The Offer
Direct link to offer, for the lazy click here to easily retweet our tweet
- Use an enrolled card to spend $200 or more on American Express gift cards and receive a $10 statement credit
The Fine Print
- Valid until July 31st, 2017
- Offer valid online only at www.americanexpress.com/gift
Our Verdict
Let’s take a quick look at the fees:
- Shipping fee of $8.95, but if you have the premium shipping plan with Amex, the shipping is free.
- Purchase fee of $3.95.Â
You can waive one of these fees with a promo code, if you don’t have the premium shipping then you’ll want to waive the shipping. Codes are:
- MAR17FEE (should work until 4/30) for non activation fee
- FREESHP17A (should work until 6/30) for no shipping fee
This should also stack with 1.5% cash back through Topcashback (our review here). Let’s take a look at your profit:
- $10 from American Express offer
- Maximum fees of $3.95
- ~$2 in credit card rewards
- ~$3 in portal rewards
You should make about $11 profit per card that is enrolled in this offer, obviously the downside is actually getting rid of these cards but it’s still a return of 5.5% so even if you use them for everyday spend you’re doing well.
View more Amex offers here & if you have any questions abut American Express offers then read this post.
- AmEx Offers: An Introduction & Profitable Examples
- How To Sign Up For Multiple American Express Sync Offers
- Amex Offer Credit Not Posting, What to Do?
- How Does American Express Decide Who Receives What AmEx Sync Offer?
- Do I Need To Make A Single Purchase For AmEx Offers, Or Is It Cumulative?
- What Happens When You Have Two Active AmEx Offers For The Same Store?
- Amex Offers: Do Electronic Wallets Trigger the Offer Credit?
I find Amex’s gift card site to be so incredibly glitchy. I’ve never been able to log in to my account successfully. Only ever been able to make an order as a guest. Sure would be convenient to be able to purchase gift cards after logging in to their own system…
Even purchasing as a guest is hit or miss. Managed to make 5 orders a few days ago, successfully using FREESHP17A. Now that code isn’t working for me, even though it is now supposed to be valid through Sept.
Sometimes I wonder why I continue to spend time on deals like this, when they make it so hard…
My Amex gift card order gets denied recently without any reason. (I ordered 200 x 5 without issues). 6 th order onwards its getting denied. Does any one know limits how much they will allow in a month
How about buying a $198 personalized gift card? With the purchase fee waived by MAR17FEE, the shipping fee is only $2 for a total of $200. $1.95 in extra profit. 🙂
Does the personalized gc usually work for tracking on the portals? I’m thinking of trying it for the current SYW promo.
Is it confirmed that Amex no longer offers the free 90 day trial for premium shipping?
if you order $198 personalized it wont trigger amex credit i guess
It should trigger it as the shipping charge is $2 making it a $200 charge to your Amex.
The question is whether or not the personalized gc tracks to portals as it didn’t the last time I tried 1 or 2 years ago.
Thanks for the idea on the personalized GC. I haven’t checked out yet but it does seem to work with WEB171 no purchase fee promo code, and only $2 shipping.
I bought several $200 non-personalized GCs earlier this week for $203.95 each with a free shipping code. Couldn’t find any way to get a 90 day free trial. TCB hasn’t posted any CB yet after a few days. I’ve received the orders already and was having some buyers remorse about “only” netting ~3% CB plus the 1% or 1 SPG point.
The extra $1.95 cost “profit” works for me even if it is only 1%. To not get overwhelmed, I’ve really been trying to limit my MS or maximizing my spending rewards to methods that net me closer to 5%+ instead of just a couple percent.
Just tried it- nice one for an extra $2. Since the free shipping code doesn’t seem to be working this is especially nice. Got an email immediately from Amex that I had used my offer. (FYI, I value SPG points a lot higher than that for actual hotel stays.)
Me too for SPG. I should have been clearer that the 1% refers to my several Amex Blue Cash or BBVA Amex cards that only earn 1% non-bonused spend.
Math-wise, I would include the opportunity cost of buying/paying for $200 worth of stuff on any card you’d like, given that you can’t liquidate AMEX except by making purchases.
Since a 2% cashback card is relatively ubiquitous, that would mean it is $4 less. The math would be $11 – $4 = $7 net profit.
Have any of you purchased an Amex GC through the SYWE site? If so, did it track automatically? If that works it could be a good choice when the next 15% back on up to $50 comes around.
The portal cashback is invalid when a promo code is used. In the example cited, if you are discounting the shipping fees (using a promo code I assume), then you should remove the portal cashback as well. So the profit should be around 8 bucks.
In my experience the portal cashback will still work
Am I right in assuming that these purchases count towards minimum spending on non-MR cards?
Never mind. Just realized. It’s useless to me since Amex does not ship these gift cards to Hawaii ðŸ˜
They do count towards minimum spend requirements.
Why did you specify “non-MR cards”? Why would they be treated differently than CB cards from Amex?
I meant to write why would non-MR and MR cards be treated differently for this purpose.
The shouldn’t be because the terms Amex has in place for the cards are the same with respect to meeting minimum spend. But I don’t even want to consider buying gift cards or cash equivalents for the MR cards since Amex has been imposing the terms on those and clawing back points or feeeZing accounts. Whereas I haven’t heard the same for non MR cards.
Wouldn’t using the free shipping code disqualify you from the portal credit? I don’t see the code listed on TCB.
Check this out https://www.doctorofcredit.com/amex-gift-card-promo-code-working-for-small-gift-card-purchases/
I too cannot seem to find the free shipping trial offer.
how do you get a free trial?
You’ll see it when you signup.
you see this if you pick the $99 option? or it shows while you’re checking out? cause I don’t see the option of getting a free trial…
There is no such option available.
I see, I guess they stopped the free 90 day trial.
Updated post, wasn’t sure if it was still available or not