End of ‘mistake’ Membership Rewards points for Amex Gold holders

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There has always been something odd about the way that American Express awards Membership Rewards points at certain retailers if you have an Amex Gold.

As a reminder, Amex Gold gives double points on all foreign spend transactions. It also gives double points on travel spend as well as, in the first year only, supermarket and petrol spend. It is also free for the first year and has a bonus which converts into 20,000 Avios points – more in my review.

In the internet age, the definition of ‘foreign spend’ is complicated. You will have read how firms such as Amazon bill you in Luxembourg, for example, to take advantage of the lower VAT and corporate tax rates.

This led to strange anomalies.

Back in December 2013 I wrote a piece entitled ‘When is £ credit card spend treated as foreign spend?‘. The list of companies who processed your £ transactions outside the UK, thus triggering double points on the Amex Gold card, included Apple, iTunes, Amazon, easyJet, hotels.com, ebookers, American Airlines, Hotelopia, lastminute.com, Ocado and Paypal.

The following information has just started appearing on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold statements:

Information regarding additional Membership Rewards® points earned for spend at non-UK merchants

It has come to our attention that you may have previously earned additional Membership Rewards points where a transaction was charged and billed in pound Sterling at non-UK merchants, although such transactions do not attract a bonus under the Membership Rewards programme linked to your Card.

From 21 March 2015, transactions charged and billed in pound Sterling at non-UK merchants will no longer attract 1 additional Membership Rewards point for every equivalent £1 spent. This includes transactions that are converted into pound Sterling by the merchant before being charged and billed (known as “dynamic currency conversion”). Please note that we will not remove any additional Membership Rewards points that have been awarded to you for such transactions up to and including 20 March 2015.

You are (and will remain) eligible to earn an additional 1 Membership Rewards point for every equivalent £1 spent on non-Sterling transactions. If your transaction is converted into pound Sterling before submitting to us, you will earn at your normal rate. Transactions charged and billed in pound Sterling at merchants registered outside of the UK do not attract 1 additional Membership Rewards point for every equivalent £1 spent.

Looking at this, it seems that Amex was also giving double points if you used Dynamic Currency Conversion. This is where you let an overseas shop or hotel charge your card in £ rather than in the local currency. I hope that no Head for Points readers are daft enough to do this because the exchange rates used are generally pathetic.

Whilst Amex has changed its strategy, there are other credit card issuers who give double points for foreign spending. These include the IHG Rewards Club Premium Visa and the TSB Avios and TSB Premier Avios cards. Test in the past showed that a far smaller number of merchants triggered double points on these cards for £ transactions.

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 Gold card, American Express Membership Rewards

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

Nathan says:

25 Jan25 January 06:15

IHG premium visa does double for Apple which is great for me as I spend about £10,000 a year with them as my other half works for them and we get fab discount for friends and family 🙂
- Danksy says:
  
  25 Jan25 January 07:57
  
  I heard 25% for the employee and 15% for friends!
  - Nathan says:
    
    25 Jan25 January 09:19
    
    In the states it’s 25 staff, 15 friends 10 in store but in the UK it’s 27/17/12
    - Manuel says:
      
      25 Jan25 January 09:45
      
      Nathan,
      
      You need another friend? 😉
      
      If so you can mail me 😉
      Manu
      Voetbalkrant
      Com
      - Camille says:
        
        25 Jan25 January 14:27
        
        abuse this benefit at your peril.
        
        I heard of someone that lost their job at apple for using that discount because they stretched the definition of “friends and family”.
        
        …..sorry, don’t mean to rain on the parade! just saying.
      - Nathan says:
        
        25 Jan25 January 19:01
        
        yeah when i worked there it was limited and now that its just my mrs there i don’t think i could abuse hers haha!
Lux says:

25 Jan25 January 06:31

Out of interest, what’s worse – dynamic currency loading, or Amex’s pretty grim foreign exchange charges? (I’ll only use my Amex abroad if someone else is picking up the bill!)
- JQ says:
  
  25 Jan25 January 09:14
  
  Usually DCC is worse. However, I thought that Amex didn’t allow DCC.
  
