Advanced Avios: 60,000 Amex points with the Amex International $/€ Card

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A few people have emailed me about this offer in the last month or so. I have not written about it before because this is a very complex process which should not be entered into lightly, but as it does seem to be coming onto the radar of more and more people I have decided to cover it.

Do not apply for this card unless you are 100% sure what you are doing and what it entails.

American Express issues two cards for UK residents (and indeed other EEA residents, but the cards are run from Brighton) who would prefer to bank in US$ or Euros.

These cards are known as International Currency Cards with the individual cards known as the International Dollar Card (IDC) and International Euro Card (IEC)

They are available in Green, Gold and Platinum versions

There is no sign-up bonus for the Gold or Green card. However, the Platinum card currently offers a sign-up bonus of 60,000 Membership Rewards points. Full details can be found here.

Instead of telling you why you should apply for this card, let me tell you why you should NOT:

60,000 Membership Rewards points does NOT get you 60,000 Avios. The International Currency Cards have their own separate Membership Rewards programme. The conversion rate to Avios is 3:2 so your 60,000 point bonus is only worth 40,000 Avios or Virgin miles.

American Express will insist on a written reference from your bank before it will give you a card. If you have been an Amex client for a decade or so it appears, anecdotally, that they do not take up the reference. They do for everyone else.

You will need to provide CERTIFIED copies of your passport and utility bills

The application process takes 2-3 months to complete based on reports, primarily due to the bank references

You must pay your card bill in $ or €. This can only be done by making a foreign currency bank transfer to an overseas bank account. You cannot pay your bill by direct debit or by a £ bank transfer.

You must have a personal income of €65,000 / $65,000 or equivalent

There is an annual fee of €550 / $550

All sounds less attractive now, doesn’t it? (Note that I have have a Green $ card, so I know what I’m talking about.)

There are some positive reasons to get one:

If you spend a lot of money in $ or € you will avoid the FX fee on using a £ credit card

Some Membership Rewards partners transfer 1:1 out of the IDC / IEC scheme – see this HfP article from last year. There are also partners such as Malaysia Airlines and Jumeirah hotels which are not in the UK MR scheme.

You can transfer your UK Membership Rewards balance to your new IDC or IEC Membership Rewards account. Your balance will be increased by the current exchange rate, so your balance is boosted by 65%-70% if you have an IDC account. Of course, this is almost entirely offset by the poorer transfer rates.

You get free travel insurance with the card which is better than the UK Platinum Card coverage (the maximum age limit is 80 years, for example)

You get the same Priority Pass, Starwood, Club Carlson and Accor status benefits as you would get with the UK Platinum Card

Despite the Amex disclaimer to the contrary, as the Membership Rewards scheme for IDC and IEC cards is totally separate to the UK scheme, you should still receive the bonus even if you already hold a UK Gold or Platinum card

I hope this makes the pros and cons of the card a lot clearer for anyone who sees any Amex advertising for the product. Whilst the sign-up bonus may initially seem very attractive, I genuinely do not think that it is worth getting the card unless you are very financially sophisticated as it may end up being more trouble than it is worth.

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

British Airways American Express

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee 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 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

American Express Membership Rewards

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

squills says:

9 Aug9 August 07:38

I had a run in with my bank manager over getting certified copies of a couple of documents a year or so ago (which the bank’s customer service people had told me would be a free service for customers.) The poor woman didn’t even know what a certified copy was!

Her first objection was: but I don’t know you. A truthful point, as I don’t ever need to talk to her. But a hopelessly irrelevant point. Plus you’d have thought that since I have banked with them for 33 years, that might have helped.

Her second whine was: but I don’t know your passport is genuine so how can I certify your photocopy is a true copy? Again, completely groundless (surely a Brit bank manager would know the look and feel of a genuine passport in any case – and she had mine in her hand). A certified copy is merely the attestation of somebody in a profession (requirements vary) that your copy is a proper copy of the original document – and nothing to do with whether the original is or is not genuine.

Anyway I about turned, got home and stuck in a phone call to CS; £10 for my trouble 😉

The local lawyer just did it all for £5 for the coffee pot fund so no dramas but I do hate jobsworths lol
- Andrew S says:
  
  9 Aug9 August 08:02
  
  Lol sometimes you just need to educate them.
  
  I have always used the post office, as pretty much every banking service opened by the post office (bank of ireland) needs certified copies. And its free…
  - JQ says:
    
    10 Aug10 August 16:23
    
    Maybe your PO clerk knows you, because they are meant to charge £7.15
    - squills says:
      
      10 Aug10 August 21:08
      
      I think AS means getting certified copies at the PO for BOI purposes is FOC – they have a business relationship so that’s not surprising.
AM says:

9 Aug9 August 07:57

doesn’t sound that complicated once you get approved – only one spend for 40K avios. IF you have a euro account in the uk, wth a card linked to it, spending a negligible amount on the card (e.g water from tesco) to get 40K avios is well worth it in my opinion.

