American Express Gift Cards are a popular option for those last-minute or difficult holiday gifts. Here are the highlights:
- Works wherever American Express is accepted.
- No fees after purchase. Other cards may have inactivity fees or transaction fees.
- Funds do not expire. If the date on the card expires, get a new card by calling Customer Service at 1-877-297-4438.
- Replaceable if your card is stolen or lost.
- Note: American Express does not ship Gift Cards to the states of HI and VT.
The standard drawback is that these cards usually have two separate fees: a $3.95 purchase fee and a $5.95 standard or $8.95 expedited shipping fee.
EXPIRED. Until 11:59 PM EST on Sunday 12/4/2016, you can get $0 purchase fee and free expedited shipping with promotion code CYBER16.
Some people also use these gift cards for meeting credit card spending hurdles as you can buy them with any major credit card (AmEx, Visa, Mastercard, or Discover card).
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This promo code (EMDADWL) is not working for me when I tried to use it today. I got the following error:
We’re sorry, but the Promotion code you entered is not valid or has expired. Please check to make sure that you entered the correct Code.
Did anyone had success with this code?
Here is the exact link and text from the e-mail I received, let me know if that changes your results:
http://email.americanexpress.com/a/hBN6laQAQB6FsB8bf8dBftmAAW-/axp6
Seems to be working, says “accepted” when I add it to cart. Do you buy through the “business” section or “personal” section?
Trying either (personal or buisness) didn’t work for me, at least the charges still showed up if I tried to go through to checkout, though I was finding that hitting cancel in the process would bring up a popup, where they’d waive the shipping charge (without signup for premium shipping). Probably a good deal if you want one card, though I was trying to get several smaller cards, so it wasn’t as good for me.
It worked for me! Under business section.
I got the same error as the first commenter. Maybe it’s only available to people that got the e-mail…
For the purposes of spending a certain dollar amount on a credit card to earn a bonus, what about hotel reservations where they charge the first night right away? You can cancel the rez later and get a refund so I’m wondering if there is any reason I couldn’t book a bunch of reservations at a high priced hotel for 6-9 months out to help me get to $3k I need to spend on my Chase Sapphire within 3 months and then simply cancel those reservations after I’ve made my minimum spending requirement.
Any chance that Chase sees that the refund relates to an earlier charge and tries to get back the bonus?
never thought of this way as expediting point/reward collection. thanks for the tip
I wanted to purchased several Amex gift cards as gifts for future weddings, etc (using my Chase Sapphire Preferred card). I wanted to do the premium shipping plan; however, this is an option only if you are an Amex card holder. Did anyone find a different solution?
Has anyone found the “Premium Shipping Plan”? I found the terms and conditions from a Google search, but I can’t find any place to sign up for it.
Has anyone been successful buying these with free shipping and with the code? I just received my Chase Sapphire Preferred today and would like to buy some of these to use at Costco. I would prefer to get the shipping free and the waived fee that Jonathan mentioned. Also does anyone know if I can buy at separate times and still get the free shipping each time? Jonathan, you said to cancel “ASAP” but if you cancel won’t you lose the free shipping? What is the charge to join the “Premium Shipping Plan”? Does anyone know if you can buy Costco gift cards with a Visa card in the store or online?
I found the info when trying to check out and buy the gift cards. From what I recall, it’s a little box that offers you a chance at free shipping. The Premium Shipping Plan is just that, a shipping membership plan that offers free shipping as long as you are a member of it. There is a free trial to get you to try it out. I can only assume that if you cancel the membership, you lose any further free shipping privileges.
Jonathan,
Thanks for replying back. A couple days ago I tried to use the code that you gave. It appears to be expired (as others here said). I looked at the shipping option and it appears to only be $1.95 for regular shipping. So I might just buy a $1000 (or more) gift card and spend the $3.95 + $1.95 as that doesn’t seem too costly.
Can anyone answer this: does buying Amex gift cards count as a purchase transaction if you pay with an Amex credit card? Or cash advance?
It should definitely count as a purchase if you buy with an AmEx. I have heard stores of it counted as purchase my most folks with Visa/MC, but also stories of it being counted as a cash advance for some. However, you can call them and argue that these are just gift cards just like Walmart gift cards.
Alternatively, you can call up beforehand and set your cash advance limit to zero, and then try to make the purchase online. If it goes through, it should be counted as a purchase. Setting the cash advance limit to zero can be a good idea in general too.
The code only works if not doing through BigCrumbs link, it seems like.
I was just given one of these amex gift cards. It says on the paper that the card is attached to “$3.95 Purchase Charge”. Does that mean that the person who bought the card for me had to pay 3.95 above it’s face value to buy it? Or does it mean that each time I use it, there’ll be an additional 3.95 deducted from the card’s remaining balance? I don’t want to ask the gifter because it sounds ungrateful somehow questioning the real value of what they’ve given me or how much it cost them. It’d be useful to know though whether I need to basically think of it’s value as being (at least) 3.95 lower than it’s face value.
