Can You Buy Gift Cards to Meet Amex's Minimum Spend to Get the Bonus?

If you've signed up for an American Express card where you're eligible for a welcome bonus, you'll have a minimum spend requirement. For the Amex Gold, it's typically £3,000 in three months to get the welcome bonus. For the Platinum welcome bonus, it's £6,000. That's a fair amount to put through a card, especially if Amex isn't widely accepted where you normally shop.

But lets say you're just short of hitting the amount, how about buying a gift card?

This strategy works for any credit card with a minimum spend requirement, but it's particularly useful for American Express cards given their generous welcome bonuses and higher spending thresholds.

The gift card strategy is straightforward: buy gift cards for places you'd shop anyway, hit your minimum spend, then use the gift cards for normal purchases over the coming months. You're not spending extra money, instead you're just bringing forward purchases you'd make eventually.

Which gift cards work

All gift cards will work, but it should be said that you should only buy gift cards for places you genuinely shop. Don't spend £500 at Waterstones if you never read books, I know you don't read... Yes, you!

This makes supermarket gift cards perfect for this:

• You'll definitely use them (everyone needs to eat)

• Easy to buy in large amounts

• All major supermarkets accept Amex

Equally, Amazon gift cards are just as good:

• No fees

• Can be loaded to your Amazon account for any amount

• Can be bought directly from Amazon or at supermarkets

For those that don't know, every time you make a purchase, the transaction includes a code (called MCC's, Merchant Category Codes) that tells Amex what type of shop you're in, but not what's in your basket. So when you buy a Sainsbury's or Amazon gift card, the transaction looks like a purchase from Sainsbury's or Amazon. Amex can't tell the difference between buying £100 of groceries and buying a £100 gift card.

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Amex reserves the right to deny you points if you're obviously gaming the system. If your entire minimum spend is gift cards in very rounded amounts, that might raise questions, especially if the company you're buying them from shows on your statement as "Amex Gift Card Scam Ltd". But if it's just a part of your normal spending? You're fine.

The sensible approach

Gift cards are a legitimate way to meet minimum spend requirements if you're not quite hitting the threshold through normal spending.

Just keep it reasonable, and only buy gift cards you'll actually use.

Sam

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