American Express launches a spend-based bonus promotion for Gold and Platinum cardholders

American Express has launched a new bonus points offer for many people – but not everyone – who have Preferred Rewards Gold or The Platinum Card.  The deal may also be available to Green, Centurion and Amex Rewards Credit Card holders.

It is a very simple ‘spend this, get that’ offer.

On my Platinum card, I have:

‘Spend £6,600 betweeen 11th July and 11th August and receive 6,000 bonus Membership Rewards points’

My wife has a more reasonable offer on her Gold card:

‘Spend £700 between 11th July and 11th August and receive 1,000 bonus Membership Rewards points’

There are a couple of things you need to note:

You are not automatically registered.  You need to go to the ‘offers’ section of your Amex online statement page and click ‘save to card’.

It doesn’t start until 11th July

Spend via ‘Payment Aggregators’ such as PayPal does not count

Looking at our comments section yesterday, there are many different versions of this offer.  The most aggressive was:

‘Spend £13,300 between 11th July and 11th August and receive 10,000 bonus Membership Rewards points’

I think the smallest was:

‘Spend £300 between 11th July and 11th August and receive 500 bonus Membership Rewards points’

Important ….

If you are tempted to hit your target by putting your Summer holiday spending onto your American Express card, remember that Amex charges a 3% foreign exchange fee.

The bonus points above do NOT offset the 3% fee.  You are still better off using a specialist credit card which offers no rewards but has no FX fees.  The free Tandem Money credit card is even better, offering 0.5% cashback on your FX spending as well as not charging any FX fees.

I think it is fair to say that I won’t be triggering my 6,000 bonus points, although I am sure we can divert £700 of spending onto my wife’s Preferred Rewards Gold.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – March 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Successfully apply for either of the Barclaycard Avios credit cards by 2nd April 2023 and you will be entered into a free draw to win ONE MILLION AVIOS! Full details are on the application forms here (free) and here (paid). This competition is exclusive to Head for Points readers. T&C apply.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

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.

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:

Until 30th March 2023, the sign up bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to 120,000 Membership Rewards points – click here. The bonus on American Express Business Gold is increased to 60,000 Membership Rewards points – click here. T&C apply, see the application forms for details.

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.