Update on earning Avios from Amex Currency Exchange

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• Andrew says:

  19 Oct19 October 08:23

  I assume you can’t buy sterling?

  • Andrew says:

    19 Oct19 October 08:27

    You can indeed! Avios are excluded, but sounds like you could earn MR, hit min spend and get worldpoints.

    • Raffles says:

      19 Oct19 October 09:36

      Sterling Travellers Cheques would be your friend here. But I wouldn’t jump on this until we have more evidence. I am at LHR on Monday so I may take one for the team and order currency for my flight to, erm, Manchester.

      • ups says:

        20 Oct20 October 16:25

        LOL

• Gus says:

  19 Oct19 October 09:45

  Wonder if this would apply to non-Amex issued Amex’s i.e. the mbna M&M Card. MR wouldn’t obviously be included (although the miles might), but I’d be keen to know whether a currency transaction would be treated as a purchase on that too.

  • Raffles says:

    19 Oct19 October 10:33

    My gut feeling is no, but you never know. Let’s see what happens with my test purchase on Monday.

• Alan says:

  19 Oct19 October 12:45

  Very surprised at this – I picked some currency up in Edinburgh (so no Worldpoints now available), she took my Avios number OK but said if I’d paid with Amex (rather than my current account debit card) then it would be treated as a cash advance. This certainly seems a very unusual move by Amex based on how this sort of transaction is usually treated and I’d be very wary of spending large sums this way!

• Jan says:

  19 Oct19 October 14:18

  It could be collected with every AmEx, couldn’t it? I know, there would be foreign currency transaction fee, but it does not neccessarily have to be a UK card? Or am I wrong?

  • Raffles says:

    19 Oct19 October 16:08

    If they are processing it as a purchase, then any Amex would be OK. If it is going through as cash advances and the points are actually from some sort of Amex promo, then it will only work on UK Amex-issued Amex cards. I will know more early next week when I’ve tried it myself.

• David F says:

  19 Oct19 October 21:10

  Will look forward to hearing the experience of Raffles next week. Thanks for the post

• pazza2000 says:

  22 Oct22 October 08:16

  Look forward to hearing the answer to this also. I do not hold a MR card, although would much prefer to stick this on my BA Amex over a debit card.

• Percy Pig says:

  23 Oct23 October 12:30

  Any update on this? Very interested to know. I just checked my AMEX plat T&Cs and there is no mention of how foreign currency purchases are treated.

  • Raffles says:

    23 Oct23 October 15:19

    I picked up some currency yesterday. It hit my Amex last night and LOOKS like a purchase, not a cash advance. Won’t be sure until tonight or tomorrow night, when the MR points (if its a purchase) will hit. However, there is one interesting thing. When you order, it says you can only use your Amex if you have ‘Express Cash’ activated, which I don’t think I do, but it still let me use my Plat Amex anyway. Perhaps if you have Express Cash activated (which allows you to use your Amex in an ATM) then it is charged as a cash withdrawal, and if you don’t, it is forced to put it through as a purchase.

    • Percy Pig says:

      23 Oct23 October 15:59

      How very interesting. Thanks for doing the experiment! Look forward to hearing how many MR you get 😀

      If it goes through as a purchase that could also be very useful for hitting the £2k spend on my wife’s card…

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