  DCC may have been a good option if you wre in Switzerland last week.
- Andrew says:
  
  25 Jan25 January 11:10
  
  The problem is that some places refuse to give you a choice, and if you do not speak the language it makes getting understood impossible.
  - Rob says:
    
    25 Jan25 January 11:53
    
    …. which is strictly not allowed under their agreement with the card companies!
  - Andy says:
    
    25 Jan25 January 12:56
    
    Also when prepaying for hotels on the internet. I have found IHG properties in Europe often do this because the hotel processes the payment itself and conveniently choose DCC.
    - Andrew says:
      
      25 Jan25 January 23:26
      
      Something similar with booking.com / hotels.com when a hotel is priced in euros but located in another currency zone the price displayed when you book can be significantly different to when you pay at checkout.
      
      For example in Albania, the advertised price was 50euro but at checkout the hotel used its own exchange rate to convert to local currency and ended up costing 60euro on the credit card.
Sam wardill says:

25 Jan25 January 07:14

I wonder if Amazon counts as a ‘supermarket’ still as they sell a lot of groceries. Marks and spencer does.
Gordon says:

25 Jan25 January 08:00

Does this mean that amex gold is giving triple points on retailers such as hotels.com? So double for the foreign spend and triple for the travel spend? Similar to the way supermarket petrol gets triple (double for supermarket and triple for petrol). I know its not supposed to do this but it does
- Daleroxxu says:
  
  25 Jan25 January 08:36
  
  It was actually quadruple. I used Airbnb a bunch of times, paid in £, got 4 MR points per £1. Guess it gave double travel points on the already doubled ‘foreign spend’, another nice mistake. 🙂
  - Mark says:
    
    25 Jan25 January 10:22
    
    That seems to have stopped recently. A couple of hotels.com transactions this month only gave double points.
    
    I have had a couple of direct hotel charges still give triple points in the last month though. I guess that will also come to an end.
    - Wade says:
      
      26 Jan26 January 08:44
      
      Same thing happened to me with AirBnb this month 😀
Andy says:

25 Jan25 January 08:27

I didn’t think Dynamic Currency Conversion was possible when paying with Amex? I thought it was a Visa / Mastercard con only? I really hope Amex haven’t started allowing it, got a Lloyds Avios card in order to avoid it!
- Peter says:
  
  25 Jan25 January 10:11
  
  I have the Lloyds Avios and was asked in Berlin whether I wanted to pay in pounds. I was a bit distracted at the time and said yes, only realising my mistake just after the receptionist had already done the transaction. Fortunately, it was only for the city taxes part of the bill, not the actual stay. It was the Amex card, so yes, they must ‘allow’ it. And of course I was doubly stupid since there are no foreign transaction fees on the card anyway!
mark2 says:

25 Jan25 January 08:51

I noticed recently on a credit card bill that a purchase from Currys had been charged in the Czech Republic!
- andy stock says:
  
  25 Jan25 January 10:10
  
  My £3 a month tablet insurance from currys is billed on my amex gold is from the Czech republic but only ever got 1 point per £1.
  
  On the subject of credit/ debit cards charges, I see Metro Bank have a fee free debit card within the EU. To be honest I am quite lazy and just end up using my amex gold card.
Simon says:

25 Jan25 January 09:12

If it is just the outbound spend bonus when being charged abroad even though shopping in the UK then this is not as bad as I though when reading the headline. Luckily for me this is a small proportion of my spend.

As with other posts I hope that the triple and even quadruple spends on some hotels and petrol remains!!
- Jason says:
  
  25 Jan25 January 10:13
  
  I only got double points on Intercontinental Times Square last November. Although got triple buying tickets at disney UK.
  About to pay for a hotel, through a UK travel agent, where I would get double, for travel spend, but they charge a higher fee for amex than M/card, wondering if it’s worth calling amex to see if they would add a hotel bonus which would swing it to use amex!
JQ says:

25 Jan25 January 09:16

I guess this means the end of double or triple points in Jersey then (unless spending on travel).