Buy 1,000 Amex Membership Rewards points for £6 with Boris Bikes – even if you’re not in London

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Transport for London really wants you to give its Santander Cycles / Boris Bikes a go!

1,000 American Express Membership Rewards points are on offer when you use the cycle network three times by 24th September 2020.

This appears to be a targetted offer. I had it on my American Express Rewards Card (reviewed here). Rob has it on his Platinum card. You will only find it on cards offering Membership Rewards points.

This is an excellent offer, as it effectively allows you to buy 1,000 Membership Rewards points for 0.6p each. These can be turned into Avios, Virgin Flying Club miles and much more.

Here is how it works. To receive the 1,000 Membership Rewards points bonus you must make three transactions with Santander Cycles.

Here is the pricing information from the TfL website:

“Hiring a Santander Cycle costs £2 for unlimited journeys up to 30 minutes, within a 24 hour period. For journeys longer than 30 minutes, you pay £2 for each additional 30 minutes.“

That means that you only need to spend £2 x three times to trigger the bonus, which means a total outlay of £6.

That’s 0.6p per Membership Reward point

This is a good offer even if you don’t plan to cycle at all! 0.6p per point is an exceptional price. The highest ever ‘Buy Avios’ offer in May, for example, still cost around 0.9p per Avios.

Even better is that you get to avoid public transport and enjoy pootling about London on a bike!

Don’t cycle or don’t live in London? No problem

If, on the other hand, you don’t want to cycle but still want to avail of the bonus points you can simply ‘book’ three 24 hour periods and never actually pick up a bike.

The easiest way to do this is via the Santander Cycles app, which lets you book and pay £2 for 24 hours of bike access online. You can also do this in person at a docking station.

Be aware that you can book for multiple people at the same time (generating multiple release codes) but that this is likely to hit your American Express statement as just one purchase.

Doing this three times in three separate 24 hour periods should be enough to trigger the offer.

There is no minimum spend or other requirements set out in the terms and conditions. The rules do say “Available at participating Santander Cycle docking stations.” but this only seems to rule out any stations which don’t take American Express for some reason.

We’ll give this a test via the app and report back on whether we received our 1,000 points in a few days.

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: