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Four easy ways to hit your credit card sign-up bonus spending target

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There are plenty of Head for Points readers currently chasing a spending target on their American Express card.  Why?  Because they want to trigger a lucrative sign-up bonus in order to book a flight before the Avios devaluation takes place on April 28th.

This article discusses cards you could get and still trigger a sign-up bonus before April 28th.  Time is ticking away – your window is a lot tighter than it was when that piece was published three weeks ago.  Unless you can hit your spending target within 1-2 weeks it is probably already too late to get a British Airways American Express.

Here is a reminder of four ways to push your spend towards the target if you think you may fall short:

American Express gift cards

As I wrote last week, Amex is currently selling its gift cards with no fees via a special promotional code. Until 31st March, you can order up to £500-worth per transaction. You can charge it to your BA / Gold / Platinum American Express card (it will go through as a purchase) and you can then spend it at your leisure during 2015.

Supermarket gift vouchers

The easiest ideas are often the ones you forget. If you are running a little short on your spending, just buy £xxx-worth of gift vouchers or gift cards for your usual supermarket. This brings forward spending that you would do anyway and doesn’t cost you anything.

If you buy your petrol from your supermarket, even better – it means you will be able to spend the gift vouchers more quickly.

Ordering foreign currency and travellers cheques from Amex

As I wrote here, ordering foreign currency from the Amex travelmoneynow website is treated as a purchase. Ignore what your card rules or the Amex website says contrary to this, I promise you it will go through as a purchase.

The currency needs to be delivered to your home or office, however, as Amex only has offices at Birmingham International Airport.

Details of Amex’s foreign exchange rates can be found here.

If you are not travelling, one option used to be to order Sterling Travellers Cheques.  There is a 1.5% fee for this but that is relatively modest if it gets you to your spending target.  However, in the last couple of years a few major banks have stopped accepting them as deposits – HSBC pulled out last June.  Do not do this unless you are 100% sure that you can redeem them.

Use Paypal if a retailer accepts it but does not accept American Express

Some online retailers do not take American Express but do accept Paypal. In most cases (some retailers block Amex access to Paypal), you can select to pay with Paypal and use your Amex card through that. More information in this post.

It is, of course, also possible to send a payment to a friend or relative via Paypal, charged to your Amex. There will be a 3%+ charge for this. You need to be VERY careful if you do this, as Paypal operates under tough money laundering restrictions. Any signs of suspicious transactions will lead to your funds being frozen.

If you are a long-term Paypal user and / or have your personal bank account verified with them and / or have your Amex card ‘verified’ then, realistically, sending a few hundred pounds this way should not be a problem.  You would be foolish to push your luck though.

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:

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

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.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

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

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

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend 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:

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.

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

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

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 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 Business Credit Card

1% cashback uncapped* on all your business spending (T&C apply) Read our full review

Category

General

Comments (81)

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

  • Frenske says:
    23 Feb23 February 06:14

    Some Energy companies allow you to top-up your account using 3V cards. Some companies even pay 3% interest on your balance. Psssst this is tax free “income”.

    • Kelvin says:
      23 Feb23 February 07:30

      Why is this tax free?

      • Frenske says:
        23 Feb23 February 08:11

        Interest on savings are taxed unless you use ISA, etc.

      • TimS says:
        23 Feb23 February 08:14

        I think he is (incorrectly) claiming it is “tax free” as it is not taxed at source.

        That doesn’t make it tax free though, as you say.

        • Frenske says:
          23 Feb23 February 08:38

          I should have put the ” ” around the tax free and not income!

          • Kelvin says:
            23 Feb23 February 09:51

            Just to clarify, this is taxable income but no tax is deducted at source.

          • Lloyd says:
            23 Feb23 February 17:03

            Not taxable income, technically its not interest its just a discount from the bill if the account is in credit.

    • Wally says:
      24 Feb24 February 14:40

      Does anyone know if:
      (a) Extra Energy accept 3V cards;
      (b) Pre-paying my energy bill like this (with Extra Energy) will mean that I lose the discount for paying by direct debit?

      Thanks

      • mark2 says:
        24 Feb24 February 15:17

        I have no knowledge of Extra Energy, but I pay Scottish Power partly by 3V (or other cards when I cannot find 3V). I have persuaded them to reduce the direct debit by 50% and pay the other half. Recently they refunded me the credit balance (which I took to be ready for the winter quarter) so I can start paying again. Of course Extra Energy may be different but I know that many energy company tariffs require direct debit payment.

