tips and tricks to meet 3k in 3 month spend

guestman

MrFrugalFever said:

If you really can’t get to £3k by your own spending then perhaps you could buy food/fuel etc for family and they transfer the money to you?

Do you have a car or motorbike due a service? A visit to the vets for a pet?
dentist appointment? Opticians?

Christmas is upon us soon, presents?

yep 3 kids so presents will take some of it up, im not going to just stop at 3k tho, im going to put as much as i can on it, just incase something doesnt count towards the 3k spend

dcfc67

Holiday did it for me, Christmas presents could meet the spend.

Not sure about whether you can buy gift cards from supermarkets with your weekly shop to get your 3K spend.

I do hope you got the extra 2000 point bonus when applying by getting referred.

Currently you get 30000 points or 32000 if you get referred.  Think the enhanced offer ends on 7th November (thats to apply not spend 3K)

guestman

dcfc67 said:

Holiday did it for me, Christmas presents could meet the spend.

Not sure about whether you can buy gift cards from supermarkets with your weekly shop to get your 3K spend.

I do hope you got the extra 2000 point bonus when applying by getting referred.

Currently you get 30000 points or 32000 if you get referred.  Think the enhanced offer ends on 7th November (thats to apply not spend 3K)

i wasnt reffered no, i didnt think to even look into it. somebody in work sent me a link to a refferal after i had already got my card!

Zuzi

dcfc67 said:

...

Not sure about whether you can buy gift cards from supermarkets with your weekly shop to get your 3K spend.

...

Just wondering @dcfc67 why you think that gift card purchases don't count towards the 3K spend? I am thinking about applying for this card too, but I would need this to be possible to reach the threshold. 

[Deleted User]

Zuzi said:

dcfc67 said:

...

Not sure about whether you can buy gift cards from supermarkets with your weekly shop to get your 3K spend.

...

Just wondering @dcfc67 why you think that gift card purchases don't count towards the 3K spend? I am thinking about applying for this card too, but I would need this to be possible to reach the threshold. 

They may consider them as cash or specifically exclude them in the terms of the card, you'd have to ask them

Zuzi

Re: the above (gift card purchases counting towards the 3K spend)

I tried to find the T&Cs online but all I could find was along the lines "rewards are earned for each pound of eligible spending" without the definition of what is eligible spending, so I called them.
The guy I spoke to tried to explain that it's literally just cash withdrawals that do not qualify, and when I pressed him that the "transactions treated like cash [are excluded]" is their own wording so there must be more to it, he did not really have a precise answer. 
However, having done a bit more googling now I am satisfied that gift cards should indeed be OK. It's pre-paid payment cards, travellers cheques and similar that I expect to be excluded, but hopefully not a bog standard M&S or Waitrose/JL gift card.

I'll do a little test when I get my Amex, I just got approved with an eyewateringly high credit limit   

Roz81

born_again said:

Stock up of food. Tinned goods coffee tea. Toilet/kitchen rolls etc. Spending it now to hit the target will mean you get a lot of cheap weeks shopping going forward

That's it.  Get all the non perishable items that won't go to waste and that you know you'll need down the road.  3k should be easy to hit in 3 months.

jay1804

I have done many transaction with AmEx and never been charged cash fees (never withdrawn cash though) or not gotten rewards for spend.

I've even done a deposit (up to 10k) for a car with my AmEx.

Other ways to get additional spending on your AmEx is to see if any of your direct debt bills can be payed manually, for example I pay my EE bill. Also check if you can pay bills via the Post Office or PayPoint. (Some PO or PP accept AmEx).

Another way if you're really struggling to spend 3k, is the possibility of Glint pay top up, apparently there are no fees. Although I haven't used it myself.
 

WillPS

Deleted_User said:

Zuzi said:

dcfc67 said:

...

Not sure about whether you can buy gift cards from supermarkets with your weekly shop to get your 3K spend.

...

Just wondering @dcfc67 why you think that gift card purchases don't count towards the 3K spend? I am thinking about applying for this card too, but I would need this to be possible to reach the threshold. 

They may consider them as cash or specifically exclude them in the terms of the card, you'd have to ask them

For gift cards purchased in store, the card issuer has no way of separating a gift card from any other spend. It is all sent under the same MCC. Gift cards purchased online (which often have a separated checkout and MCC) are a different matter.

Same goes for lottery, or anything that goes through a till - even though these things are sometimes excluded in terms of spend offers, the card issuer realistically just sees £x.xx spend at y shop. (The only exception to this is where the card is issued by the same company as those who run the shop - i.e. Sainsbury's Bank/Sainsbury's, they theoretically could match up the txn with their till system but even then in practice you will find they probably don't.)

WillPS

jay1804 said:

Other ways to get additional spending on your AmEx is to see if any of your direct debt bills can be payed manually, for example I pay my EE bill. Also check if you can pay bills via the Post Office or PayPoint. (Some PO or PP accept AmEx).
 

Post Offices do not accept Amex for bill payments, only for payment of postage. It used to be the case that some Post Offices didn't enforce this but now their system will not let it happen.

Co-op stores (run by The Co-op Group, and not by a separate society i.e. Midcounties, Central England, Southern, Scotmid) do accept Amex for PayPoint settlement. As per my previous post, this spend appears to Amex as normal spend in a Co-op.

Octopus and Bulb accept Amex.