Foreign spend – fees vs points earning – worth an article?

[jsyedu640]

Hi All

Is it worth using my BA Amex PPcard abroad, so i can trigger an extra 50 TP bonus? Spending £5000 would cost £150 (3% exchange fee) for 50 more TP’s.

TIA

[Guernsey Globetrotter]

jsyedu640 wrote:

Hi All

Is it worth using my BA Amex PPcard abroad, so i can trigger an extra 50 TP bonus? Spending £5000 would cost £150 (3% exchange fee) for 50 more TP’s.

TIA

For most questions posing ‘is it worth it …?’ the answer is that only the person posing the question can decide if it’s worth it for them.

What I can do is set out some logic for you to consider in your own personal circumstances:

– The BAPP spend will accrue 7,500 MRs which most here would value at equivalent to at least £75
– Netted off against your £150 FX fee that leaves the 50 TPs costing £75 net, or £1.50 per TP
– That’s not a great price for TPs but neither is it terrible

If those TPs make the difference between you earning a meaningful BA status upgrade then it may be worth it for you, but only you can make that judgment call…

[Economist_Nearby]

The Savage Squirrel wrote:

Lots of HfP readers will have the MBNA Horizon card from when their various airline cards were closed.
With Cashback on foreign spend, S75 and fee free, there’s no way the maths ever works for preferring a fee paying card to this.

Good point. The Horizon card is very useful abroad. 3.5% is quite a rebate on your holiday!