I’ve adopted this exact strategy with my BGR. I could have easily hit the $5k MSR in one month, but I’ve distributed that spend across my other Amex cards, and added Amex Offers to use on my lesser used cards, to even out my spend on the MSR card and across my Amex portfolio. (I’ve got 9 open Amex cards, and I’m putting some spend on my wife’s 2 Amexes too. It’s become a real pain managing all these cards, being careful not to overspend on any, and it kills me a little to use an Amex for something when there’s a better bonus category on one of our Chase cards.) So instead of my BGR statements looking like $5k in a month with a steep drop off, it’s more like $800, $2,100, $1,400, $700+... Of course this means putting off the bonus posting, if it does at all because you never know these days. I’m a bit nervous. When I finally hit MSR on my BGR later this month, I should have at least put several thousand $ of spend on my other non-MSR Amexes. Fingers crossed that’s enough to keep Amex happy and get me the 50k MR.
With everything we’re learning about Amex, I’ve become very reluctant to recommend their cards to anyone who isn’t planning to continue spending on their Amex, even if there are better bonus categories on other cards and big signup bonuses on new cards; or is planning to cancel the card after just one year to avoid AFs.
I’m really feeling @GlamMistress’s earlier post, almost like I’m a captive in Amex’s ecosystem. There are several more Amex bonuses that I want, so I’ll play their game a little while longer. I’m putting most of our spend on our Amex cards when not working on MSR. There could be worse currencies to be earning than MRs, Marriott, and Hilton, all of which I have plans to use, but there are so many opportunities lost if you want to keep on Amex’s good list.