I went through ebates and got the error message, but when I went to their site in a new tab, I used the code without a problem.
$200 limit on eGiftcards. Can we use it multiple times?
How do you cancel the premium shipping plan? Do you have to call?
Just ordered a couple cards. From the confirmation email:
Special Offer: Thank you for your order! With our compliments, your next order of American Express Gift Cards is FEE-FREE. Simply enter code EMSVCA upon checkout at americanexpress.com/gift to receive 100% off the purchase charge. You can use this code for every order you place through 1/31/12.
Received the same EMSVCA code good till 1/31/12.
Easy way to cancel Premium Shipping:
-Log in to Amex
-Gift Cards at the bottom of the page
-Manage your orders
-Shipping Addresses section
-Your Premium Shipping Plan free trial will end in xx days.
-View
-Cancel
@Bob, @Albrecht – Thanks for the updates and tips!
I bought giftcards with my citicard AmEx, and it counted as a CASH ADVANCE, not as a PURCHASE. They reversed the charges, but people should check their cardmember agreements before using a card to purchase a gift card.
The AmEx gift card purchases I made with my Chase Sapphire were counted as PURCHASES.
@Joe — the $3.95 is when you purchase the card, thats it … if you get the fee waived, its waived
Once you have it, there are no FEES associated with using it
I been looking for coupon codes to purchase few gifts cards to send to my clients and save on shipping and purchase fee as well. Thanks for the codes.
I took advantage of this last year, but it seems it won’t allow me to benefit, from a 90-day free enrollment to the next day shipping, for a 2nd time.
Can anyone confirm?
@J.C.
Do you remember how much you ended up spending in GC’s?? I was thinking about buying $2K worth in order to meet my spending requirement on my Chase Sapphire Preferred, and want to make sure that it goes through ok. Thanks!
looks like the promo codes are dead?
Craptards! Neither of the promo codes work anymore. AND they’ve up their shipping to $8.95. :!
Confirming, despite their promise, Amex disabled the January code 🙁
Update, it works again. Just had to clear the cookies for some reason on IE.
“EMSVCA, valid through 1/31/12” Just worked for me on 3/7/12.
Thank you for sharing this code!
EMSVCA, valid through 1/31/12 worked for me on 4/13/12.
I’m not sure that those cards are a good buy. Because I’ve had the pleasure of getting a 100$ gift card from my employer…
a. How do you get the last $ off of them
b. How do you remember to use them, track all of your purchases on them, etc
c. Just another card to carry in your wallet, and is lost $ is you lose your wallet.
d. Is all of this stress worth the amount on the card, let alone the free $$ you may qualify for with a rewards card.
Far better to look towards getting rewards by doing things like
a. waiting on big purchases till you have a card (a new phone, new computer, etc.)
b. purchasing something like a gym membership for a year, where you get a discount for buying in advance, and would have payed month to month anyway.
c. transfering fixed costs to the card, things like phone bills, rent, heat, etc
Getting the last $ off them is simple, you can go to any retailer and ask for a split transaction. If you card has $5.64 left on it and your bill is $20.21, just ask for a “split transaction” and charge $5.64 on the first one, and the remaining balance on your regular card. I’ve done it many times to use up gift cards, usually at a Target or Wal-mart and not a small mom and pop.
The rest of your reasons are mental, which are valid and I agree with them but this is more of a last-ditch effort purpose, i.e. you have to spend $3,000 in 3 months but there is only 2 weeks left and you still have $500 left and nothing else to buy right now. Buying a gift card that stores value (and hopefully close to free with these codes) would be much preferable to wasting money on something you don’t need.
Do you know if these Amex cards can be used to pay tax at websites like payusatax.com and count as debit cards? That’d be awesome because the fee for debit cards is usually about $4-$5 range flat-rate; good way to earn some cash-back.
I’m pretty sure they would count as a credit card. Don’t you have to use a PIN for debit card purchases?
Thanks so much! THE FREE PROCESSING CODE JUST SAVED ME NEARLY $400 IN PROCESSING!! That is a huge savings!!
THANKS AGAIN!
What if the card is lost/stolen in the mail? Is there some kind of security activation process? Thanks.
EMWISHWEL, valid through 11/30/12
JUST WORKED BEAUTIFULLY AND SAVED ME $181.70!!!! Thank you sooooo much for posting!
Can anyone tell if they ship via USPS or UPS/Fedex? That would make a difference between shipping to home or office.
BigCrumbs Cash Back Details & Exclusions : “Cash back not available on eGift Cards. Cash back is not offered on fee-free promotional codes.” Has anyone had success using these promotion codes as well as the cashback from bigcrumbs ?