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LAST CHANCE: Redeem Amex Membership Rewards points for 0.9p in cash

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Tomorrow, Monday 20th, is the last day for American Express Platinum cardholders to take advantage of a very attractive offer.

(Sorry, this is for Platinum cardholders only.  It does not apply to Business Platinum, Preferred Rewards Gold or any other American Express card.)

If you use your points for statement credit (ie reducing what you owe next month by redeeming points) you would usually receive a pitiful £4.50 per 1,000 points.

This new offer is worth £9 per 1,000 Membership Rewards points when you redeem them for statement credit.  This is surprisingly good.

Statement credit, remember, is as good as cash.

What are Membership Rewards points worth?

Here is my core article on the best uses of American Express Membership Rewards points.

Here is a summary of my valuations:

0.75p – 1.5p per point (estimate, 1:1 ratio) – airline miles

1p per point (estimate, 1:3 ratio) – Radisson Rewards hotel transfers

0.75p per point (estimate, 2:3 ratio) – Marriott Bonvoy hotel transfers

0.66p per point (estimate, 1:2 ratio) – Hilton Honors hotel transfers

0.66p per point (estimate, 15:1 ratio) – Club Eurostar points transfers

0.5p per point (guaranteed, pseudo-cash) – retailer gift cards

0.5p per point (guaranteed, pseudo-cash with potential for upside) – Nectar points

0.45p per point (guaranteed, pseudo-cash) – taking Amazon credit

Read my article on the best Membership Rewards transfers to see how I justify these numbers.

How do I get 0.9p per point for statement credit?

Go to your American Express account and select ‘Use Points for Purchases’ on your Platinum Card home page.

As you will see, you will be offered a rate of £9 per 1,000 points.  Remember that this is ONLY for personal Platinum cardholders.  Everyone else will see the usual rate of 0.45p per point.

Should I redeem my Membership Rewards points for 0.9p each?

That’s not for me to say, of course.

However, as you can see from my numbers above, the bulk of transfers are worth LESS than 0.9p per point.

I would definitely take 0.9p in cash instead of turning my American Express points into Eurostar, Marriott Bonvoy, Radisson Rewards or Hilton Honors points.

This is NOT because these schemes are bad, but because the transfer rate is not generous enough.

The decision is more marginal for airline miles.  Here are the American Express airline transfer partners, all of which are 1:1.  If used sensibly, you should get more than 0.9p per airline mile.  However, you won’t get SUBSTANTIALLY more than 0.9p per mile and cash in the bank may be more useful to you at the moment.

You should also remember that there are many opportunities throughout the year to buy Avios at around 1p to 1.1p per point.  Transferring from Amex at 1:1 into Avios is still a better deal than cashing out for 0.9p, but it is clearly more marginal at this level and the benefit of getting cash in your hand may be high.

The offers ends tomorrow, 20th July

You can only redeem credit against actual purchases, so your maximum redemption is limited to how much money is outstanding on your statement tomorrow morning.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2025 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 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

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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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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 Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Category

American Express Platinum card

Comments (16)

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

  • Andrew says:
    19 Jul19 July 06:25

    I think if you make (particularly instore) purchases today or tomorrow they will still attract the double points when they clear to your account – this is the same with the usual offers when you’re able to use them on the last couple of days despite them showing on your account after the closing date. It would be too late to get the double statement credit on those transactions but you would at least get double MR points. A transaction today if you’re really lucky might process by tomorrow – Amazon and Tesco I have found usually always show next day.

  • Andrew says:
    19 Jul19 July 06:27

    You can also redeem MR points for statement credit in the app – just press on any charge listed and it will show you the transaction detail and will ask you if want to redeem your points and show how many points you need to neutralise that transaction.

  • NigelthePensioner says:
    19 Jul19 July 06:38

    A timely reminder that I telephoned AmEx in mid June and discussed the lack of ability to utilise the membership benefits of my Centurion card that was due to renew on 22nd for the handsome fee previously disclosed. I made them aware of the fact that I knew about the £500 credit offered to Business Platinum card holders. They immediately went straight to the top end of their “compensation” (member since 1989) and offered me 75,000 reward points which I could then trade for 0.9p each to offset the annual fee. It worked perfectly!

  • Ian says:
    19 Jul19 July 08:12

    It doesn’t need to be an outstanding balance. I redeemed points against all sorts of transactions going back a couple of months (many already settled) and the credits have posted fine.

    • Andrew says:
      19 Jul19 July 08:35

      But your can’t redeem if you don’t have any outstanding balance left on your account (or a negative balance showering due to refunds). It will only allow you to reduce your outstanding account balance to zero. But yes, historical transactions are fine. Probably best to avoid applying it to transactions which were subject to the £100 offer or ShopSmall etc.

  • fred says:
    19 Jul19 July 09:18

    I made a sizeable transaction yesterday – am I right in thinking this will clear by tomorrow / indeed qualify for the double MR points?

    • Andrew says:
      19 Jul19 July 09:43

      Yes I believe as long as payment was made during the offer period you will get the double points. But the points may not clear in time by end of tomorrow to apply as a statement credit if that’s what you want to do with them, but you might be lucky, depends how quickly the retailer processes the transaction.

  • Claire says:
    19 Jul19 July 09:40

    OT: Can I use Avios to upgrade an economy to Business on Qatar? (After booking an economy flight, not a ‘full redemption’)

  • The Urbanite says:
    19 Jul19 July 11:51

    Re: payment clearance times, if the transaction clears after the promo finishes you might not automatically get the bonus points.

    This happened to me – put a very large sum on the SPG card on the 3 points/£1 rate but it cleared the day the card change to the Marriott Bonvoy product at 2 points/£1 and I only got the latter. Amex chat and phone agents tried many ways to deny making it up to 3 points, including claiming the 3 points rate was a special offer, blaming the retailer for taking a few days to take the funds and alleging the points rate on the date of clearance, not purchase applied. A complaint saw it reviewed by someone who understood the situation and I was given the right amount of points.

    Maybe it will be fine as the way these points are coded seems to vary but keep an eye on it.

    • Andrew says:
      19 Jul19 July 15:00

      Issues like this it’s a call and ask to speak to Brighton – chat will always be useless, whereas Brighton will sort it out as best they can.

      • Harry T says:
        19 Jul19 July 17:37

        Agree, I only use chat for simple stuff like transferring funds to my bank when my card is in credit due to a refund. Anything complex requires a verbal interaction with a competent human.

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