A popular recent Amex Offer provides the opportunity to earn 2X points on Amazon purchases:
On its face, this might appear like an attractive Amex Offer considering very few credit cards earn more than one point on Amazon purchases. However, depending on what other credit cards you have, this is likely an Amex Offer that should be ignored. Why? Because almost every merchant that sells gift cards sells Amazon gift cards and you likely have more than one card that earns more than 2X points at some of those merchants.
Like many of you, I make a numerous monthly purchases on Amazon. In my case, I use a Chase Ink card to purchase Amazon gift cards at office supply stores and earn 5X points on those purchases. Amazon gift cards can be easily redeemed to your Amazon account, so you do not even have to worry about losing them or having to treat them as cash. As soon as I purchase an Amazon gift card, I redeem it on my Amazon account and then discard it.
I usually do not get involved with manufactured spending. However, this “trick” is simply too easy and rewarding to ignore.
Bottom Line
You can earn 2X points by adding the aforementioned Amex Offer to your American Express accounts or you could earn 3X, 4X, 5X or even more points by strategically purchasing Amazon gift cards to fund your Amazon purchases.
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3 comments
I would argue that this offer has value for large purchases where you want the credit card protections. If you buy, say, a TV with Amazon gift cards, you are far less protected than if buying it with a credit card. Using you AmEx, you’d have double points plus AmEx purchase protections.
Another reason not to accept this offer (other than to top off a MR account for a redemption) is that Amazon is frequently included in 4th quarter bonus purchases on cards which feature “Holiday Shopping”. In fact, CHASE Freedom from Oct-Dec 2015 initially offered 5% back on Amazon purchases and even bumped it up to 10%.
True.
However, I can use this with my AMEX Everyday card. So I get 2x on Amazon plus 1.5 on every purchase. So I’m making 2.5x on each purchase. I can make 5x with my Ink at Office Depot but I need MR more since they are more valuable for my travels.