I can write about gift cards until your eyes bleed because whenever something comes up I can write about it at my own pace. In an in person setting, I need your help with guidance on what to talk about, otherwise I’ll be sitting there and listening.
Some Context
A couple of months ago, I was burned for $2000. I relied on past performance and not following up with constant buying to see if a portal works or not. Since then, I have been following my own advice and every month I do a “feeler” to make sure the portals pay out. It’s been working out very well and I have been consistently earning points.
The Experience
In the post that I linked, I mentioned the second store changing the MCC code when buying gift cards and I lost out on the category bonus cash back.
It looks like this will be the new normal going forward. Here’s another vendor that I have redacted where I have been buying gift cards and mid purchase they changed everything.
First, they did this and I paid no mind to what was happening behind the scenes. I did note in the mental bank to not abuse this any more because what else could it be for $500 each?
Then this happened, which made it killed the deal:
See how it’s classified as direct marketing? The MCC code has changed.
Why Is This Happening
This is likely happening because these large retailers don’t need to pay the exorbitant fees to the credit card companies and banks for processing the use of a credit card. I be they are moving it over to lower cost MCC categories so they don’t have to pay up the wazoo to process gift cards to people like us.
This Change Hurts The Most
The hurt factor behind it is like the latest dynamic Delta pricing to me. I rely on quarterly bonused cards. I lean on the cards for extra 5x per quarter and I look forward to certain categories and quarters to help me get to where I need to be to buy the miles or points. I will not worry too much about it, but it changes things a bit and makes it much more important to keep sending feelers out every month. Otherwise, if you wait until the quarter and drop big spend, you could be looking at big losses hoping for that 5x payout or portals.
