Amex Checkout Credits Posting, How to Maximize, and More!

Amex Express Checkout

We reported on a great offer released by Amex which gets us a $10 credit for purchases at various online merchants by using Amex Express Checkout, see Free Money with the New Amex Express Checkout!.

This offer works a little differently than typical Amex Offers in that it’s not something you ‘Save’ to the card and we don’t get a ‘Congrats’ email when it’s used.

Readers are now reporting that the credits are beginning to post, entirely in-line with standard Amex Offer procedure of having the offer credit post within a week of making the purchase.

Great News!

The real interesting stuff is being reported by MilesToMemories:

  • The offer credit is working per Amex card. This is huge news as the language of the Terms indicate that it will only work once per Amex login. This multiplies the value of the offer many times. (Note that there is a risk that Amex can change this sometime in middle of the promo. I’ll be maxing out these offers as quick as I can.)
  • The offer credit does not need a $10 purchase trigger. Even a 1¢ purchase would work to trigger the credit. This is something we speculated in the original post and I actually expected it to work. Nice to have the confirmation.
  • Even digital codes seem to be working for the offer. Aside from e-gift cards which are working to trigger the offer credit, there’s now reports of this 40¢ digital code working for this offer.

One thing to note is that readers pointed out that the Amex Checkout system only shows up to 3 cards (at least for some people). Others pointed out that you just need to scroll down and you’ll be able to choose from any one of your cards.

Maximizing Newegg

Previously, we wrote about the $10 e-gift cards sold by Newegg and how you can get those free with this Amex Offer. Now that we have confirmation that less than $10 purchases are working, that 40¢ digital code is a better option. Another reader mentioned a 1¢ download – if anyone has the link for that please let us know and we’ll add it.

Here’s a list of options from Orensmoneysaver:

Thief: Opportunist – $0.40 per code (profit $9.60), Limit 5 Per 48 hours
Thief: Ghost Booster – $0.40 per code (profit $9.60), Limit 5 Per 48 hours
Thief: Predator Booster DLC – $0.40 per code (profit $9.60), Limit 2 per 48 hours
Assassin’s Creed codes – $.99 (profit $9.01), Limit 5 per 48hrs

Update: Dansdeals has a better link which currently has items for just 18¢ available. Note that the Terms of the Amex Offer indicate that “offer only valid on orders shipped within the United States and its territories”. Some of these items at the above link are shipped from overseas. I’m fairly confident that these items will trigger the offer credit, but there’s no way to guarantee this.

As we noted in the original post, many have trouble checking out with Amex Checkout on Newegg. The trick is to either use the mobile app or to begin the checkout with Newegg and only transfer over to Amex Checkout at a later step.

Other Merchants

Without a doubt, Newegg is the best part of this deal, but in the name of looking outside the box, it’s worth looking at the other merchants as well. Remember, we can get a $10 credit at each of the merchants under this Offer.

Burberry

You can buy a $50 Burberry gift card and that should trigger the $10 credit ($50 is the smallest denomination), though there isn’t any resale profit there. The main benefit here is that then you should hopefully be able to use multiple gift cards on a future purchase.

The cheapest Burberry item I found so far is this nail polish for $22, which will be $12 after the Amex credit hits.

Note: I can’t seem to find the Amex Checkout option on Burberry.

WSJ

You can buy a 3-month subscription for $12, or $2 after the offer credit hits. Not sure if you can do multiples of this and pay out for a number of years of WSJ across multiple Amex cards.

Ledbury

You can buy a $50 gift card and trigger the $10 credit. Or you can buy these $35 socks. Anyone?

Sabon

You can buy some wipes for $4, but there’s ~$12 shipping fee. Forget it. (Can we ask them not to ship it and just throw it in the garbage instead….?)

UPDATE: Readers pointed out that you can buy a $10 e-gift card to Sabon. You can then make one large purchase with multiple gift cards. You’ll even get free shipping on orders over $69. Free stuff, plus you’ll get 8% cashback going through the portal. [You can also try code: July05 for orders over $50, July010 for orders over $85, and July015 for orders over $120.]

Warby Parker

You can get sunglasses for $95 which will trigger the $10 credit.

Barkbox

They sell some sort of subscription of treats for your dog, or something like that (not entirely sure). There is a $19 monthly plan. Get it and cancel after a month – trigger the $10 credit. [You may also get 10% off you order with promo code: REGULARABANDON2. (source)]

Ticketmaster

They do sell gift cards, lowest is $25. I’m a little worried here since in previous Amex Offers gift cards were excluded in the terms from getting the offer. Let us know if you have success with this.

If this does end up working, it could be an easy moneymaker by reselling the gift cards for $21, a net profit of $6 per Amex card.

If gift cards work, it would make it easier to maximize the offer even for someone who wants to purchase tickets, since you can buy multiple gift cards with your Amex cards and then purchase the tickets at a 40% discount. [UPDATE: @yehuda tells us that Ticketmaster only allows one gift card to be used per order. Also, a reader notes that the Amex Checkout option does not come up for Ticketmaster gift card purchases.]

wsjwine.com, laithwaiteswine.com, virginwines.com

There are some single bottles of wine for under $15; problem is the $20 shipping fee. I don’t see any gift card option, so there’s no easy way to broaden the discount. I’m stumped…

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Randy
Randy (@guest_148428)
July 21, 2015 15:55

I’m only seeing a couple of cards. It seems like I saw a prompt that said only my BUSINESS cards could use Amex Checkout.

