Hit your credit card sign-up bonus by buying ‘no fee’ American Express gift cards
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I have written before about the range of American Express gift cards. They were not, to be honest, fantastic value.
However, they are now looking VERY INTERESTING if you have a spending target to hit on a new credit card. And if you don’t have a card with a spend target to hit, this might be a good time to apply for one!
Here is the official site for Amex gift cards.
American Express is currently offering gift cards with NO purchase fee and NO delivery fee. You can buy up to five cards per order which means a maximum of (5 x £100 gift cards) £500 you can spend at a time.
You need to use promotional code AMEX4 to get the purchase fee and postage deducted. The offer runs until 31st December.
Without the fees, you are effectively buying Amex gift cards for face value. The standard fee plus postage on a £100 gift card is £3.95 so this is a substantial saving.
Amex accepts Amex plus Visa and MasterCard for the purchase of these cards. The payment almost certainly goes through as a ‘purchase’ rather than a cash advance, because Amex would need to disclose it otherwise.
The most obvious use of this promotion is to bring forward spending in order to hit a time-limited sign-up bonus on a new credit card. If you would struggle to spend £2,000 in three months to get the 20,000 point (=20,000 Avios) Amex Gold bonus, for example, you can simply buy the difference in Amex gift cards.
The cards can be used for normal spending at almost everywhere that accepts Amex cards. If you end up with a small residual balance of a few pounds, the easy way to cash it out is to buy an Amazon gift certificate (via the Head for Points affiliate link if you like!) and add it to your Amazon account as a credit against future purchases. Amex will also refund the balance of a gift card by cheque or bank transfer if you make a formal request.
Note that Amex gift cards can only be used in the UK. They can be used for physical and online transactions but you cannot use them to obtain cash from an ATM. You need to use up the balance on the card within 12 months otherwise a £1.50 monthly fee will kick in.
These are the main credit and charge cards which require a four-figure minimum spend to trigger the bonus and which may now be more attractive to you than they once were. You have until 20th December to order your gift cards so there is plenty of time.
Amex Gold – 20,000 Membership Rewards points bonus (20,000 Avios) – £2,000 spend in three months – review
Amex Platinum – 30,000 Membership Rewards points bonus (30,000 Avios) – £2,000 spend in three months – review
BA American Express – 9,000 Avios – £1,000 spend in three months – review
BA Premium Plus Amex – 25,000 Avios – £3,000 spend in three months – review
SPG Amex – 10,000 SPG points (10,000 Avios) – £1,000 spend in three months – review
Lufthansa Amex & Visa – 11,500 Miles & More miles – £2,000 spend in three months – review
United Amex & Visa – 15,000 MileagePlus miles – £1,800 spend in three months – review
Etihad Amex & Visa – 20,000 Etihad Guest miles – £4,000 spend in six months – review
Emirates Amex & Visa – 12,000 Skywards miles – £1,000 spend in three months – review
Emirates Elite Amex & Visa – 25,000 Skywards miles – £2,000 spend in three months – review
American Airlines Amex & Visa – 15,000 AA miles – £1,500 spend in three months – review
Our full credit card directory can be found here.
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