HSBC no longer taking £TC’s from June 27 – last chance to boost Amex sign-up spend

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If you need to boost your American Express spend to hit a sign-up bonus, one way to push yourself nearer to the target is to buy some Sterling travellers cheques from American Express Currency Exchange.

As I have written numerous times on Head for Points, American Express treats an order of foreign currency or travellers cheques as a PURCHASE and not as a cash withdrawal.

This ONLY applies if you make your transaction via their own travelmoneynow website and ONLY if you use an Amex-issued American Express card. Lloyds Amex and MBNA Amex cards do not qualify.

There are three advantages of doing this:

You don’t pay a cash advance fee when buying foreign currency or travellers cheques (although there is a 1.5% fee for £ travellers cheques)

You earn Membership Rewards points, Avios, SPG points or Nectar points via your Amex card

You get nearer to the sign-up bonus on your American Express card

You used to be able to pay Sterling travellers cheques into UK bank accounts without any problems. In the last couple of years it has got harder with some banks withdrawing totally. HSBC is now following suit.

HSBC notice

From June 27th, you will not be allowed to pay £ travellers cheques into your HSBC bank account. This means, of course, that for the next 10 days you can do it without any problems.

Amex is aware that using a credit or charge card to order currency is an easy fraud route. It imposes arbitrary limits on how much – if any – currency and travellers cheques it will let you buy.

That said, if you are £500 short of hitting the sign-up bonus on your new Amex card, paying the £7.50 fee to order £500 of Sterling travellers cheques – and immediately paying them into your bank account – is a decent deal. Be very careful before doing this that your bank will still accept them. If you have a HSBC account you may just be able to squeeze in an order in time.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 2021 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit or charge card, here are our November 2021 recommendations based on the current sign-up bonus.

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the top current deals:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

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5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

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American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

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The Platinum Card from American Express

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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 Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and a long list of travel benefits Read our full review

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company 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 on your spending:

Barclaycard Select Cashback Credit Card

1% cashback and no annual fee Read our full review

Category

General

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

James67 says:

14 Jun14 June 06:34

I am not sure how this could work. As I understand it when you receive a new amex card it cannot be used for currency or TCs because it has no cash facility. I have been told by cs you need to wait 6 months to apply for that which obviously exceeds the time limit on target spend. Am I missing something here; if you have a cash facility on an existing card do all new cards come with it automatically?
- Polly says:
  
  14 Jun14 June 08:56
  
  Hi James , all new credit cards come with a daily cash facility. You just need to activate it separately, it’s written somewhere in t and c … Or call up cluster re services. I had to do it for our BACC as my euros order was too high, so had to make two smaller orders. And you can do it immediately, no waiting time as you think.
  - James67 says:
    
    14 Jun14 June 09:02
    
    Thanks Polly, this is what I did (twice) . Both times I was told I had to wait 6 months then complete and send a form.
    - Polly says:
      
      15 Jun15 June 08:34
      
      That’s weird, I definitely did it in march after getting my new plat, within a few days needed euros, and baht, got both. I did call up c s, and they were v helpful. We also did it last year with both our SPG cards, as we also needed currency then. Maybe they have tightened their currency rules. But it would have been a blow to us, as we needed the currency for travel soon after. I would question that again. You might get a better informed csa next time you call in.
- Rob says:
  
  14 Jun14 June 09:46
  
  Existing Amex customers seem to be treated differently.
  - James67 says:
    
    14 Jun14 June 10:53
    
    Yes, probably because I was a new customer as off last year.
Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

14 Jun14 June 08:20

I’m surprised that they’re withdrawing the facility with so little notice. I assume you’ve deposited a sterling TC in the past? Have they written to you about the change? First Direct customers especially would be unlikely to see that notice in branch.

If this is all the notice they’re giving, seems to me they’re setting themselves up for a bad relationship with the FCA…
- Rob says:
  
  14 Jun14 June 09:44
  
  That sign was in the branch. I haven’t been told directly and wouldn’t have seen it if I hadn’t had a cheque to pay in.
Sinizter says:

14 Jun14 June 08:46

Which bank do accept travellers cheques ?
- James67 says:
  
  14 Jun14 June 09:04
  
  Had no problem at Halifax or Nationwide
- Gill says:
  
  14 Jun14 June 10:57
  
  Barclays accept hem but I am the only person in Glossop that ever has any according to the counter staff.
Fenny says:

14 Jun14 June 09:13

This reminds me that I really ought to find the $150 or so of TCs I’ve had sitting around in the spare bedroom for the last 15 years or so.
Volker says:

14 Jun14 June 09:33

On a side note: For the first time, a money transfer through HiFX (which I used for sending money abroad on a regular basis) was treated by MBNA as a cash advance rather than a purchase last month. I earned thousands of AVIOS via this channel but obviously have to say “adios” to this great opportunity now. Despite using the same BMI CC for this purpose for years, they even declined the transaction temporarily and sent me a fraud alert message!
Our hobby seems to get more and more difficult…
- James67 says:
  
  14 Jun14 June 09:46
  
  Oh; huge missed opportunity for me. Could have raked in lots of miles withthat.
idrive says:

14 Jun14 June 09:55

Raffles, why do you write “an easy fraud route” what do you mean exactly?
is the cash limit on the card daily or monthly?
- Rob says:
  
  14 Jun14 June 10:52
  
  What I mean is that if you could fraudulently get an Amex card then buying currency is an easy way to liquidate it. That is why Amex is more cautious.
  - idrive says:
    
    14 Jun14 June 14:42
    
    yes but still you need to access the flat/mail of the receiver, you can not send them to an office address or else. Moreover, if you do not sign when royalmail comes, you need to collect the splip at the post office, if it was not delivered showing a document or….a Card! so in this case it would be successful but otherwise, it could easily raise suspects on the cardholder if royalmail pushed the bell while you are at home! so this could be an internal fraudster in your building or with access to it on a daily basis
    - idrive says:
      
      14 Jun14 June 14:44
      
      PLUS, Banks do not allowed to withdraw cash against TCs. They only accept TCs if
      
      1) you have a bank account at their bank
      2)if you cash in your own account (in that case how can you get the money)?
  - idrive says:
    
    14 Jun14 June 14:59
    
    you did not answer, is the cash limit daily? so far I have done 1 a month sometimes, not more as I thought that was a limit one a month
    - Rob says:
      
      14 Jun14 June 15:05
      
      Not officially but 99 per cent certain there is one they don’t tell you about
      - idrive says:
        
        14 Jun14 June 15:12
        
        i ask you because I tried once to buy a 750TC order with a 900limit printed on statement but was refused and got a message on my mobile advising this would have brought me over my cash limit, which means they must have setup a ratio to cash limit for TCs.
jon says:

14 Jun14 June 09:59

Is manufactured spend like this considered fraud?
- Rob says:
  
  14 Jun14 June 10:51
  
  No!
  - Jon says:
    
    14 Jun14 June 12:59
    
    Great, as an HSBC customer I’ve just done 500 on both my amex cards. Thanks for the tip!
Clive says:

14 Jun14 June 13:07

If memory serves me correctly there is a 500 avios bonus on currency exchanges with BA at the moment for orders over £500