New Exciting Way to Use Amazon Gift Cards
Earning as many miles and points as possible for purchases in your everyday life sometimes requires creative thinking. For example, I'm sure you have at least heard of buying gift cards to various third party stores or restaurants at office supply stores or grocery stores with a rewards credit card that earns a bonus at those stores in order to maximize your points earnings. For example, I sometimes buy e-gift cards to Whole Foods at Staples.com using my Ink Plus in order to earn 5x Ultimate Rewards points on my grocery purchases.
Though that isn't really needed this quarter with grocery stores being a 5x bonus category of the Chase Freedom.
Another type of gift card that I often purchase at office supply stores or similar is an Amazon.com gift card at 5x points again using my Ink Plus. I then load those to my Amazon.com account, and my frequent Amazon purchases are simply automatically deducted from that balance unless I indicate otherwise.
While that system works great when I purchase things like diapers, grocery items, toilet paper, toys, and more from Amazon, it hasn't historically worked if I want to purchase one of the hundreds of third party retailer gift cards
available at Amazon.com to places like Hyatt, Southwest, Starbucks, Panera, Sephora, Nordstrom, and more sold by Amazon.com as Amazon didn't allow you to pay for gift cards with an Amazon gift card.
This was a bummer for many reasons, including that Amazon sometimes offers great discounted gift card deals and some of us have hefty Amazon.com balances thanks to lots of great promos that were available in late 2015.
However, when I saw that rule had changed (at least in practice) thanks to a post from Points, Miles, and Martinis, I did a test this morning with my Amazon.com gift card balance and I was able to successfully pay for a Hyatt e-gift card with that balance, which was great news!
I hope this change is a permanent one as it will help open up new ways to save money and earn additional points!
TPG featured card
at Capital One's secure site
Terms & restrictions apply. See rates & fees.
| 5X miles | Earn 5X miles on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel |
| 2X miles | Earn unlimited 2X miles on every purchase, every day |
Pros
- Stellar welcome offer of 75,000 miles after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening. Plus, a $250 Capital One Travel credit to use in your first cardholder year upon account opening.
- You'll earn 2 miles per dollar on every purchase, which means you won't have to worry about memorizing bonus categories
- Rewards are versatile and can be redeemed for a statement credit or transferred to Capital One’s transfer partners
Cons
- Highest bonus-earning categories only on travel booked via Capital One Travel
- LIMITED-TIME OFFER: Enjoy $250 to use on Capital One Travel in your first cardholder year, plus earn 75,000 bonus miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening - that’s equal to $1,000 in travel
- Earn unlimited 2X miles on every purchase, every day
- Earn 5X miles on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
- Miles won't expire for the life of the account and there's no limit to how many you can earn
- Receive up to a $120 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®
- Use your miles to get reimbursed for any travel purchase—or redeem by booking a trip through Capital One Travel
- Enjoy a $50 experience credit and other premium benefits with every hotel and vacation rental booked from the Lifestyle Collection
- Transfer your miles to your choice of 15+ travel loyalty programs
- Top rated mobile app