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Get 1,000 bonus Avios when you convert £300 at Amex Currency Exchange or Moneycorp

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Some people received this offer by email yesterday.  However, it is NOT targetted and is described on the Amex Currency Exchange website, and so must be open to all.  It is not a bad deal and certainly worth a look if you need foreign currency.

Back in the Autumn, in this article, I explained how American Express Currency Exchange had taken over from Travelex as BA’s preferred partner (and thus Avios-awarding partner!).

A few weeks later, I showed the results of my experiment to show that American Express treat ACE transactions as a purchase.  This means that:

a) you don’t pay a cash advance fee on your BA, SPG, Nectar, Gold, Platinum or Green Amex card, and

b) you earn the relevant reward for your spending

This meant that if you ordered your currency to collect at Heathrow via the link on the BA website, you could triple-dip:

a) Avios for the transaction due to their BA partner status, at 1 Avios per £1 exchanged

b) Avios or Membership Rewards points from your Amex card

c) BAA WorldPoints, at the rate of 1 per £10 exchanged

The new offer is simply icing on a very generous cake!

You can find full details here.

Here are the summary points of the deal:

  • You earn 1,000 Avios if you exchange £300 at American Express Currency Exchange between 28th January and 31st March
  • It doesn’t matter if you pre-order online or just turn up at an ACE counter (although you would be a total idiot not to pre-book, given how poor the on-the-spot rates are)
  • If you pre-order, it must be via the BA link and not the general www.travelmoneynow.com link
  • You do not get the bonus if you earned Avios from ACE between 1 September 2012 and 27 January 2013 (so, for me, I will have to put a transaction through my wife’s BA account)
  • You can also get the deal at branches of Moneycorp
  • Avios are awarded after 40 days (and not before – I have experience of this) because of the 31 day buy-back guarantee on orders.  Refusing the buy-back guarantee does not speed up the 40 days!
  • Sterling Travellers Cheques do not earn Avios and are therefore not valid for this promotion

The Moneycorp note is important, because ACE does not have an outlet at Gatwick.  However, Moneycorp does – they are also at Southampton, Stansted and Southend. 

Amex Currency Exchange can be found at:

  • Heathrow Airport Terminals 1, 3, 4 and 5
  • Edinburgh Airport
  • Birmingham Airport

But are the rates any good?

I noted back in September that the ACE rates as long as you pre-ordered were surprisingly competitive with the best deals in the market.  However, there has now been a subtle change – whilst the ACE rates via their own website www.travelmoneynow.com are competitive, the rates via the BA portal are now slightly worse.  (This was also the case during when Travelex was BA’s partner.) 

For example, the £ / Euro rate is currently €1.133 via the BA portal and via €1.141 via www.travelmoneynow.com.

True, it is not a major difference – €3.80 when changing £500 – but there is a difference nonetheless.  Those Avios don’t come free ….

For clarity – if you order via www.travelmoneynow.com then you WILL earn Avios / MR points via your Amex card and you will earn WorldPoints if you collect at Heathrow.  However, to get the additional 1 Avios per £1 on your transaction and the 1,000 bonus Avios, you need to go via the BA portal and thus get the slightly worse exchange rate.  For order under £1,500, though, you should still come out ahead (factoring in the value of the Avios) going via the BA portal.

You should also note that, in my experience, you will end up chasing the BAA WorldPoints – they should post within 48 hours, and if they don’t then you should email WorldPoints with a scan of your receipt and they will add them on promptly.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous 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

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

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

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

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

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

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.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

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

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

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

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

American Express Gold card, American Express Platinum card

Comments (53)

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

  • deccoo says:
    29 Jan29 January 10:54

    Raffles – I have already had an ACE transaction using my BAPP in November but had the Avios credited to my Avios account. Can I use the same card and credit to my BAEC account and still get the bonus?

    • Raffles says:
      29 Jan29 January 11:34

      Yes, I reckon you’re OK. They will only check that the same BAEC account number hasn’t been used before.

  • Raffles says:
    29 Jan29 January 11:38

    People on FT have used BAPPs with no problem.

    The only issue was one guy who had his card blocked for trying to buy too many, rang Amex, and was told there would be a cash advance charge if they let the transaction go through. But the person who told him that didn’t know what they were talking about, I expect.

  • Roger says:
    29 Jan29 January 11:49

    About qualifying, Mrs Roger has a Gold with me as a supplementary cardholder. I have a BAPP with Mrs Roger as a supplementary cardholder. Both cards have separate numbers for supplementaries, of course. (I’m discounting the plat which I’m about to cancel.)

    How many times could we realistically expect to get the bonuses? I think I could guess but am somewhat confused so would welcome confirmation. Thanks.

