Hit your Amex card sign-up bonus by buying ‘no fee’ Amex gift cards

I have written before about the new range of American Express gift cards.  They were not, to be honest, fantastic value.

However, they are now looking VERY INTERESTING if you have an American Express spending target to hit on a new credit card.  If you don’t have an Amex card with a spend target to hit, this might be a good time to apply for one!

Here is the official site for Amex gift cards.

And here is the special offer that is running until the end of the year:

For Gift Cards purchased online between 16 September and 31 December 2013, no Purchase Fee or Delivery Fee will be charged. Other fees, limits and restrictions apply. To participate in the promotion order your Gift Cards at gift.americanexpress.co.uk and enter the code GCNF1 where prompted at the point of purchase. Then click on Redeem to process the order. This offer is only applicable to online purchases. You may not purchase more than five (5) Gift Cards in one transaction. The offer is available in the UK only.

What this means is that you do not pay the ‘per card’ purchase fee or postage.  You are effectively buying Amex gift cards for face value.  The standard purchase fee on a £100 gift card is £4.45, so this is a substantial saving.

Amex accepts Amex (doh!) plus Visa and MasterCard for the purchase of these cards.  The transfer almost certainly goes through as a ‘purchase’ rather than a cash advance, because Amex would need to disclose it otherwise.

You will only start paying a fee after 12 months.  If there still a balance on the card after 12 months, you will pay a £1.50 monthly fee.  It is highly unlikely you won’t have spent the balance by then, though.

The most obvious use of this promotion is to basically bring forward spending on your Amex card, in order to hit a time-limited sign-up bonus on a new credit card.  If you would struggle to spend £2,000 in three months to get the 20,000 point (=20,000 Avios) Amex Gold bonus, for example, you can simply buy the difference in Amex gift cards.

The cards can be used for normal spending at almost everywhere that accepts Amex cards.  If you end up with a small residual balance of a few pounds, the easy way to cash it out is to buy an Amazon gift certificate (via the Head for Points affiliate link if you like!) and add it to your Amazon account as a credit against future purchases.

It also seems that Amex will ‘cash out’ the spare balance on your gift card.  Note that they will NOT cash out to your original payment card, only by cheque or by a bank transfer.  What a disaster 🙂  Cashing out your balance is free as per the rules:

You may also request the “Redemption” of the Gift Card Balance free of charge. “Redemption” is a payment made by us, American Express, to you, as the Cardholder, of an amount equivalent to the Gift Card Balance. The conditions for Redemption are the following:

• During the term of this Agreement. During the term of this Agreement, that is, from the date of purchase of the Gift Card until the ‘valid thru’ date, you may request Redemption of the whole or part of the Gift Card Balance by calling American Express Customer Service.
• Within the 6 years from the ‘valid thru’ date. Following the ‘valid thru’ date and within a period of six (6) years thereafter, you may request Redemption of the whole Gift Card Balance by calling American Express Customer Service.

• No Redemption after 6 Years. We reserve the right to refuse a Redemption request made more than six (6) years after the ‘valid thru’ date.

Any Redemption is subject to our completing and being satisfied with the outcome of applicable anti-money laundering, fraud and other illegal activity checks (“Successful Redemption”). We will only process your Redemption via cheque or bank transfer to a UK bank account, at our option. This process could take up to thirty (30) working days.

Note that Amex gift cards can only be used in the UK.  There is also no mention of the ability to use them in ATM’s, so you should assume that you cannot do this.

Despite these restrictions, though, this is a very interesting offer indeed.

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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.