American Express trialling bonus points offers …. and a good Harrods cashback deal

If you have an American Express Preferred Rewards Gold or American Express Platinum card, you may have a new style of personalised offer showing on your online card statement.

On my account, I will receive 2,000 bonus Membership Rewards points when I spend £500 at Apple before 22nd May.

This is the first time that I have seen Amex run a bonus points offer for a retailer as opposed to a straight cash statement credit.

What is worrying is how pathetic this offer is!  The majority of Membership Rewards remptions value your points at 0.5p or less.  This means that you would be getting £10 of value back for a £500 spend, which is rubbish.  Even if you convert your points to Avios and value them at 1p each, you are still only getting £20 of value back.  Most cashback deals are more generous.

Let’s hope this doesn’t herald the start of a new trend.

If you want something more generous, this deal is better:

On my British Airways Premium Plus card, I have an offer for £50 cashback on a £300 purchase at Harrods before 5th June.

This is a great deal.  You can buy gift cards at any Harrods till point and that will trigger the £50 credit.  You can then spend the £300 whenever you want.

If you are thinking of spending £500 on an Apple product, you should buy it in Harrods instead!  If you have two participating Amex cards, you could buy 2 x £300 Harrods gift cards and get £100 back which you can then spend in the large Apple concession in the Technology department (next to Toy Kingdom, where I spend worrying amounts of time).

At the time of writing, this deal is not on the cardmemberoffers.co.uk website so you can only sign up if it shows for you online.

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 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 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