Last week, Big Crumbs announced via email that they would be increasing the cash back payout on American Express gift cards. At the time, Big Crumbs was offering 1.5% cash back. I predicted they would be increasing it to 2%, and I was right! It’s only half of the big 4% cash back bonuses of the past. However, considering nearly every shopping portal recently removed Amex gift cards, we’re lucky to get any payouts at all. The higher 2% cash back payout is only valid for 24 hours.
The only other shopping portal currently offering cash back on American Express gift cards is TopCashBack. Which is lagging behind at 1.5%. Hopefully, they’ll top it. Or at least match it. I’ll definitely be keeping my eye on TopCashBack in the next few days.
As a reminder, American Express gift card purchases are limit to $5,000 per day every two weeks. In my experience, though, your order is less likely to get canceled if you keep it under $5,000 (preferably $4,000). Amex business gift card purchases have a higher limit of $75,000 per day, though you’ll need to provide a business tax ID for these purchases.
As I explained in my previous post, if you have a large spending requirement to meet (i.e. the $5,000 spend on the Ink Plus card), getting American Express gift cards through a cash back portal is a great way to get it done at minimal cost. In fact, you may even come away with a small profit by unloading them via American Express for Target or Visa gift cards.
While Amex gift cards are great for generating spend, be sure not to use a Citi card for these purchases. Citi tends to code Amex gift card purchases as cash advances, in which case you’ll be on the hook for cash advance fees AND miss out on the points.
Does the cash back include personalized Amex cards? All the places that sell GCs require that the credit card I use (the Amex gift card in this case) have a name that matches the name on my driver’s license.