Real Life Scenario of Saving $1,000 with Amex Offers!

If you are up to date on the Amex Offers circuit, you are well aware that many offers came to an end last week. While I have my fingers crossed that some new awesome offers will pop up this week, I wanted to point out a real life scenario on how I was able to personally receive about a thousand dollars back as a statement credit just in the month of December. This includes 10 Amex credit cards between my husband and I.

In a prior post, I pointed out that many of these offers that I took advantage of are ones I would have made anyways anyways and that there was NO extra money spent to save money. One reader commented that they didn’t believe me, so I wanted to show my real life scenario of how I saved money to show that anyone can do it!

These offers below are all the ones I took advantage of in November and December that had an expiration date tied to the end of 2015.

• Westin Hotels: My husband travels every few weeks for work and is able to use any credit card he desires to pay for his travel expenses. The rate at the Westin was the exact same as any other hotel he typically stays at in New York City, so this did not cost any more money.
  • Statement credit received = $50
• Sheraton Hotels: Again, a work trip for my husband and his co-workers were staying at the Sheraton in Toronto as it was the across the street from their client. He was going to stay at this hotel regardless so used a registered American Express credit card to receive some money back.
  • Statement credit received = $50
• Amtrak: Another Mr. Deals work trip savings as he takes Amtrak typically every other week to get from Boston to New York City. We were only targeted on three of our credit cards, so he was only able to take advantage on three different train tickets, but still a great way to save some money on a purchase he was making anyways!
  • Statement credit received = 3 x $25 = $75
• Toys R Us: This offer was available via Twitter so I was able to register 10 American Express credit cards. Toys R Us sells Amazon gift cards, so I purchased ten $25 gift cards all on different credit cards. I use Amazon all the time regardless if I have discounted gift cards to use or not.
  • Statement credit received = 10 x $5 = $50
• Dollar General: Again another Twitter offer so I registered all 10 American Express credit cards. Again, Dollar General sells Amazon gift cards, so I stocked up. And the best part is that you were able to take advantage of this offer 3 times per registered credit card!
  • Statement credit received = 30 x $5 = $150
• Amazon.com: This was originally a targeted offer, but was eventually made available for all primary American Express cardholders. This meant I was able to register 8 American Express credit cards and purchase $60 Amazon.com gift cards per card. I was then able to immediately save the gift card number into my Amazon account.
  • Statement credit received = 8 x $15 = $120
• Backcountry.com: I found a North Face jacket that I wanted to purchase for my daughter and was searching everywhere for the best possible price. There was no sale anywhere, but one day Backcountry.com came out with a 20% off promo code and the jacket I wanted to purchase was eligible. This allowed me not only get the jacket at a slight discount, but to also get an additional $20 back as a statement credit.
  • Statement credit received = $20
• Ulta Beauty: This is where I purchase my shampoo and conditioner typically and I find their prices with coupons to be better then anywhere else. I stocked up for the next 6 months to take advantage of this statement credit offer and used two different registered credit cards.
  • Statement credit received = 2 x $10 = $20
• Diapers.com: This offer also included purchases at Soap.com which is where I typically buy a bunch of my dishwashing soap and laundry detergent items. I find the prices to be the same or cheaper then Amazon.com. Due to the Amex offer I stocked up on these items for the next few months and used two different registered credit cards.
  • Statement credit received = 2 x $10 = $20
• AirBnB: This was a great offer and fortunately we were looking to rent an AirBnB on an upcoming trip to Santa Monica anyways! With this offer, the gift card purchases eventually ended up triggering the statement credit and I purchased $600 worth of gift cards for only $300!
  • Statement credit received = 6 x $50 = $300
• Newegg.com: Newegg sells many gift cards so I utilized the statement credit to purchase some 3rd party merchant gift cards. This is the only offer that I took advantage of where I was speculatively purchasing gift cards where I did not have an immediate usage for. With this offer I purchased a combination of Home Depot and American Airline gift cards. Since American is one of my preferred airlines and we just purchased a new home, I am sure both gift cards will be used with no extra cost associated!
  • Statement credit received = 2 x $25 = $50
• Carters & OshKosh B’gosh: I was shopping here anyways for my two year old daughter, so I just made sure to use my registered American Express card.
  • Statement credit received = 2 x $5 = $10
• Dunkin’ Donuts: I go to the Dunkin’ Donuts drive through often enough so I purchased $10 gift cards on all 10 of my credit cards to use for later. The best thing about Dunkin’ Donuts credit cards is that you can save them in the app and not have to worry about losing them. This was a 50% savings on gift cards purchased!
  • Statement credit received = 10 x $5 = $50
• ShopRite: This was probably the best offer at the end of 2015! Now that we live in Boston, there are no ShopRite locations nearby. However, during our drive to New York City at the beginning of December we passed right by the grocery store and we were able to take a quick pit stop to take advantage of this offer. ShopRite sells many gift cards but I opted to purchase a Visa Gift Card. This was a targeted offer and only three of our cards were eligible, but this offer allowed to you receive the statement credit 3 times per card! This meant I purchased one $450 gift card and split the payment to put $75 on every credit card swipe. There was a $5.95 fee for the gift card so that is why I purchased one card vs. 6 different $75 gift cards. These Visa Gift Cards can then be used for anything! Typically I use them up pretty quickly at the grocery store.
  • Statement credit received = 6 x $20 – $5.95 fee = $114.05

So with all of these statement credits, my husband and I made $1,079.05. And as you can see, except the Newegg offer, all of these purchases would have been made anyways! On top of this, I also did splurge and take advantage of the INTERMIX offer which is $250 statement credit on a $500+ purchase, but I didn’t include this in my above math as I would NOT have made this purchase if it was not for the statement credit. This was a special treat to myself! Although, I am also thinking about re-selling it for a profit.

Also, I know some of these statement credits were easily received due to my husbands travel, but if you take those away the $175 between the Westin, Sheraton, and Amtrak purchases, we still made $904.05. Not too shabby!

Hopefully many of you were able to take advantage of these extremely lucrative offers as well! And fingers crossed there are some more good ones to come soon!