Buy 1,000 Amex Membership Rewards points for £6 with Boris Bikes – even if you’re not in London

Transport for London really wants you to give its Santander Cycles / Boris Bikes a go!

1,000 American Express Membership Rewards points are on offer when you use the cycle network three times by 24th September 2020.

This appears to be a targetted offer. I had it on my American Express Rewards Card (reviewed here). Rob has it on his Platinum card. You will only find it on cards offering Membership Rewards points.

This is an excellent offer, as it effectively allows you to buy 1,000 Membership Rewards points for 0.6p each. These can be turned into Avios, Virgin Flying Club miles and much more.

Here is how it works. To receive the 1,000 Membership Rewards points bonus you must make three transactions with Santander Cycles.

Here is the pricing information from the TfL website:

“Hiring a Santander Cycle costs £2 for unlimited journeys up to 30 minutes, within a 24 hour period. For journeys longer than 30 minutes, you pay £2 for each additional 30 minutes.“

That means that you only need to spend £2 x three times to trigger the bonus, which means a total outlay of £6.

That’s 0.6p per Membership Reward point

This is a good offer even if you don’t plan to cycle at all! 0.6p per point is an exceptional price. The highest ever ‘Buy Avios’ offer in May, for example, still cost around 0.9p per Avios.

Even better is that you get to avoid public transport and enjoy pootling about London on a bike!

Don’t cycle or don’t live in London? No problem

If, on the other hand, you don’t want to cycle but still want to avail of the bonus points you can simply ‘book’ three 24 hour periods and never actually pick up a bike.

The easiest way to do this is via the Santander Cycles app, which lets you book and pay £2 for 24 hours of bike access online. You can also do this in person at a docking station.

Be aware that you can book for multiple people at the same time (generating multiple release codes) but that this is likely to hit your American Express statement as just one purchase.

Doing this three times in three separate 24 hour periods should be enough to trigger the offer.

There is no minimum spend or other requirements set out in the terms and conditions. The rules do say “Available at participating Santander Cycle docking stations.” but this only seems to rule out any stations which don’t take American Express for some reason.

We’ll give this a test via the app and report back on whether we received our 1,000 points in a few days.

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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.