    • Raffles says:
      29 Jan29 January 13:30

      It counts per BAEC or avios.com account, I reckon. So 1 x 1,000 points per BA or avios.com account. However, since they take a lot of data from you for money laudering purposes, it is possible they will pick up duplicate transations and block them. There is nothing to lose by doing multiple small transactions of £301 instead of 1 large one, though – the rate doesn’t improve.

      • Roger says:
        29 Jan29 January 14:23

        Thanks, Raffles. I hadn’t thought about avios.com accounts. Now that could raise some interesting possibilities.

  • brucemaiden says:
    29 Jan29 January 13:06

    Am I correct in thinking that cash advances don’t count towards the 2K minumum spend for Amex Gold but assuming this went through as a purchase it would count?

    • Trevor says:
      29 Jan29 January 13:29

      Cash advances don’t count, but using your card for this “Finance” transaction does count, as long as at travelmoneynow.com! I’ve done it before buying Stlering Travlers cheques, and about to put £2000 through my wife’s card for a quick bonus posting 🙂

    • Raffles says:
      29 Jan29 January 13:32

      Correct

      • Simon says:
        31 Jan31 January 18:31

        Thanks, the online delivery service is up and running early, minimum of £500 needed for free delivery else it’s £5. I’ve just bought a fraction over £500 worth of currency to be delivered and it’s come up as “Finance” on my pending transactions 🙂

  • littlefish says:
    29 Jan29 January 14:16

    Not sure avios.com would work. The T&C ask you to enter BAEC number.

  • ups says:
    29 Jan29 January 13:21

    Quite annoying. I did get this offer, but I had ordered some currency in December so I don’t qualify. Sad as when I opened the email I thought they sent it to me because I used the service once.

  • ups says:
    29 Jan29 January 13:26

    I’d suggest check by trying a dummy order if you see Glasgow in the list, as I remember when I ordered in December, Glasgow wasn’t an option.

    Also you won’t get BAA WorldPoints at Glasgow airport.

  • Trevor says:
    29 Jan29 January 13:42

    Once again, no alert for me on this special, but thanks Raffles for bringing it to our attention.

    I’ve done some maths on this for my own good, so thought I would share the results, based on current rates:

    Best Foreign Exchange: £300 @ 14.000 = ZAR4,200.00
    Moneycorp (Collection): £300 @ 13.948 = ZAR4,184.46
    American Express Travel Money Now: £300 @ 13.5401 = ZAR4,062.03
    Biggest difference: ZAR137.97 which costs you £9.85 more if using Amex
    Amex/Moneycorp difference: ZAR122.43 which costs you £8.78 more if using Amex

    Best Foreign Exchange: £300 @ 9.870 = EGP2,961.00
    Moneycorp (Collection): £300 @ 9.864 = EGP2,959.32
    American Express Travel Money Now: £300 @ 9.4956 = EGP2,848.68
    Biggest difference: EGP112.32 which costs you £11.38 more if using Amex
    Amex/Moneycorp difference: EGP110.64 which costs you £11.22 more if using Amex

    Conclusion: You are going to pay more through Amex, though it really depends on your currency pair as to whether the bonus 1000 Avios count for anything or are worthwhile. I guess if you add up the 1000 bonus, the 300 Avios for presenting your BAEC and the 300 MR for the transaction, you’re getting them (in the worst case example above) at 0.71p/Avios – worth it for some, not for others, and that rate will be currency pair dependant, so do your own maths. Also, the extra BAA Worldpoints on an airport collection are marginal, as only 30 points on £300 spend.

    • Roger says:
      29 Jan29 January 14:21

      Interesting comment on the ZAR, Trevor. More at http://www.thesouthafrican.com/business/currency/rand-hits-four-year-low.htm

      I usually (think I) get a better rate on the ground in South Africa using my Halifax Clarity credit card with no f/x surcharge, no separate cash fee and a notional 1% per month interest charge, less if repaid earlier by Faster Payment.

      I think I’ll bite the bullet, though, especially as we will also soon need some € and USD.

      • Trevor says:
        29 Jan29 January 14:46

        Thanks for the link, Roger. This is precisely why I want to buy my currency now, but through Moneycorp rather giving me a 3 week collection delay and possible cancellation. My trip is only at the start of April, but I wouldn’t want to lose out on the great exchange rate now by waiting to get currency until then when the ZAR could strengthen again. Also, I’d normally use a credit card with very low fees, but again, I’d rather a great rate now than a good rate then 🙂 If I find the ZAR continues to slide, I’ll just cancel my order in 3 weeks time and place another, playing the same game again, ensuring I lock in the best rate I can! On £1000, that’s worth far more to me than a few Avios.

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