1) Sometimes getting a business account will help with limits but typically in my experience, they don’t. 2) I live in a state with sales tax, so I almost never go into a retailer to buy anything. The only time I do are for streaming devices where the commissions will cover the tax AND when I’m trying to hit a minimum spend on a new card. Most retailers will limit the number of items you can buy so it can take multiple visits to get enough to be given a free shipping label from the buying group. 3) I did one gift card buying group, one time. To me it just wasn’t worth the hassle of keeping everything straight and dealing with potential problems.

Great article and comments. Few questions:

1) With Amazon is there a way of getting around the minimal amounts? Seems like most items have a maximum of three that can get sent.
2) How do you weigh deals where you physically go into a retailer and buy items to send to the various buying groups (sales tax you have to pay, shipping, etc.). Have you done this and how do you weigh the cost versus the points you are getting?
3) Any feedback in the gift card market (Card Bay, Aligned Incentives)? Looks like there are a lot of deals through Pepper, but have heard good and bad regarding the platform (including that their future isn’t bright).

Thank you!

Unfortunately, that’s been my experience too so I haven’t been able to scale too much.

Unfortunately, it seems like a lot of retailers have flagged the buying group addresses and cancel the orders. I only have luck with Amazon and sometimes Costco.

I’m sorry to hear you had such a bad experience with them! Unfortunately, even though most transactions go well, there is some risk when working with buying groups. Hopefully they eventually make things right for you!

business checking account

For Amazon, I started getting QLA on orders, and sometimes they close down the account.

I opened 4 different tickets on their platform, and they gave me the runaround for close to 5 months, and stopped replying completely 3 months ago (I have screenshots of all correspondence).

They also claim to have a guarantee that they pay out for packages that are delivered and signed for per the tracking, but they have refused to pay the money.

Per their Discord:

“Refund Policy

Any package that we can’t locate, but is showing delivered & signed for by our warehouse, will be covered in full. If we can’t locate the package within 14 days, we will notify you in the ticket you created.

You’ll need to request a refund/replacement from the retailer. If denied, we will cover the cost of the package. You will NOT need to file a dispute with your credit card.

In the ticket, attach a screenshot of the order showing tracking, contents, and serial numbers if available.”

I followed all of their instructions, including requesting a replacement/refund with Amazon (denied due to address being a freight forwarder), and provided them with all tracking information, contents, and serial numbers. I even filed a police report at their request.

I spoke directly with the owners Benjamin Daneshgar and Saman Delafraz, but both have refused to pay for the $8000 owed for these items.

Highly unlikely that I’m the only person experiencing these issues with them. Buyers beware!

I’ve used WF a lot and haven’t had any issues.