Don’t use the American Express Membership Rewards Auto-Redeem feature
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American Express Membership Rewards has a new feature – Auto-Redeem.
Don’t use it.
It is just a gimmick, and a poor value gimmick at that.
This is how it works. You click on the ‘Use Points for Purchases’ link on the statement page of your Gold or Platinum account. You will then see a further link for Auto-Redeem. You can then select from three potential recurring payments that you may have – Netflix, Naked Wines and Spotify. No other companies are included.
If you turn on Auto-Redeem, American Express will automatically look for charges from these three merchants on your statement. When it sees one, it redeems enough Membership Rewards points to pay the bill and adds a statement credit to your account. It is meant to happen within three days of the original charge appearing. This effectively nullifies your subscription payment.
Here’s the snag. You only receive £4.50 of statement credit for every 1,000 Membership Rewards points.
You should be looking to get around 1p per Membership Rewards point on a good day. 1 point = 1 Avios, for instance, and you should be able to get 1p per Avios when you redeem.
This is my article explaining the best value Membership Rewards redemptions. You can see from this how poor 0.45p per point is.
Want to earn more points from credit cards? – October 2023 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 Mastercard
Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review
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
30,000 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:
American Express Business Platinum
40,000 points 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
Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers 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 credit card
1% cashback and no annual fee Read our full review
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