Amex to stop issuing points on gift card purchases?

It has been reported that Amex is cracking down on issuing points on purchases made to buy gift cards. That is a major blow to us churners, as they appear to have expanded their previous policy of not crediting gift card purchases for minimum spending requirement. I understand it is already showing up in the terms and conditions of some cards. Time will tell if it will be enforced.

Here’s how it will affect the continuing use of this manufactured spender:

American Express Gold Card

The Amex Gold card is one of the cards where the wording is already showing up. My wife and I have already completed the $25,000 max grocery spend allowed each year by buying Visa gift cards and our normal grocery spend. We don’t spend near that amount on actual groceries.

The annual fee on this card is $250 and last week we lost the ability to use buy airline gift cards for the $100 airline credit. All that’s left for us on this card is now dining spend at 4X. This one is probably history. Hmm? 4X Amex Gold dining or 2X Sapphire Preferred UR points?

If I can’t earn that $25,000 x 4 for an easy 100,000 points on the Gold card, why am I keeping my Schwab Platinum card, which allows me to invest my rewards in my Schwab account at 1.25 cents per point?

Hilton American Express Cards

And if it extends to the Hilton Ascend card as well, not being able to MS Hilton points at the grocery store for 6X? Well, there is not much sense in renewing that card either.

As far as the Hilton Aspire, I can no longer justify that $450 annual fee just for the $250 resort fee credit. Especially with the loss of the airline gift card trick.

American Express Platinum for Schwab

I moved my investment account from Schwab to Merrill this year, so lost the $200 annual fee reimbursement. That, along with the loss of airline gift cards for $250 credit, makes it pretty tough to stomach that monster annual fee of $550.

This latest move that eliminates my main source of earning Membership Rewards to convert to cash puts the nail in the coffin for this Schwab Plat. And along with it, the Amex Gold is on thin ice, as that MS helped us swallow that $250 annual fee.

Final thoughts

Big changes for us with this move by Amex. They will lose four annual fees from each of us, totaling $1,345 each and we will no longer be adding to our investment account from our manufactured spending activities.

So I guess instead of cash back, the few remaining MR points we’ll be earning will now be converted to “Delta Miles???”

Wow. Does that seem strange.

HT: Doctor of Credit

How will you be affected if Amex decides to enforce the new gift card policy?

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