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Get 30,000 Membership Rewards points with Amex Gold – 5 days only

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I have spent the last few days with some friends of ours in Stuttgart.  Had I not been there, I would have tried to get across to the Hyatt Churchill Hotel in London, where a group of 40 or so members of the Flyertalk community were having a get-together.

The event was sponsored by Hyatt, Virgin Atlantic and American Express who arranged some impressive events for attendees.  I was across there on Thursday afternoon and met a couple of the attendees for a drink.

During the event, Amex launched a special deal for attendees – 30,000 Membership Rewards points if they signed up for the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold charge card!

Now, this is a fantastic deal.  In fact, it is possibly the best sign-up deal ever offered for a free UK credit card.

The card is FREE for the first year, but if you keep it any longer you will be charged £125 annually.  To qualify for the bonus, you need to meet the following conditions:

  • Have a household income of £20,000
  • Spend £2,000 on the card within 90 days of your account being opened
  • You must not have a Green or Platinum Amex charge card (any other Amex is OK)

To see what you can get with 30,000 Membership Rewards points, look at this article here.

How do I sign up?

The link to sign-up is www.americanexpress.co.uk/my-gold and the code you need to enter is FLYER.

Please note that the Amex representative at the event was happy for this offer to be circulated outside of the small group who attended the Hyatt function.  The leaflet also implies in the headline that they are happy for it to be shared (“Amex is offering you and your followers ….”).

The deadline to sign-up is November 4th, so don’t delay if you are interested.

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

American Express Gold card, American Express Membership Rewards

Comments (47)

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

  • Dan Harris says:
    31 Oct31 October 07:19

    I’ve had one, and closed it, must be 18 months since i closed it, do you think i’m eligable?

    • Raffles says:
      31 Oct31 October 07:30

      Yes, should be OK. Rules seem quite clear about only people who have had an MR-earning card in the last 6 months are blocked.

  • Dan Harris says:
    31 Oct31 October 07:33

    Wife applied just to be sure. Decision pending…. :o/

  • Martin says:
    31 Oct31 October 06:39

    This would have to appear they day *after* I was accepted for the card, wouldn’t it?
    I’ll just console myself with the fact that I got 30,000 destination miles when I originally signed up for the bmi Amex.

    • Raffles says:
      31 Oct31 October 07:12

      In general, things work out in your favour in the end in this game! Purely because you often get too much and you don’t report it, and when you get too little you move heaven and earth to ensure you get your due!

    • Joe says:
      31 Oct31 October 18:12

      Shout at them about it. They coughed up the extra MR for a family member of mine on a promotion he missed by a day.

  • Cliff says:
    31 Oct31 October 08:11

    ETA, after clicking through to the application site, the T and C’s here do mention that existing MR members are excluded.

  • Paul says:
    31 Oct31 October 09:40

    My partner has a plat supplementary card – since I get the MRs for that card does she still get excluded on the existing MR points basis?

    • Raffles says:
      31 Oct31 October 12:04

      No, having a supplementary card does not stop you getting a card in your own right and getting the bonus. She is OK.

  • pianoamit says:
    31 Oct31 October 09:46

    If you make a payment using PayPal, does that count as normal spend for these purposes? Notwithstanding the 3.4%+20p commission they charge, you could be effectively buying 30,000 Avios for £68.20 (works out at ~22p/Avios)…

    • Raffles says:
      31 Oct31 October 12:03

      Yes it does, but be VERY careful with Paypal. They will shut down your PP account and frieze your cash if they believe a payment is not legitimate.

      • pianoamit says:
        31 Oct31 October 12:06

        But if I pay someone £2,000, and they then give me £1932 in cash in person, there is no reason for PP to suspect anything, is there?

        • Raffles says:
          31 Oct31 October 12:11

          Yes, because Paypal is under a legal obligation to monitor your account for suspicious transactions due to terrorism / money laundering regulations. If you do not normally make large payments from Paypal, and your friend does not normally receive them, then that is suspicious.

          If you are ‘trusted’ by Paypal (eg you have a ‘verified’ account, they have your bank current account details, you have a number of credit cards on file with them) then you are more likely to get away with it.

          Flyertalker Pangalactic, who supplied the PDF file for this post and so may read this, may post his own story of what happened when he tried this.

          Trust me, if this was a foolproof way of moving money around to earn cheap miles then we would all be doing it. The fact that we are not should tell you something!

          Why not buy a refundable BA flight ticket, let the bonus post, move the points into Avios and then cancel the flight ticket before the card bill arrives? Only cost is the £15 cancellation fee BA will charge.

          • phil says:
            31 Oct31 October 21:42

            Hi Raffles,
            You wouldn’t get the Avios you’d get through BA though right? As the points arent credited until after you fly… Presume you pointing to the credited card related bonus..

          • Raffles says:
            31 Oct31 October 22:30

            Yes, I meant that Amex will give you the bonus after spending £2k and will not take it away if you later refund the BA flight you booked to get over £2k.

    • Mariusz says:
      31 Oct31 October 14:44

      Can you actually link any CC to paypal account and spend money towards your required amount to get bonuses?

      • Raffles says:
        31 Oct31 October 14:55

        Yes, but be very clear you run a major risk doing this and I never would.

        • Mariusz says:
          31 Oct31 October 15:10

          I’m sure there’s a good reason not to. Could you explain why not? 🙂

  • Mumof4 says:
    31 Oct31 October 10:51

    Does anyone know if the £20,000 household income can include tax credits, or is it purely wages?

    • Raffles says:
      31 Oct31 October 12:02

      In reality, they can’t verify it as they have no access to your payslips or bank account anyway. As long as you are not making a false statement on the form (and if you believe that tax credits count as income, you are not making a false declaration) then that is not an issue. Knowingly making a false statement to obtain credit would be an offence.

    • Jamesd says:
      31 Oct31 October 17:46

      When you apply for credit cards, information you provide such as income is sent to National Hunter (the UK’s 4th and less known credit agency). They will compare this with other applications you have made in the past 6 months (or 6 years if you have been the victim of fraud, or have lied in the past and this was picked up). Therefore you may be accepted instantly and then declined later as this extra check takes about 1 business day.

      Amex is the only company which asks for household income rather than personal, I believe, which means they cannot compare this directly to information you have previously given to other credit card companies. They can probably work out who else is in your household, though this might be a DPA breach.

  • pazza2000 says:
    31 Oct31 October 13:26

    I would also like to know if I would be eligible for this, having cancelled my previos Gold MR card 1year ago. I was under the assumption that one should not have held a MR card in the past 6 months, although perhaps the T&C via this route say otherwise

    • Raffles says:
      31 Oct31 October 14:13

      As long as you stick by the rules (which say no MR card for 6 months) then you have a strong case for Amex giving you the points, if they accept you again.

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