How to Keep Earning US Dining Credits While Living Overseas
A frequent traveler who relocated to Spain uses a workaround to claim U.S. restaurant statement credits without being in the country. By purchasing gift cards directly from participating restaurants' websites, the charges often trigger the same credits as in-person dining. This method has allowed the author to capture every cycle of up to $700 in annual credits from two premium credit cards.
The workaround hinges on how payment processors categorize gift card purchases made through a restaurant's own ordering platform, such as Toast. While third-party gift card marketplaces typically fail to trigger the credits, direct purchases from the restaurant's official website often code identically to in-person dining transactions. The author notes that only about one-third of the roughly 11,000 Resy-participating restaurants currently offer this option, though the upcoming addition of select Tock restaurants on Sept. 15 could expand that pool.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve's Exclusive Tables list, operated through OpenTable, is considerably smaller at around 400 restaurants, with a similar proportion offering e-gift cards. The author maintains a rotation of restaurants whose cards he purchases each billing cycle, effectively converting a dining benefit designed for domestic use into a flexible credit redeemable from anywhere in the world.
This practice could reshape how credit card issuers design and enforce location-based benefits, potentially prompting stricter merchant category coding or purchase verification requirements. Expats and frequent international travelers may benefit most, preserving value they would otherwise forfeit, while restaurants gain prepaid revenue. However, widespread adoption could lead issuers to tighten terms, ultimately reducing flexibility for all cardholders. The broader implication is a growing tension between cardholder ingenuity and issuer intent, with consumers increasingly finding creative ways to extract value from benefits whose original geographic constraints no longer match their lifestyles.