Back in the day, buying American Express gift cards was a great way to manufacture spending and meet minimum spending requirements on credit cards. The cashback companies (BeFrugal, TopCashback, etc) would often have payouts of 2% or even higher on American Express gift cards.
(SEE ALSO: Last day for up to $30 from BeFrugal.com and Amex cards with 2.25% cashback at TopCashback) – NOTE: THIS DEAL IS EXPIRED BUT LINKED FOR REFERENCE
And even though they would charge a purchase fee (usually $3.95) for each card, as well as a shipping fee ($8.95, but you could get it waived by purchasing a bulk shipper program), you could still make money, and finance the cost of your liquidation methods (usually buying Visa / Mastercard gift cards for an additional fee)
100% off purchase fees on Amex Gift Cards
That gravy train ended a few months ago, when all of the portal companies capped the gift cards to purchases of $200 or less. I’m actually not clear if you would get cashback on multiple purchases of $200 gift cards in the same transaction, or not. Also, I believe that you might not earn portal cash back if you use a coupon code (at least most portal’s have that exclusion in their terms).
In any case, American Express is offering 100% off purchase fees from now until the end of the year with coupon code NOVCCT1.
There is still a shipping fee, which is $8.95 last I looked.
Note that there is also an #AmexOffer on buying American Express gift cards, which would turn this into a slight moneymaker. I believe it is not targeted – at least I had it on all of my cards.
Another note is that American Express gift cards can NOT be used to load Bluebird or Serve – you’d need to either buy actual product, or buy Visa / Mastercard gift cards to then liquidate. Still, it may be doing once per Amex card that you have the offer on.
Happy spending!
Points With a Crew has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Points With a Crew and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them
User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Recent Comments