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Amex closing travelmoneynow – the end of a quick way of hitting your card bonus

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American Express is closing Travel Money Now (travelmoneynow.com), its foreign currency website, on 1st March.  It seems highly likely that the Avios-earning version (travelmoneynow.com/avios) will close on the same date.

On the face of it, this is not a great loss.  A couple of years ago, American Express lost its contract at Heathrow.  This meant that it was left with a grand total of one foreign exchange counter in the whole country, at Birmingham International.  You could, via the website, still order currency for home delivery but that is not exactly a niche with no competition.

However, as Head for Points has pointed out on a regular basis, there is something unique about Travel Money Now.

As long as you buy your currency using an American Express issued Amex card (eg BA, BA Premium Plus, SPG, Nectar, Gold, Platinum etc), the transaction is treated as a purchase.

This means:

no cash advance fee

you earn Avios, Membership Rewards points, SPG points, Nectar points etc on the transaction

the transaction counts towards your spend if you are looking to trigger a sign-up bonus

The 2nd point made Travel Money Now exceedingly competitive.  When you factored in the value of, say, 1.5 Avios per £1 for charging currency to your BA Premium Plus, it was good value.

The 3rd point was also very useful.  However, Amex does limit its value:

on a credit card, eg the BA Amex, the amount of currency you can buy is restricted to your ‘cash advance limit’ printed on the front of your statement.  This is usually 20% of your credit limit.

if you are new to American Express, it was likely that you would be blocked entirely from any sort of cash transaction, including buying foreign currency from Travel Money Now, for a few months – by which time it would be too late to trigger your sign-up bonus

Travel Money Now was a useful little trick to have in your points-earning arsenal, however, and it is a shame that it is going away.

It is not clear, at this stage, who will replace Amex as BA’s foreign currency partner.  I would imagine that there will finally be one integrated solution covering both pre-ordering and ‘at airport’ purchases.  It is possible, given that there was a short trial last Summer, that Travelex will be back on the scene.

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Category

American Express Gold card, American Express Platinum card, British Airways American Express, Marriott Bonvoy American Express

Comments (102)

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

  • Neil says:
    14 Feb14 February 09:33

    I’ve been using Travelmoneynow for the last 12 months to hit my minimum spend! I managed to fulfil two Amex gold cards and two platinum cards giving me 114,000 avios just for using this awesome service! Not to mention my wife who got all the referral bonuses but the best thing about this service was the lack of fees. Being able to essentially get cash and points was a dream. It’s a sad day today.

    • KK says:
      14 Feb14 February 09:47

      Bit of a silly question, have to hit some spend on the SPG Amex by end of Feb. Any ideas?

      Can I buy some Amex travellers cheques in sterling and deposit in my bank ( Santander)?

      Do most uk banks accept deposits for Amex travellers cheques?

      • Raffles says:
        14 Feb14 February 10:17

        Some do. HSBC does not. Check first.

        • KK says:
          14 Feb14 February 13:01

          Just called Santander, bloke at the end of the phone advised £10 processing charge per cheque?!? Is that right?

          • Guesswho2000 says:
            14 Feb14 February 14:35

            That sounds terrible! I paid some sterling TCs into NatWest back in December, no charges from either side, cleared like a normal cheque (5 day cycle).

            If you’ve got other current accounts, I’d have a ring around and see if they can do better, or try calling Santander and speaking to someone else (he may have been mistaken).

          • KK says:
            14 Feb14 February 16:19

            Thanks for the advice…! Will try Halifax and give another go with Santander. What would be a safe amount to bank at one go without much hassle? Oh btw I need to put through £1200 worth spend in total 🙂

          • Genghis says:
            14 Feb14 February 17:02

            Not sure there is a limit in terms of what you can bank but bear in mind that there’s a ‘cash’ limit of 20% a month of your credit limit with Amex. I’d do £1,200 in 2 tranches over 2 days

    • KK says:
      14 Feb14 February 09:50

      Just trying to do the same,buying £1200 sterling cheques, cost comes up £1218. I suppose £18 is the service charge?
      Can yo deposit in most uk banks ? Sorry am a novice in this hobby

      • Polly says:
        14 Feb14 February 10:07

        Yes you can, but don’t deposit them all at once.

        Matt, that’s useful to know, as we get all our currency home delivered and get our MRs. Do they have a minimum purchase amount for fee free delivery?

