Several cash back and mile-earning portals offer rebates/miles for shopping for American Express gift cards. The best current cash-back offer is via BigCrumbs, which is now offering 2.1% cash back (and .35% cash back to the person who referred you to BigCrumbs, and .35% to the person who referred that person). They are also offering a code to remove card fees (but you’ll still have to pay for shipping): FPVALAF.
In case you’re interested, here are the current rates from some other portals (the best mile-earning option currently is the Arrival card 2X, which translates to 2.22% towards travel):
- EBates: 2%
- TopCashBack: 2%
- Barclays Arrival Rewards Boost: 2X miles (requires Arrival card)
- Alaska Mileage Plan: 1X
- Delta SkyMiles: 1X
The last time BigCrumbs raised their Amex gift card rates, other portals soon followed. Will we see others go to 3% and 3X soon? I hope so!
Important notes:
- Amex gift cards do not have PINs. They cannot be used to load Bluebird cards.
- Some credit card companies (such as Citibank) charge cash advance fees when purchasing these online. Last I checked, Chase, Amex, and Barclays were safe. I can’t vouch for others.
- Portals often state that using codes not found on their site will invalidate cash back / miles earned. This has not been my experience. I use codes for free gift cards every time.
- Some portals restrict the top card amount to $500. You can easily circumvent this by logging into your Amex account (after clicking through from the portal) and then you’ll see values up to $3000. Yes, you should still get cash back or miles (that has been my experience).
- Cash back can take several months to go from pending to payable.
- Miles often take several weeks or even a month or more to post, but then appear immediately in your mileage account.
See also:How to spend down Amex gift cards Links to sign up for cash back portals (and other things), can be found here.
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