What happens to your American Express Membership Rewards points when you die?
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Have you ever thought about what happens to your American Express Membership Rewards points when you die?
We’ve run an article on what happens to your Avios points when you die for many years, but we have never looked at American Express points.
However, a recent experience by a reader gave me a detailed insight into what happens, and how you can avoid the same issues she had.

Comparing the official policies of Avios and Membership Rewards points, you are starting in a totally different place.
The Avios terms and conditions say that your points die with you. This is NOT the case in practice, as our article shows, but you are starting off on the back foot.
American Express Membership Rewards takes a more pro-active approach.
What happens to Membership Rewards points when you die?
If you look at the terms and conditions for the American Express Membership Rewards programme, you will see this line (I quote from the Preferred Rewards Gold terms):
If we close your Card Account because you have become incapacitated or died, your legal representative will need to contact us to arrange for the points to be redeemed. If any points remain after we have done this, we will cancel them as points cannot be transferred to any other person. If you pay a Programme Fee, this fee will not be refunded.
In theory, it’s good news. Once American Express knows that the cardholder has died, the points can be redeemed.
Not so fast …..
Our reader contacted American Express following the death of her husband, as per the rules.
American Express redeemed his points – for statement credit.
Statement credit is the WORST way to redeem your Membership Rewards points. You receive just 0.45p per point.
For comparison, if the points had been transferred to Avios it should have been possible to get 1p per point. Even if the points had been used for gift cards, she would have got 0.5p – 11% more than was received.

At least half of the value of the points (over 200,000 of them) was lost.
Our reader made a formal complaint to American Express. This was the reply:
You have informed us that the primary account holder, has recently passed away, and we began the process of closing the account. As per internal policy, when an account is cancelled under these circumstances, the annual fee is refunded and applied as a credit to the account. Any accrued MR Points are also applied as a credit, at a rate of £4.50 for every 1,000 MR Points.
While I understand you have requested these MR Points be transferred to another account, we are unable to do this. MR Points cannot be transferred between accounts under any circumstances, and are typically forfeited on cancellation of the account under normal circumstances.
As I have been unable to establish an error on the part of American Express, I am unable to uphold your complaint.
Whilst I accept that American Express would have sensible grounds to refuse to transfer the points to an Avios account in the name of the deceased – since that account should also be closed on death – it should be more flexible about passing them to legal next of kin.
In this case, the next of kin was even a supplementary cardholder on the relevant American Express account.
What should you do in a similar situation?
My advice in all of these cases is the same. You should ensure that you and your partner have access to each others accounts.
Upon death, you should transfer the points to an Avios or other account of your choice before informing American Express of the death.
(Unlike Avios, you are unlikely to stop Amex finding out about the death as it is likely to be accessing death records for fraud prevention reasons. Selling data on dead people is a surprisingly big business.)
You will also need to make sure that the partner account, potentially Avios, is either not informed of the death – and you run down the mileage balance yourself – or you use the unofficial Avios process to request a transfer of the points of the deceased to yourself.
I’m not necessarily critical of the stance that Amex takes in this situation. Cashing out the points for a statement credit is very ‘clean’. It also avoids complex issues such as, for example, the next of kin not having a Membership Rewards account and not having good enough credit to open a card to get one.
However, you will lose value if you allow American Express to liquidate the points of the deceased for 0.45p and you should try to avoid it if you can.
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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – February 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 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
Get 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.

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

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
50,000 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
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 when you spend at least £2,000 per month.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card
Get 1% cashback when you spend at least £2,000 per month* Read our full review
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