Don’t use the American Express Membership Rewards Auto-Redeem feature
Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.
American Express Membership Rewards has a new feature – Auto-Redeem.
Don’t use it.
It is just a gimmick, and a poor value gimmick at that.
This is how it works. You click on the ‘Use Points for Purchases’ link on the statement page of your Gold or Platinum account. You will then see a further link for Auto-Redeem. You can then select from three potential recurring payments that you may have – Netflix, Naked Wines and Spotify. No other companies are included.
If you turn on Auto-Redeem, American Express will automatically look for charges from these three merchants on your statement. When it sees one, it redeems enough Membership Rewards points to pay the bill and adds a statement credit to your account. It is meant to happen within three days of the original charge appearing. This effectively nullifies your subscription payment.
Here’s the snag. You only receive £4.50 of statement credit for every 1,000 Membership Rewards points.
You should be looking to get around 1p per Membership Rewards point on a good day. 1 point = 1 Avios, for instance, and you should be able to get 1p per Avios when you redeem.
This is my article explaining the best value Membership Rewards redemptions. You can see from this how poor 0.45p per point is.
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
Chris 
Munch 
Kevin 
Yuff 
Andrew 
Doug 
Peter K 
Leo 
guesswho2000 
Phatbear 
Alex 
Chris 
Rob 
SamG
Nick
Geoff 1977
blenz101
Comments (94)