it handled as a normal charge or a cash advance? I assume a normal charge.

There is a minimum $12.95 2nd day express shipping charge on any total over $200.

Not sure how buying a gift card will be any great savings vs. using a credit card, unless as you say, you could easily convert it to cash.

All it does is allow you to front-load some spending that would otherwise take a few weeks/months. If you have a program-affiliate AmEx, it's a great way to hit spending thresholds. Last year AmEx had a promotion where not only could you buy the cards fee-free, but if you bought five or more, they would waive the shipping costs. I bought five $500 cards to hit the $25,000 spending threshold on my Skymiles AmEx, which gave me 10,000 MQMs and GM status. Well worth it for me last year.