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 Bilt's secure site
Terms & restrictions apply. See rates & fees.
| 1X | Choose to earn up to 1X points on rent and mortgage payments with no transaction fee |
| 2X | Earn 2X points + the option to earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday purchases |
Pros
- Choice to earn up to 1 Bilt Point per dollar spent on rent and mortgage payments
- Elevated everyday earnings with both Bilt Points and the option to earn Bilt Cash
- $400 Bilt Travel Portal hotel credit per year (up to $200 biannually)
- $200 Bilt Cash annually
- Priority Pass membership
- No foreign transaction fees
Cons
- Moderate annual fee
- Designed primarily for members seeking a premium, all-in-one card
- Earn points on housing with no transaction fee
- Choose to earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday spend. Use Bilt Cash to unlock point earnings on rent and mortgage payments with no transaction fee, up to 1X.
- 2X points on everyday spend
- $400 Bilt Travel Hotel credit. Applied twice a year, as $200 statement credits, for qualifying Bilt Travel Portal hotel bookings.
- $200 Bilt Cash (awarded annually). At the end of each calendar year, any Bilt Cash balance over $100 will expire.
- Welcome bonus (subject to approval): 50,000 Bilt Points + Gold Status after spending $4,000 on everyday purchases in the first 90 days + $300 of Bilt Cash.
- Priority Pass ($469/year value). See Guide to Benefits.
- Bilt Point redemptions include airlines, hotels, future rent and mortgage payments, Lyft rides, statement credits, student loan balances, a down payment on a home, and more.