I can’t apply at the moment, as it hasn’t been 6 months since I cancelled my Platinum card.
- Rob says:
  
  9 Aug9 August 08:21
  
  As per the article, the 6 month rule probably does not apply except for other IDC or IEC cards.
  - AM says:
    
    9 Aug9 August 08:33
    
    so do you think its worth applying? My normal uk platinum card was cancelled in April
    - Rob says:
      
      9 Aug9 August 13:59
      
      I am purposely not giving an opinion on this because I don’t want to be responsible for unleashing hassle on people. I do have an IDC Green myself, though, so clearly I felt I could personally handle the paperwork!
Polly says:

9 Aug9 August 08:01

OT. But is it possible to transfer avios back to SPG from our BAEC account? Anyone ever done this? Thanks. Hope Squills you might have an idea!
- David says:
  
  9 Aug9 August 08:02
  
  There is no exit route from Avios into other loyalty scheme currencies.
- squills says:
  
  9 Aug9 August 08:14
  
  Yep nothing comes up on http://www.webflyer.com/programs/mileage_converter/
  
  You can, however transfer from Amex to SPG at 2:1 (so it says)
  - Rob says:
    
    9 Aug9 August 08:18
    
    Not with IDC, ratio is worse
    - Polly says:
      
      9 Aug9 August 08:33
      
      Thanks all…
Andrew S says:

9 Aug9 August 08:03

BTW what exactly is a bank reference? What does it contain?
- Richard Brown says:
  
  9 Aug9 August 08:19
  
  Bank reference will usually contain something akin to
  
  “XXXXXXX has maintained an active and satisfactorily conducted account with us since 1976. We consider him good for his obligations”
- Rob says:
  
  9 Aug9 August 08:19
  
  No idea, to be honest. You need to sign a waiver giving your bank permission to hand over whatever Amex wants.
Richard Brown says:

9 Aug9 August 08:10

The Travel Insurance is good and comprehensive and you don’t have to book trips with your card to take advantage of it.

You can also get other travel related perks when booking with it. Worth contacting Amex Travel Related Services in this regard.

Also works well if you have USD and Euro denominated accounts with your Bank and as such, can often get better exchange rates than through the card companies.
CapnJack says:

9 Aug9 August 08:22

NOTE: The balance can also be paid with a $ or € cheque from a bank account denominated in that currency. Citibank operate them fee free but unless you have income in the currency be warned that Citi give you an exchange rate a couple of points off the interbank.

Also note that Amex post the statement monthly with a pre addressed envelope, and recommend that you ensure that payment reaches them at least 7 days before the deadline. However the statement doesn’t usually arrive until 7 days before so you need to keep on top of it. I set up alerts online to warn me when the statement is available and keep a couple of the envelopes handy to avoid getting caught out.

I was also able to pay the balance off when on an extended trip in the USA at an Amex travel agent using travellers cheques.

Hope this may be useful to someone.
- Richard Brown says:
  
  9 Aug9 August 08:24
  
  The balance (as in my case) can also be paid with a direct debit from the accounts in question, at least through HSBC.
- CapnJack says:
  
  16 Aug16 August 07:53
  
  Worth noting also that Citi have started applying a £5 sterling “foreign transaction fee” on their $ and € accounts. I asked them why such a fee was possible on a cheque drawn in us$, from an account denominated in us$,and credited to an account transacting in us$.
  
  They replied that it is to cover “clearing costs”. It might seem picky of me, but I don’t tend to keep more funds in this type of account than I need to cover known expenses, so I fell foul of their overdraft penalty charge as a result. More than wiped out any exchange rate benefits. Be warned!
  - Rob says:
    
    16 Aug16 August 07:59
    
    They slashed the interest rate on the Euro account as well – I was about to open one
    - Alan says:
      
      16 Aug16 August 08:21
      
      Whilst on the topic of foreign cheques and bank accounts, Metro Bank don’t charge any fees for paying them in and don’t have horrendously loaded exchange rates (as would have been the case if I’d paid it into RBS!)
Adam says:

9 Aug9 August 09:22

Great post – very tempting for those of us who can get their friends to certify docs for them at no cost!

A couple of quick (and perhaps obvious, for which apologies) questions:

1. Am I right in understanding that you can’t make payments by a UK fee-free FX card (eg Halifax clarity)?

2. Is the membership fee rewarded pro-rats on cancellation?
- Rob says:
  
  9 Aug9 August 14:03
  
  Not sure about the pro-rata fee refund but I was under the impression this was a global Amex policy. Definitely check the rules carefully. Also consider how you would get the money ‘out’ if Amex credit the fee back to your account, which they normally do.
  
  And, no, you can only pay with a Dollar or Euro cheque or a fund transfer (in Dollar or Euro) to their bankers. For the $ card you need to wire $ to a branch of Standard Chartered in New York.
  - Adam says:
    
    9 Aug9 August 23:26
    
    Thanks for the reply.
    
    Looking at the account T&Cs, it looks like the pro-rata refund applies equally to the Euro/Dollar card.
    
    Good point on considering how one might extract the refunded cash. What do you think the chances of having them apply it against another Amex card’s balance would be (depending on the exchange rate they’d charge)? They were happy to apply my SPG pro-rata refund to my Gold account.
    - Rob says:
      
      10 Aug10 August 11:17
      
      There is obviously a ‘process’, presumably an IBAN transfer into your current account.
Adam says:

9 Aug9 August 09:24

If you live in Central london and buy me a coffee, I’ll do you a few certified copies gratis
- AM says:
  
  9 Aug9 August 10:41
  
  As far as I can see from https://www.gov.uk/certifying-a-document , anyone can certify you a copy as long as you’re not related and is either a:
  
  bank or building society official or,
  councillor,
  dentist,
  police officer,
  solicitor,
  teacher or lecturer
  
  I’m sure everyone of us knows at least one of the above.
  
  All they need to do is sign the certified copy with their occupation, signature, name, address and telephone number as well as the date and say “Certified to be a true copy of the original seen by me”
  
  Simples!
  - Alan says:
    
    9 Aug9 August 11:14
    
    Amex have a specific wording they want used – not dissimilar to the above but be careful to use their exact wording. As Raffles said it can take a couple of months to go through, I had major issues getting my bank to do the reference even after faxing the authorisation to multiple departments!