        Agree their customer service was brilliant too.

    • Callum says:
      14 Feb14 February 10:32

      So you’ve spent at least £8,000 though them? At today’s Euro rates you’d have effectively paid a fee of £300 on that.

      Still good value for 100k avios (assuming you were going to pay the Amex membership fee anyway – if not it’s poor), but not at all fee-free.

    • Tom H says:
      14 Feb14 February 12:14

      Which bank did you get those in to?

    • KK says:
      14 Feb14 February 13:02

      What bank did you use and were there any charges ?

  • Matt says:
    14 Feb14 February 09:59

    Moneycorp take amex and up until recently there was no extra commission. It’s always been treated as a purchase on my statement and unlike travel money now I’ve never had issues with maximum express cash limits so orders are more successful, plus the rates are better than Amex

  • TGLoyalty says:
    14 Feb14 February 12:19

    Understand the use these for spend targets but surely if you are going on holiday and want to spend then you’re far better off with a Lloyds Avios card (1.25 Avios per £1 or double in first 6 months) or the Halifax Clarity Card (if you have the reward current account you can apply for the Reward version Spend £300 get £5 back – which i still have even though I closed my current account years ago)

  • Kevin says:
    14 Feb14 February 13:19

    Does anyone know when would Supercard will be available again as I missed it last time.

    • Mark says:
      14 Feb14 February 14:36

      supercard was rubbish never worked, took money even when declined

    • Rob says:
      14 Feb14 February 16:28

      Will remain in beta for a while according to people from Tuxedo I met at that recent conference.

      Immaterial anyway post Wednesday.

    • Leo says:
      14 Feb14 February 16:51

      Well Supercard has been okay for me – bit shaky in Dublin but worked alright elsewhere in Europe and US aside from that. Also had some luck using it as a debit card here – customer services seem to have got their act together a bit. I hope it’s not going anywhere soon!

      • Tom H says:
        14 Feb14 February 18:55

        Have never managed to get my lloyds avoid MasterCard loaded, only ethiad visa. Had super card cloned whilst in Mexico and extensively used fraudulently in North America. To be fair to Tuxedo/Supercard they sorted it within a couple of weeks but have never been able to get the replacement Supercard to work

  • Craig says:
    14 Feb14 February 14:05

    I’m new to this website (love it) and relatively new to saving up Avios. I have recently received the AMEX Preferred Rewards Gold card and am trying to hit the £2000 spend as quickly as possible for the bonus miles.

    Am I correct in saying that I can use this card on travel money.com/avios website and it qualifies as a purchase? If so that is fantastic, as I am buying a large amount of euros (aware the exchange rate not quite as good as elsewhere).

    I recently contacted AMEX asking about this cards ability to buy foreign currency and was told it would go down as a cash transaction and not earn any reward points, which is why I thought I would check here. Thanks.

    • harry says:
      14 Feb14 February 14:19

      old chestnut, always comes up – hundreds of us here can testify that Amex advice is incorrect on this and that you do indeed get the reward points & it does not go down as cash advance

      • Genghis says:
        14 Feb14 February 14:35

        +1. Craig – when I started this game I spoke to Amex who told me the same thing. Advice on HfP is much more accurate!

    • Rob says:
      14 Feb14 February 16:27

      It goes through as cash everywhere except this website.

      • JamesWag says:
        15 Feb15 February 07:20

        Matt posted above that moneycorp take Amex as a purchase….. Worth looking at as an alternative, although he implies there are additional costs 🙁

        “Moneycorp take amex and up until recently there was no extra commission. It’s always been treated as a purchase on my statement and unlike travel money now I’ve never had issues with maximum express cash limits so orders are more successful, plus the rates are better than Amex”

  • Craig says:
    14 Feb14 February 15:03

    Thanks very much!

  • Waribai says:
    14 Feb14 February 15:39

    My two cents worth. Was in Innsbruck last week. Club Europe £150 return. Thanks for the tip Raffles. The family loved it! Anyway, for the first time Supercard started getting declined. So I unlinked and then relinked the card it WA attached to. Hey presto it started working again fine!

  • steve says:
    14 Feb14 February 16:12

    So am I right in saying that after this month, by buying euros on an american express, it will no longer count towards your minimum spend and you will also not receive any membership rewards/avios….??

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