Update 1/11/21: Obviously this no longer works as the streaming credit doesn’t exist for 2021. But: the actual method may no longer be available as Amazon no longer gives you the option to convert it to credit. People were using it for other reasons so just a heads up. (Hat tip to veeRob858) Others are reporting this still works, YMMV.
[Update: This method could work for any card which has a bonus on streaming categories to get the bonus on Amazon purchases too. Should work for any other sort of Streaming promotion as well. Hat tip to reader Kuku who found this works on the Blue Cash Preferred 6% category (link to their blogpost in Chinese). Not sure how scalable this is, but interesting idea nonetheless.]
Dansdeals found a nifty method to easily buy Amazon gift card credit with your $20 streaming on American Express personal Platinum cards. Simply gift someone a Kindle eBook or Kindle Unlimited membership, and they’ll get an option to exchange the membership/ebook for an Amazon gift card credit instead. It will code as Streaming to get reimbursed. (affiliate links below)
- Kindle eBooks
- Sample eBook for $20
- Sample eBook for $.99 (to test the waters)
- Kindle Unlimited gift membership purchase ($47.86)
The recipient will get an email which allows them to accept the gift membership/eBook or they can get the Amazon gift card equivalent deposited into their Amazon gift card account. (The sales tax gets included as well when the recipient redeems it as an Amazon gift card balance.)
For example, if you and your spouse each has their own Amazon account, your spouse can send you a $20 eBook as a gift and you can cash it out as Amazon credit to your Amazon account. Your spouse will get the $20 credit on their Amex Platinum card and you’ll get the cost of the eBook deposited into your Amazon gift card balance.
Just be careful when you get the eBook or membership gift to choose the option in the email which allows cashing it out as Amazon gift card credit instead. You’ll see that option beneath the ‘Accept Gift’ or ‘Redeem your Kindle Unlimited gift’ button in the email. Other people do not see the gift card redemption option within the email itself, but it shows on the next page after clicking the link in the email to ‘get your kindle book now’ or ‘Redeem your Kindle Unlimited membership’.
A few notes:
- You need to send the eBook/membership gift FROM an Amazon account which does not have an Amazon gift card balance; if the sending account has a gift card balance, the system forces you to pay with the gift card, and you won’t be able to pay with the Amex Platinum card.
- When doing the Kindle Membership gifting method, the system can automatically exchange the membership for Amazon gift card credit, and the Amazon gift card credit is applied to the recipients account. On the other hand, when you do the eBook gifting method the system prompts you to ‘request a gift credit from customer service now’. You won’t have to chat with an agent, but it is a manual process, so it takes a few hours until the customer service actually applies the credit.
- With the eBook gifting method, the system will automatically use your no-rush-shipping credits first. However, those will not credited; they’ll be lost when using the cashout method. So you’ll want to use an account with no digital credits attached.
- You can do the eBook method even if you only have one Amazon account, provided you have two email addresses, by following the instructions here. Similar thing should work when gifting yourself Kindle Unlimited membership.
I don’t really see how Amex could change anything here since they won’t actually know whether the purchase ended up being an actual Kindle purchase/subscription which is eligible for the streaming credit or it ended up being a gift card. Maybe they could decide to stop allowing Kindle purchases to count? but I don’t see how they could claw these back. In any case, it’s only a temporary credit, so it should be fine.
Hat tip again to Dansdeals
