Get 500 free American Express Membership Rewards points

If you have an Amex Membership Rewards account, and are opted in to emails (and if not, you should be), you should have received an email yesterday which looks, on the face of it, like a piece of junk.  

It was called ‘Glittering festive gift ideas from Membership Rewards’, an invitation to hit the Delete key if ever there was one.

However, this email contains a very attractive promotion:

Redeem online between 1 October and 31 December 2012 and receive a bonus of 500 Membership Rewards points on your first redemption

Amex has run this promotion every year for the last 3-4 years and the bonus points always post.  Note, though, that you won’t get your 500 bonus points until close to the back-stop date of 10 February 2013.

Now, as far as I’m concerned, you should try to do the smallest possible redemption that you can.  Why bother moving 1,000 points to Avios?  If there is a 100% bonus on Avios transfers next year, you will actually be worse off if you move 1,000 points now that you don’t need.  At the same time, you should obviously do a transfer to a programme where you can use the points.

What do I suggest?  Club Carlson has a minimum transfer requirement of 3 points.  Jumeirah Sirius is 15 points.  BA / Virgin / BMI all need 1,000, so I would ignore those.  

The winner, I think is Nectar (assuming you have an active Nectar card) where the minimum transfer is just 1 point.  That leaves you 499 points up.

Personally, I will probably do Club Carlson (although I will need to ring them to change the card number linked to my MR account).  If I can’t be bothered, I will move 15 into my dormant Jumeirah account – although as we are at one of their properties in December, it won’t be dormant for long.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

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:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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.