How I am maximising the American Express Business Platinum £150 Dell cashback offer

American Express recently launched a series of cashback offers for its Business Platinum and Business Gold cardholders.  This is how I am trying to maximise one of them to generate as much money as possible.

I am going to look at the Dell cashback offer for American Express Business Platinum cardholders.

This is a generous deal.  If you spend over £150 at Dell before 27th August, you will receive £150 cashback.

Unfortunately, we have no need for any IT equipment at the moment.  I decided that the best way to maximise this deal was to buy something for close to £150 and then resell it on eBay.

This needed to be approached sensibly.  Buying a monitor, for example, had many problems – they are easily damaged in transit, and they are bulky and expensive to ship.  This wasn’t the way to go.

I also wanted to spend as close to £150 as possible to minimise my out of pocket expenditure.

I settled on this:

It is a Dell USB 3.0 Ultra HD Triple Video Docking Station D3100 UK.  I had absolutely no idea what it did, although the description says “The Dell Docking Station – USB 3.0 connects your laptop to up to three additional monitors, various external devices and the Internet with a single cable.”

However, this is what I DID know:

it cost £128.94 plus VAT with free delivery, so the total cost was £154.72 (£4.72 over the magic £150 level to trigger the cashback)

it looked like a relatively small and sturdy item to post

brand new ones were listed on eBay for around £100 and many were at higher prices

A few seconds after placing my order, I received an email from Amex confirming that I had triggered by £150 cashback:

The cashback triggered within 24 hours of the transaction hitting my statement:

You might make a profit even if you don’t sell the docking station ….

Dell Small Business is on various shopping and reward portals.  If you are a member of any of these, see what you can get.  As long you’re getting more than £4.73 of value back on your £154.73 purchase, you will automatically be in profit even without selling the item.

You have also earned 154 Membership Rewards points from your purchase!

Next step …. sell the D3100

I haven’t sold the unit yet, so this is still a work in progress.  However, I will show you what I have done so far.

eBay was always going to be the best place to sell this.  eBay lets you clone listings run by others.  This made it very easy to get my product listed.  The parcel arrived as scheduled on Wednesday 8th and it took me under 10 minutes to get my eBay listing up.

You can see my (still running) eBay listing here which you can clone.  Go to my listing and on the left hand side, click where it says “Have one to sell? Sell it yourself”.  You will be taken to the listing form with all of the data pre-populated.  There is virtually nothing for you to do except set a price.

eBay recommended I price it at £109.  I went for £99 plus £5 postage.  Amazon was charging £119.

This was for a ‘Buy It Now’ listing.  I could have run an auction, but I was happy to sit it out and hope for £99.  With other ‘Buy It Now’ sellers asking as much as the £150+ I had paid, albeit they had professional looking eBay ‘shops’, I am hopeful it will sell.

If it doesn’t, I’ve not lost anything.  Second-hand units are selling for around £60, so I’m sure it would go quickly if I went down from £99 to £75.

In the end, I estimate that I will have spent no more than 90 minutes on the entire process, of which 60 minutes will be a casual stroll down to the Post Office and back which I am happy to write off as exercise.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 2021 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit or charge card, here are our November 2021 recommendations based on the current sign-up bonus. 

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the top current deals:

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers.

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and a long list of travel benefits Read our full review

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending:

Barclaycard Select Cashback Credit Card

1% cashback and no annual fee Read our full review