Can you transfer Amex Membership Rewards to someone when you cancel? Er, ‘Yes’.

Until early 2013, American Express allowed you to transfer your Membership Rewards points to someone else, at any time, for a £15 fee.  This option no longer exists.

However ….

The terms and conditions of the Gold and Platinum cards (PDF) explicitly allow you to transfer your points to another person when you close your account.

EDIT, 2023:  This article was written in March 2017.  You can no longer transfer points to anyone else – please see this HfP article for full details.  If you need to use up your points, I recommend you read this article on how to maximise the value of your Membership Rewards points.

Here is the wording:

If you end your Card Account agreement and there are no other Linked Cards on your Points Account, or if you end these Terms and Conditions, you will have 30 days from the date you request this to redeem your Points. You can also transfer them to another Points Account, including transferring to a Points Account held by someone else (for a fee that we will inform you of at the time). If you do not transfer or redeem your Points within 30 days, they will be forfeited.

Before I carry on, let me give you the back story to this article.

Whilst this clause exists in the Terms & Conditions for the Gold and Platinum cards, I think it is not meant to be there.

My understanding is that Amex intended to remove this feature when they stopped allowing transfers of any kind back in 2013.  Every so often, a Head for Points readers tries to get American Express to move their Membership Rewards points to someone else when closing the card.

The agent usually refuses.  When escalated to a supervisor, the supervisor also refuses.  In the past, some readers have had to make a complaint to FOS, the Ombudsman service, to make American Express stick to their own published terms and conditions – conditions which are still on their website, remember.  If you go to FOS – and the instructions are also in the terms and conditions – it will get done.

I first wrote about this back in October 2013.  Amazingly, for the last 40 months, Amex has not changed their Terms & Conditions to remove this clause, even though they were updated in December 2014.

Amex has continued to refuse to transfer Membership Rewards points when you request it upon card closure, obliging you to make a formal complaint.  However, there may be some movement on this issue.

A reader recently had the same debate with American Express that I outlined above:

he asked the agent to transfer his points (he was closing his card) to his wife – refused

he escalated to a supervisor – refused

he made a formal complaint to Amex (it was never escalated to FOS) – success

What is more interesting, though, is what he was told told.  Whilst a manager told the reader that it WAS a mistake to leave this in T&C’s originally, Amex had decided at some point to leave it in.  They forgot, however, to tell the call centre which is why agents refused to do transfers.  He was then told that all call centre agents were being sent a memo to remind them that MR points CAN be transferred to a third party (not necessarily at the same address) on closure.

In general, I have always said on HfP that you must empty your Membership Rewards account when you close your card.  This was the best course of action.  It simply wasn’t worth, in my view, going down the road of pushing it with Amex, wrecking your reputation with them and then escalating it with the Ombudsman.  Life was too short.  If agents genuinely have been a sent a memo telling them to allow transfers on closure without a fight, however, I will change my advice.

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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.