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How to turn off the annoying Amex ‘Do you want to pay with points?’ pop-up window

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For a while now, when you make a purchase with an American Express card which offers Membership Rewards points, Amex has been trying to get you to pay with points.

It’s annoying.

And, even worse, it’s terrible value.

Pay with Amex Membership Rewards points

Luckily, there is a way of turning it off.

What I’m talking about is this screen which pops up when you are trying to make an online purchase:

Pay with Amex Membership Rewards points

There are probably many people who accidentally click ‘Use points’. This is not good as the rate if you click ‘Use points’ is £4.50 per 1,000 Membership Rewards points. This is shockingly bad, considering that you get 1,000 Avios for the same number of points.

Luckily, there is a solution

Next time you have this box pop up, click the cogwheel in the top right corner.

This menu will appear:

Pay with Membership Rewards points

The bottom option here is ‘Show Pay-with-points options when available’. If you toggle this option off, you will never be shown the ‘pay with points’ box again.

Not only does it ensure that you will never make an expensive mistake in the future, it will also speed up your checkout for online purchases.

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Comments (42)

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

  • Nick says:
    15 Jul15 July 07:42

    I don’t think it offers the pay by points option to supplementary cardholders

  • Alan says:
    15 Jul15 July 07:55

    Top top, Rob – really hated this and always worried I’d inadvertently click it, as you say it’s appalling value!

  • Ironside says:
    15 Jul15 July 08:08

    Really useful, Rob – thank you.
    I was aware that you could call AMEX and get it turned off but I’d always hesitated as I thought that sometimes AMEX did promotions with certain retailers (Eurostar?) which occasionally gave this option some value?

    • holland says:
      15 Jul15 July 15:35

      I contact them yearly asking them to turn it off, and they say no.

  • BBbetter says:
    15 Jul15 July 08:18

    I try to use mobile websites as many of them give you option to pay using Apple Pay.

  • Sussex bantam says:
    15 Jul15 July 09:19

    Thank you. This would have saved the massive row when my wife clicked this “because it sounded a good deal ”

  • @alastairtravel says:
    15 Jul15 July 09:45

    Thanks – this is very useful

  • Lee says:
    15 Jul15 July 10:08

    Great! Thank you guys

  • Bluekjp says:
    15 Jul15 July 11:09

    I have a young colleague who has made many, many purchases for me. A few weeks back he accidentally spent 150,000 avios! I called Amex immediately but they gave me the FO treatment. I now transfer my points to avios every week incase he does it again, so thanks Rob as this now allows me to safely store them as Membership Reards Points per my previous policy.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      15 Jul15 July 15:15

      Which is shocking because they should be able to reverse it.

      However, they may fall back on the “no one else should have access to your card” line

    • memesweeper says:
      15 Jul15 July 18:10

      If a supplementary card holder could spend my points I’d be livid — is this really the case?

      If you’ve lent a card to a colleague then thank your lucky stars it only cost you 150k Membership Reward points.

      • memesweeper says:
        15 Jul15 July 18:11

        Just seen Rob’s comment — sups can’t spend ‘parent’ card points.

      • Rui N. says:
        15 Jul15 July 18:44

        Rob is wrong. The option to spend also shows up for supps

        • Rob says:
          15 Jul15 July 19:41

          I’ve got it in writing from Amex that it doesn’t.

          • Rui N. says:
            15 Jul15 July 20:27

            And I have it seen with my eyes just today that it does. *Facepalm*

          • TGLoyalty says:
            15 Jul15 July 20:55

            You must have a supp card to see that’s not true though 😂

          • Rob says:
            15 Jul15 July 21:04

            Need to buy something first – and reverse the block on my own card which I assume has blocked the supp ….

    • Stephen says:
      15 Jul15 July 18:12

      They can reverse the points transaction, not sure if upper limit but they did for me when accidentally redeemed on Amazon

    • Dubious says:
      16 Jul16 July 02:43

      Could you ask the retailer for a refund, and then re-purchase it again without clicking the points redemption option?

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