How to spend down Amex gift cards

59

Many have asked me how to liquidate Amex gift cards.  I don’t know what the “best” answer is, but below are a number of options.

Amex_BigCrumbs_FrequentMiler

Use Amex gift cards to:

  1. Buy stuff you would buy anyway.
  2. Buy Visa or MasterCard gift cards (at a supermarket, for example) and then use the gift card PIN to cash out.
  3. Make Kiva loans.
  4. Buy merchant gift cards through online portals in order to earn extra points or cash back.
  5. Pay federal taxes.  You will incur a 1.89% fee, but that can be partially or wholly offset by cash back earned when buying Amex gift cards.

Don’t try:

The following things cannot be done with Amex gift cards:

  1. Withdraw money from an ATM.
  2. Use as a debit card.
  3. Load Bluebird or REDbird.
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