  • Anon says:
    23 Feb23 February 06:16

    Most supermarkets do not accept their own vouchers on their own Petrol stations.

    Visa & Amex gift cards seem to be fine tho. 🙂

  • Ben says:
    23 Feb23 February 07:25

    Is sending money to friend via Paypal 100% legal?

    • Kelvin says:
      23 Feb23 February 07:35

      It depends why you are sending it I guess!?

    • Eshaq Choudhury says:
      23 Feb23 February 07:53

      Its advertised as a service on Paypal so surely it can’t be against the rules. I think you will get flagged up if sending £10000 in one go or something similar.

      • sandgrounder says:
        23 Feb23 February 08:18

        I sent 800 quid a few years ago and got a warning email. It is against the Paypal rules to use the service to obtain a cash advance or to help someone do so. Google will throw up lots of cases of frozen funds. A one-off to someone with a different name at a different address shouldn’t go further than a warning though, although they may hold the funds for a few days. I wouldn’t bother tbh.

        • joe says:
          23 Feb23 February 09:08

          As you say, one of the purposes of papal is to allow you to transfer money to friends. As with all of these things, don’t go crazy and you should be Ok. I use it to make payments to a family member on a very regular basis and not had a problem.

    • Jason says:
      23 Feb23 February 08:46

      There’s a fee of around 3% for doing that.

    • Rob says:
      23 Feb23 February 10:16

      Obviously it is legal.

      However, Paypal is obliged under money laundering regulations to look at suspicious transactions. Paying a 3% fee to give money to a friend, when you could use BACS or a cheque, is seen as suspicious.

  • Eshaq Choudhury says:
    23 Feb23 February 07:53

    Can I purchase the Amex gift cards using an MBNA issued Amex?

  • Olivula says:
    23 Feb23 February 07:55

    Every recent purchase with them has gone into “pending points” and enquiries to resolve it are ignored…so I wouldn’t bet on getting any points credited.

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:
      23 Feb23 February 12:04

      Don’t worry from 1st of March the concept of pending will be no more.

      All points will be made available to spend from this point.

      However, gift vouchers don’t go into the pending state they credit between 24-48 hours.

      • Rob says:
        23 Feb23 February 15:11

        So what happens if you book a fully flexible ticket and refund it after March 1st?!

        • Richard says:
          23 Feb23 February 16:20

          I’d wondered when someone would spot that 😉

          But even with a “fully flexible” ticket, you have to pay a £10 administration fee to get it refunded. So for an isolated booking maybe they’d just take your tenner and say “thank you very much”. If you tried to do it on an industrial scale, it’s possible they could invoke the part of their T&Cs which prohibits “dishonest” use of the scheme.

  • darrenf says:
    23 Feb23 February 08:11

    Not sure about other operators but Three have in the past let me call up and put my mobile account into credit (I was going away and likely to spend a lot on roaming). They may just allow it in general, which could be a route for another couple of hundred pounds. I’ve also heard talk of being able to prepay Sky/Virgin for months in advance though not tried it myself.

    • sandgrounder says:
      23 Feb23 February 08:18

      Sky can be prepaid using 3v no problem.

    • Alan says:
      23 Feb23 February 21:07

      Definitely can be done with Sky – and BT too.

      Even nicer if you cancel your service whilst still in credit you’ll get it back as a cash refund to your bank account (assuming you previously paid by DD)

  • oyster says:
    23 Feb23 February 08:51

    Slightly OT but does anyone know whether Amex plat supplementary cards need to be activated or even spent on to trigger the 10k MR points offer ?

    • Wade says:
      23 Feb23 February 09:00

      Activated yes, spent on I don’t think so

    • joe says:
      23 Feb23 February 09:10

      Im still waiting for mine. Almost 2 months now. The sup card holders actually use the cards, but still no Points .

      • What_Economy says:
        23 Feb23 February 11:42

        Joe – I am in the same boat as you. Called them twice and raised a back-end case. The most recent notes from backend said it would take upto 90days from the day application was accepted.

    • The_Real_A says:
      23 Feb23 February 09:31

      I can confirm i got the points without spend. We forgot about the card to be honest – but my mother is enjoying her complimentory priority pass 🙂

    • Rob says:
      23 Feb23 February 10:12

      Some people have got the points without activation

  • Wade says:
    23 Feb23 February 09:01

    As of September, Santander weren’t accepting Amex TC’s but Lloyd’s were. Haven’t tried since then.

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