Starting TODAY, February 1st, you can take advantage of an awesome American Express promotion, which I wrote about a few weeks back. Throughout the entire month of February, you can receive a $50 statement credit after spending $200+ at 2 or more participating New York City merchants. Merchants include over 300 clothing stores, restaurants, museums, broadway shows, etc. See entire list here. The promotion is limited to the first 20,000 registrations, so make sure to register quick.
My Strategy: My husband and I have 4 Amex credit cards in total and shop at Costco quite often. Since my local Coscto is a participating merchant, I will be purchasing 4 $200 gift cards on each card for a total of $800. This will give us $200 back in statement credits, which ultimately results in 25% off our Costco shopping for the next few months! Since you need two participating merchants on each card, I will also make a very small purchase ($1-$2) at my local Ricky’s. Rickys NYC has many locations all over NYC and carries everything from shampoo to Halloween costumes to Bachelorette party items. Another inexpensive purchase can be at Dylan’s Candy Store – it will make you feel less guilty knowing that it is for free money!
To take full advantage of this promotion, you can purchase gift cards from many of the participating stores/restaurants. This will allow you to get the $50 statement credit without having to make the purchase during the designated time frame. Just make sure to purchase the gift card from the store directly and not online as those purchases will not count.
For those of you who are outside NYC and will not be in town, I’d suggest calling a participating merchant and see if you can order a gift card directly through the store and have it shipped. My assumption is that you will probably have better luck at a restaurants than a large chain clothing store. Many stores/restaurants are national chains so the gift cards can be used anywhere. Some of these merchants include: Anthropologie, Banana Republic, Bloomingdale’s, Bobby Van’s Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, Cole Haan, Dave & Buster’s, Diesel, H&M, Loehmann’s, Lord & Taylor, Macy’s, Steve Madden.
Just make sure to call a participating merchant and ensure that they are making the transaction at their store and not having it go through a central office. The transaction must happen at a participating store to trigger the statement credit.
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I really LOVE LOVE LOVE American Express! Well… I love that they are giving me free money!
Keep up the good work American Express! Make sure to register today.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
I tried ordering Macy’s gift cards over the phone, but they said that they would process the order on macys.com, so that it would not show as a purchase at the store. Bummer!
@Dave – Had a feeling that would be the case at the major chains, i.e., Macys, Bloomingdales. Have a feeling it might be similar at the other clothing stores – Steve Madden, Banana, but might have better luck there. The best luck would be from a restaurant.
Am I reading it right? It seems like you can order tickets at Ticketmaster.com and still qualify for it.
@Idin – It is unclear. It states: “Offer not valid on online purchases, except for purchases at ticketmaster.com or telecharge.com.” However, the way I read it is that you will receive a statement credit for the online purchases at ticketmaster or telecharge for a participating broadway show in NYC.
Where’s the love from Am. Express for other cities in the USA????
@Sheila – I am sorry 🙁
I wish these deals were more global.
Can you really register 4 cards? Have you been successful? The terms and conditions seem to say you can register 1 card per person (so 2 total for you and your wife).
@Jeff – I was able to register all 4 cards (1 in my name, 3 in my husbands name).
Hi. I remember when this was first covered in the blogs (I wrote about it as well), one of the bloggers (I believe it was thepointsguy) wrote that by the rules you could only register one card for this promo. I haven’t seen that mentioned elsewhere. do you have any insight on that?
@Kathy – As with every other Amex statement credit promotion, the T&C state that you can only register one card for this promotion. However, that has never actually been the case before and I do not foresee it being the case this time either. It allowed me to register for multiple cards.
thanks. I registered two cards, but wasn’t sure if one would be blocked from the promo or not. thank you.
@Registration worked, but I guess we will see what happens with statement credits. I am pretty confident that the $50 statement credit will work with all cards. I am purchasing gift cards, so I will be using the cards anyways.
Is there a way to order NY Costco gift cards online?
@alohastephen – Purchases need to be made in the store. However, there is the possibility that if you call the store they will order the gift card for you via the phone and mail it to you. Just need to ensure that the purchase is being made at that store and not at the corporate level.
Sorry – didn’t mean to sound chauvenistic!
And I’ll also try to register my other cards too! Worse comes to worst, I only get one credit.
@Jeff – you were not at all, do not worry! I am personally getting gift cards I’d use anyways, so if I do not get the credit no big deal. But have a good feeling about. it.
Any luck with over the phone ordering especially via J&R?
I am counting on you to help me solve this pickle. I registered two carts for this promotion: one my Amex Costco Card, the other one my Amex Macy’s card. I was visiting New York and I bought 2 Macy’s cards for $195 and then following your advice I went to Ricky’s and spent enough to get above the $200 threshold on both cards. My Costco card, no problems, I already have the $50 credit. My Macy’s card: Macy’s splits your Amex card into two accounts, one for stuff you buy in the store, they consider this a store charge just as if you used a Macy’s brand card, and the rest for everything else. So Amex cannot “see” that I made two valid transactions and I did not get the credit. Suggestions? Do you know how I contact Amex directly? When I call the number in the back of my card I get the nice people of Macy’s on the line and in so many words they tell me it is not their problem. Help!!!
@David – Oh no! That is true – Macy’s and Bloomingdales have two account types, one for in store purchases and one for purchases elsewhere. American Express is typically really good with manually entering statement credits, so it might not be too difficult to get the $50 credit. I looked through the registration page terms & conditions and could not find a direct phone number, however, their general customer service number is: 1-800-528-4800. American Express is also pretty active on twitter – you can send them a quick message to their handle @AmericanExpress. Thanks for bringing up this great point about Macys and Bloomingdale cards though. I will do some more thinking and see what I can find for you. I also wonder if Macys will transfer the charge from the store account to the regular Amex account. Keep me posted as well!!
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I’m wondering if anyone would know what happens if you return an item purchased with this promotion after the statement credit has already been applied? Do they reverse the statement credit? Thank you!
@Frieda- I do not believe the statement credit will be taken away if the item is returned although I am not 100% positive. I purchased gift cards so no room for return, but do not believe it is closely monitored. You should be fine, but do let me know the outcome.