I’m in the midst of wrapping up my $82,000 manufactured spending challenge and hit a brick wall today. It appears every shopping portal has pulled American Express gift cards. In addition to searching Cashbackmonitor and Cashbackholic, every major portal (cash back and otherwise) lists American Express Gift Cards but does not offer a payout. Hopefully, this is a temporary situation and we’ll see the Amex Gift Card store back on the list soon.
There has been a fair amount of drama surrounding American Express gift cards and shopping portals in the past. First, TopCashBack had some trouble tracking canceled transactions and members ended up getting cash back on transactions that never went through. They announced a limit on the purchase amount that would be eligible for cash back. However, by all accounts that limit was never imposed. Soon after, Barclays Rewardsboost removed American Express Giftcards from its portal altogether. Now it seems the rest have followed, hopefully temporarily.
If this really is the demise of Amex gift cards, keep in mind that you can still earn a profit by purchasing them with your Fidelity Rewards card for 2% cash back. If you’re willing to settle for travel rewards instead, you can earn 2.2% in travel rewards with the Barclay Arrival Plus card.
I’m going to keep an eye out and report back in case of a comeback. If you beat me to the punch, please leave a comment in this post letting me know. Manufactured spending is much easier when you don’t have to do it $500 at a time, so fingers crossed the Amex gift card/shopping portal pairing isn’t dead.
[jetpack_subscription_form title=”Subscribe via email for more points, miles and free travel”]
Leave a Reply