Meeting minimum spend on AMEX credit cards

Most of the sign-up bonus on credit cards these days comes with addendum of minimum spend requirement. This requirements are generally of meeting an amount anywhere between $1k, to $10k in 3 to 6 months time frame. While some of the folks would easily be able to meet this spending with ease; most of the folks would balk at such a requirement. In addition American Express (AMEX) cards are not accepted all mom and pop stores. 

What if we could spend money on buying Visa/MasterCard prepaid cards or any such branded re-loadable money packs using AMEX credit cards and get back that money by liquidating those cards with minimum or zero out of pocket expense? Still better what if AMEX itself helps us in doing  that. That being said listed below is one method that will help you do the same with ease: 

American Express Serve Prepaid Card: Opening a serve account is relatively easy, as although it requires the person to submit SSN it does not pull the credit report. The feature which we will utilize is the ability to load the funds using "credit card" and "debit card". The fees to load the funds using "credit card" and "debit card" has been waived till March 15th 2013. 

Loading funds using credit card: You can add $100 per day with maximum of $250 per month. That's just $250 of spending per month. Not a great perk but still you are able to load $250 without any fees. (You could use any credit card to do this, but beware of Citi Cards, as they tend to charge cash advance fee for this).

Loading funds using debit card: This is where it gets really interesting. Since most VISA/MasterCard prepaid cards are treated as debit card you can use them to load the funds. There is a limit of $1k which you can add using "debit card" in a month, but since the VISA/MasterCard does not charge you any fee in the initial 12 months, you can easily stack up $12k ($1k per month) on this card over the period of time and thus this one really works in our favor. Below is how this works:

1. Buy the "prepaid Visa/MasterCard" of $500 denomination in any of the store which accepts credit card for their purchase (even better if you can purchase it at stores which earns 2x, 3x or 6x points/miles or cash back). Assuming you value 1 cent/point, buying $500 prepaid card is like a $5 rebate which would offset most of the $5.95 fees which the "prepaid Visa/MasterCard" charges.
   
2. After you buy the prepaid card, register it on the name of the person who owns the "AMEX Serve Account". Make sure you register with his correct name, as incorrect name or name mismatch will likely result in AMEX review of your account or will not allow you to add the prepaid card.
3. You can either withdraw the funds using the ATM with $400 limit. (No AMEX fee for first withdrawal each month), thereafter $2 for each additional withdrawal in addition to vendor fees ranging from $0 to $3. 
4. You can also withdraw the money by transferring it to your linked bank account or transfer the money to your friend/spouse/relative and they can transfer the money from their Serve account to their bank account and pay you back by cash/check.
5. Thus at a cost of $.95 to $3.95 [$.95 (prepaid card buying fees) plus $0 to $3 (liquidating fees)] you would be able to easily spend $500 using your credit card.

There are other additional methods using latest AMEX Blue Bird Card and Amazon Payments. More details about AMEX Blue Bird can be found on excellent articles by FrequentMiler here and here. For Amazon Payments you can get more details here.

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