Anil Desai
Anil Desai (@guest_147910)
July 20, 2015 14:23

Thanks for the wonderful article DoC. 🙂

I would like to trade my $75 Sabon Gift card for $50 Amazon. Anybody out there?

With this $75 Gift card, you can make $9 per AMEX Card and if Portal Bonus works then its going to be almost $14 per card. Let me know if anyone interested, I can send more details.

Sue
Sue (@guest_146626)
July 17, 2015 10:48

Same thing happened to me with $10 CVS card, so I’ll go back in 24 hours to purchase, but I WAS able to get a Chili’s card on same day…..so if you change it up to another $10 gift card it will work! How about a $10 gift card for CVS?……there’s always something on sale that you use all the time, especially when new sales come out on Sunday. GOOD LUCK

MLH
MLH (@guest_146608)
July 17, 2015 10:04

Just found out there is a limit of 1 per 48hrs on the Home Depot GC from Newegg. I shop there a lot so was just going to get a bunch of $10 GCs but now my orders are getting cancelled for exceeding the limit. Wonder if I can go back through and order a different GC and still get the $10 credit?

Dan
Dan (@guest_146317)
July 16, 2015 14:45

Sabon GCs working again but now it takes a long time to get the code. A $13 GC I had with them mysteriously had its balance drained also. This was purchased before the outage yesterday and today its $0 balance. Oh well

Todd
Todd (@guest_146324)
July 16, 2015 14:53

Have you tried the code when at checkout? I had one this morning that showed as 0, but when I tried at checkout it worked for full amount. I also had one gift card that magically changed to $12 from the $11 that I purchased. Their system is definitely glitchy.

gary
gary (@guest_147130)
July 18, 2015 15:09

is there a place to enter the gift card amount as when i went to sabon it has per-determined amounts you cant enter your own $ amount. it starts at 10 but next one is 20.

Or did they change the site to prevent the $11 e-cards

Todd
Todd (@guest_147133)
July 18, 2015 15:14

Yep, looks like they changed the website. There used to be a box next to $50 where you could enter a value. Now it looks like you just get a free $10 to spend at Sabon instead of making money.

Eric
Eric (@guest_146278)
July 16, 2015 13:46

I placed my orders with Sabon and only AFTER that did I think to look if a portal pays cash back. TCB pays 8%. Did anyone receive this? The terms don’t appear to exclude gift cards.

Patrick
Patrick (@guest_146285)
July 16, 2015 13:53

I bought my Sabon GCs last night and my TCB acct shows the pending cash back.

I used to forget about cashback portals when I started out but now it’s become a habit. I annoy my friends about using them before they purchase something.

Eric
Eric (@guest_146396)
July 16, 2015 18:25

I think the reason I didn’t think of looking was I figured that there’s no way a unknown company like Sabon would give cash back. Boy was I wrong as 8% is an awesome rate. I probably wouldn’t have thought of looking for TicketMaster either except that someone mentioned that TCB was paying $.27. I don’t recall anyone saying anything about using a portal for Sabon before I did. I’m sure that I won’t make this mistake again.

Todd
Todd (@guest_146291)
July 16, 2015 14:07

I have had half of my morning orders post on TCB so far. Sabon has been moving very slowly but I expect the rest of the orders to trickle in to TCB as well. Pretty cool if it tracks, but no big deal if it doesn’t.

Eric
Eric (@guest_146310)
July 16, 2015 14:37

Did it track for the full amount of the order or only the amount that was actually charged to your Amex?

Todd
Todd (@guest_146313)
July 16, 2015 14:43

Full amount

Eric
Eric (@guest_146220)
July 16, 2015 11:30

Did anyone else notice that TicketMaster only gives SMS as an option for security? I have also purchased from Sabon and NewEgg and they gave me the option of receiving it by email.

Todd
Todd (@guest_146302)
July 16, 2015 14:21

I’m not sure what the pattern is exactly. Sometimes it depends if you have a phone number or email associated with the card. After about 60 transactions I’m not sure I can figure out what the pattern is. I’ve had to do SMS, email, and sometimes the CID on the front of the card. I’ve been using SMS lately when it gives me the option because it’s immediate. Email has been taking a minute or two today.

Eric
Eric (@guest_146307)
July 16, 2015 14:33

Which of the deals have you done so far? Have you received any credits yet?

Todd
Todd (@guest_146316)
July 16, 2015 14:44

I did NE, TM, and almost finished with Sabon (very slow). I’ve only received credits for my test purchases on the 9th at NE like others have.

zjts
zjts (@guest_146095)
July 16, 2015 06:33

does the $10 amex credit work with purcahse at newee of NEWEGG or VISA gift cards, electronic or physical?

Sue
Sue (@guest_146059)
July 16, 2015 04:00

I had no problem do Amex express check out for $10.00 gift card. (In fact I guess I accidentally selected the wrong one, therefore I did a chat online and discuss the problem with them so they gave me a one time only $10 Newegg gift card and I was able to buy the gift card that I actually wanted. So now I have two gift cards)

Adam
Adam (@guest_145970)
July 16, 2015 00:57

awesome, thx! got in on NE via a few AE cards. one login, lets see if the creds post next wk.