ENDS SOON: Amex Business cardholders can sell Membership Rewards points for 0.9p

Time is running out if you want to take advantage of American Express’s very interesting offer for holders of American Express Business Gold and American Express Business Platinum.

If you use your points for statement credit (ie reducing what you owe next month by redeeming points) you would usually receive a pitiful £4.50 per 1,000 points.

Until the end of April, this offer is worth £9 per 1,000 Membership Rewards points.  This is surprisingly good.

If you recently signed up for Business Gold or Business Platinum and have already triggered your 50,000 points or 100,000 points sign-up bonus, you have a tempting opportunity here to cash in.

What are Membership Rewards points worth?

Here is my core article on the best uses of American Express Membership Rewards points.

Here is a summary of my valuations:

• 0.75p – 1.5p per point (estimate, 1:1 ratio) – airline miles

• 1p per point (estimate, 1:3 ratio) – Radisson Rewards hotel transfers

• 0.8p per point (guaranteed) – Avios transfers, convered to Nectar points

• 0.75p per point (estimate, 2:3 ratio) – Marriott Bonvoy hotel transfers

• 0.66p per point (estimate, 1:2 ratio) – Hilton Honors hotel transfers

• 0.66p per point (estimate, 15:1 ratio) – Club Eurostar points transfers

• 0.5p per point (guaranteed, pseudo-cash) – retailer gift cards

• 0.5p per point (guaranteed, pseudo-cash with potential for upside) – Nectar points

• 0.45p per point (guaranteed, pseudo-cash) – taking Amazon credit

In reality, you should ignore everything below 0.8p. This is because, due to the new Avios / Nectar partnership, you can get 0.8p per point in Sainsbury’s, Argos or eBay credit.

To do this, you move your Membership Rewards points to Avios at 1:1, and then on to Nectar at 250:400. This means 1 Amex point gets you 1.6 Nectar points worth 0.5p each. 1.6 x 0.5p is 0.8p per Amex point.

Is Amex really offering 0.9p per point for statement credit?

Yes it is.  Go to your American Express account and select ‘Use Points for Purchases’ on your Business Gold or Business Platinum card home page.

You are taken to a page like this, from my Business Platinum card.  Select an individual transaction (click to enlarge):

You should see ‘1000 points = £9’ on the right hand side. If you don’t see this, don’t proceed.

Should I redeem my Membership Rewards points for 0.9p each?

That’s not for me to say, of course.

However, as you can see from my numbers above, the bulk of transfers are worth LESS than 0.9p per point.

I would definitely take 0.9p in cash instead of turning my American Express points into Eurostar, Marriott Bonvoy, Radisson Rewards or Hilton Honors points.

This is NOT because these schemes are bad, but because the transfer rate is not generous enough.

The decision is more marginal for airline miles.  Here are the American Express airline transfer partners, all of which are 1:1.  If used sensibly, you should get more than 0.9p per airline mile.  However, you won’t get SUBSTANTIALLY more than 0.9p per mile and cash in the bank may be more useful to you at the moment.

You should also remember that there are many opportunities throughout the year to buy Avios at around 1p to 1.1p per point.  Transferring from Amex at 1:1 into Avios is still a better deal than cashing out for 0.9p, but it is clearly more marginal at this level and the benefit of getting cash in your hand may be high.

However, the new Avios / Nectar partnership changes the landscape a bit.

Amex / Nectar is a long term partnership. You can cash out your Amex points via Sainsbury’s, eBay or Argos for 0.8p whenever you want.

Getting 0.9p of statement credit via this offer is:

• more valuable and
• a lot less bother

…. but if you don’t take up the deal then it isn’t the end of the world. You can still bail out via Avios / Nectar for 0.8p later on.

When does this offer end?

The offer runs until 30th April.

You can only redeem credit against actual purchases, so your maximum redemption is limited to the value of purchases you make before the closing date.

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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:

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.

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: