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Triple Avios from Amex Currency Exchange and Moneycorp

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British Airways is running a special promotion in conjunction with its two foreign exchange partners, American Express Currency Exchange and Moneycorp (Terminal 5 only).

From today until 6th January, you will receive 3 Avios per £1 exchanged.  You must exchange a minimum of £400 to qualify.

P-l-e-a-s-e, though, do not take up this offer with Moneycorp.  Due to the terms of BA’s agreement with Amex Currency Exchange, Moneycorp will only award Avios points for ‘walk-up’ purchases.  The ‘walk-up’ rate at Moneycorp – and indeed Travelex – at Heathrow is absolutely shocking.

If you pre-order for collection at Moneycorp in Terminal 5, you will not receive any Avios points.  You will, though, save a fortune, so I recommend you take that route.

American Express Currency Exchange (website here) will deliver to your home, and delivery is free if you spend over £500.  You can also order for collection at Edinburgh and Birmingham airports.  They are closing all of their Heathrow outlets – Terminal 5 has already gone and T1, 3 and 4 are following soon if they are not already closed.

Remember that pre-order and home delivery purchases at American Express Currency Exchange on an Amex-issued American Express card are treated as a purchase.   This means that you will also earn SPG points / Avios / Membership Rewards points on the transaction, and spending counts towards any sign-up bonus.

(Whenever I write this, someone rings Amex to check that I am right.  The Amex call centre tells the caller that I am wrong.  I am not.  Trust me.)

For clarity – ONLY Amex-issued Amex cards are treated as a ‘purchase’.  If you use an MBNA Amex card (eg BMI, AA, United) or Lloyds Amex card, you will be charged the 3% cash advance fee and you will not earn any miles from your credit card.  Be warned!

American Express Currency Exchange will also sell you Sterling Travellers Cheques for a 1.5% fee.  Most banks will allow you to pay these into your account directly.  It is not clear if these count for ‘triple Avios’ or not – in theory, £ travellers cheque purchases do not give Avios.  The transaction does count as a purchase on your Amex-issued Amex credit or charge card, though.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous 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:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

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

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

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.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

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

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

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

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (41)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Mr Bridge says:
    13 Dec13 December 06:37

    just to confirm raffles is right!!
    i have never been charged for currency on amex plat or bapp.
    Note though the exchange rate is slightly better if you go through the normal amex site, rather than ba, but with x3 avios its negligible, just a shame i cant use my 3v cards there!!!

  • darrenf says:
    13 Dec13 December 07:17

    it pretty clearly says “excluding sterling traveller’s cheques” on the website.

    • Rob says:
      13 Dec13 December 07:48

      I know. But is this enforced? If you order £1000 of TC’s and £10 of currency, would you get Avios on the lot?!

      • Maciek says:
        13 Dec13 December 08:20

        You will only get avios on £10 of currency in such case.

      • darrenf says:
        13 Dec13 December 08:47

        Ah! I hadn’t thought about that.

        Thinking of taking advantage of this – I have 2 weeks in Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia (combined) in February and I already had my eyes on an iPad air in Oz. Which end registers it as a purchase – retailer or card? i.e. can I get 5.5 Avios per £ using by BMI card?

        • Rob says:
          13 Dec13 December 10:01

          Only works with an Amex-issued Amex. Any other Amex, eg the MBNA BMI ones, will be treated as a cash advance and you’ll be hit with a 3% fee from MBNA plus pay interest from the date of withdrawal.

        • TT2000 says:
          13 Dec13 December 14:17

          Best option for an iPad Air is Dixons Travel at Heathrow, getting the rewards points there?

          Cheaper than the Apple store.

  • Clive J says:
    13 Dec13 December 08:01

    Does anyone know if Amex will deliver to an address different to the billing address on the card. Need to order some Euro soon but am not at home during the day and I assume they need to be signed for. Thanks.

    • Jenni says:
      13 Dec13 December 09:02

      Last time I did this was just over a year ago for a largish amount of USD, they arrived via RoyalMail Signed For, and as I wasn’t at home I collected from the delivery depot (walking distance from my house, luckily) the next day. I was very nervous though, that I’d get there and be handed an empty envelope!

  • Mattyb says:
    13 Dec13 December 08:55

    Seems you need the cash advance feature activated on charge cards to purchase currency! Not something that only takes a phone call either.

    • Rob says:
      13 Dec13 December 10:00

      Depends which card you have and how long you have had it (and whether you were an existing Amex customer or not).

      • Mattyb says:
        13 Dec13 December 10:02

        Both personal and business chargecards of mine wont work and ned to have it activated. First time amex cards and both have just had first renewals.

    • lucy says:
      13 Dec13 December 10:05

      hi raffels,if I buy £1000s worth of American dollars does it mean I would get 7 avios per £1 as we have bmi avios which offer 4 avios per £1 spend this month.do you happen to know how much moneycorp charges for this.would this be a good deal?

      • Rob says:
        13 Dec13 December 10:19

        No. I will re-write the post because you are the 2nd person to misread this. Only Amex-issued Amex cards go through as a purchase, NOT MBNA Amex cards (like the BMI one) or the Lloyds ones. If you’ve got an Amex Gold, Platinum, SPG, BA Amex etc its fine.

  • Tony says:
    13 Dec13 December 11:04

    Oooh – this looks quite good.

    The Amex rate isn’t the best but on £500 worth of NOK you pay £8.50 more than using Thomas Exchange

    However that comes with 2250 BA miles AND interest free credit.

  • Yizun says:
    13 Dec13 December 11:04

    Hi Raffle,
    If I am using BA Amex or Amex Platinum, it will not be treated as cash, and thus no additional fees?
    On the website I read the following, which is a bit confusing.

    Thanks.

    Note to American Express Card Members: To pay with your American Express card, Express Cash or Cash Advance functionality must be activated – to activate, simply call the number on the back of your card. Please note that cash and daily cash limits apply; the daily cash limit on some cards can be as low as £400 per day. If your order amount exceeds your daily cash limit you may need to decrease the order amount or consider an alternative form of payment.

    • Rob says:
      13 Dec13 December 11:24

      Correct.

      Express Cash – sometimes it is automatically activated, sometimes you need to call and ask. Look on your BAPP statement, it should say ‘cash limit’ under your ‘credit limit’ line.

    • Paul says:
      13 Dec13 December 13:03

      I have bought currency through BA twice (USD and AED) using my BA PP card. I have never been charged a cash advance fee.

    • Peter says:
      13 Dec13 December 13:31

      I tried to pay with my Gold CREDIT card and it wouldn’t go through. I got an email telling me my limit was too low. I put it through with BA PP and it worked fine.

  • pazza2000 says:
    13 Dec13 December 11:25

    Be interesting to hear if Sterling TC’s are eligible to earn Avios.

    • Stevo says:
      13 Dec13 December 15:50

      I needed to top up an order to get free delivery so added £100 of GBP TC’s and only got avios awarded on the foreign cash (EUR). I did get Amex points on the full amount, including TC’s.

  • Rob says:
    13 Dec13 December 12:54

    Yes, should do

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