There are many reasons it can make sense to hold onto a lot of credit cards. I’d argue that American Express cards are among the most compelling to hold onto, and that’s thanks largely to the Amex Offers program, which can save you money and earn you bonus points for purchases with all kinds of…
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While I agree that these deals can present excellent opportunity to save money or earn bonus points, it's worth noting that the businesses that sponsor/pay for these promotions also sponsor/pay for shopping portal points. In some cases vendors will reject your shopping portal points if you are "stacking" with an AmEx offer. I've had this happen multiple times over the past 12-18 months as merchants have gotten savvier about stacking. My advice is to calculate the value of the shopping portal deal and the AmEx deal. If in a rare circumstance the portal is BETTER than the AmEx you may not want to stack.
Examples?
Sources?
Never had it happen to me. Would be interesting to know who any why. AFAIK, stacking doesn't violate any T&C of either.
My Amex Plat card has become too cumbersome to stay on top of with the shift to shopping offers. I just find myself constantly resenting the way this card works now. It is just a bunch of incentives to shift my spending patterns and even tempt me to buy from merchants I don't value very much.
After spending 10 hours waiting for amex travel call back for a flight change then 3 hours with customer service to end up having to cancel my flight completely then only getting a credit that I can only use through amex travel the value of miles has decreased markedly in my mind.
Yup, agree that I've never had any issues stacking. In fact, I've recently quintuple stacked several promos/offers at Saks Fifth Ave and it worked beautifully:
1. promo code for 15% off purchase at check out
2. Standard 1x MR points with Amex platinum
3. Amex Offers for 4x bonus MR points at Saks
4. Rakuten portal for 15x MR points
5. Semi-annual $50 Saks statement credit for Amex Platinum
Basically paid about $1.50 out of pocket for $55 worth of beauty products that I would have bought anyway and it's the same price as other retailers, plus almost 1000 MR points. It's great that the timing for all of these promos and offers worked out and it was fun to pull off.
I've had mixed success with these. Some are super easy to do to the point that I've registered for them thinking maybe I'd shop there, forgetting about it, and then being pleasantly surprised when I get a credit later.
Other times, the T&C and hoops to jump through are a pain. One example of this was with Wine Insiders. Signed up. Clicked the Amex link. Was offered another offer like free shipping or a discount, but when that applied the domain changed slightly preventing the amex offer from processing. Amex wouldn't budge on it. I know you can't usually stack offers, but they then shouldn't offer you a separate promotion when visiting the /amex link. The value was a wash for me so I wasn't out anything in this case, but it really turns the online shopping experience into one of working to making sure you don't run afoul of rules and a gamble as to what will ultimately count and what will not (see also: Amex airline fee credits).
I don't spend a lot, and I only have the plain Hilton Honors card - but even I am able to take advantage of an offer here and there!