Cashing in American Express Membership Rewards Points

Written by nickel - 9 Comments

A little over a week ago we converted two of our reward credit cards to, well… More rewarding versions. This included a switch from the Chase Perfect card to the Chase Freedom card, and a change from our old (old, old, old) Amex Optima card to an Amex Blue Cash card.

All in all, this was a fairly painless process. I made a couple of phone calls and I was done. The only catch was that, since we were changing for a points-based reward program (Membership Rewards) to cash-based program, American Express gave us 30 days to cash in our point before they’d expire. We didn’t actually have that many points, as we’ve mostly reserved this card for major purchases for which we want to take advantage of Amex’s Buyer’s Assurance program, which doubles the manufacturer’s warranty. Nonetheless, I wanted to get what we were due.

At the time of conversion, we had a little over 7500 points. Unlike Citi’s Thank You Rewards network, Amex sells low donomination gift cards without any sort of markup. That is, Amex charges 2500 points for a $25 gift certificate, whereas the same cards typically cost 3500 point through the Thank You Network, with prices falling to ‘face value’ for higher denominations.

Given that we’re currently renovating our house, Home Depot gift cards are pretty much as good as cash, so that’s what I went with. Ordering was a snap — simply login to your Amex account, follow the Membership Rewards link, and pick out what you want. And guess what? They got the cards to us within two business days — I ordered late Sunday night, so the order was technically processed on Monday and the cards were in our mailbox on Wednesday.

While I still prefer straight cash rewards, I’d definitely have to give Amex two thumbs up when it comes to their Membership Rewards program.

Published on November 29th, 2007 - 9 Comments
Filed under: Credit Cards
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Comments (scroll down to add your own):

After seeing so many bloggers switching we decided to do the same and ran into the same problem. Amex had the same result but WaMu was awful with their reward points. No more using that card ever again.
Comment by The Saving Freak — Nov 29th 2007 @ 9:10 am
Although selecting rewards is fun, if you’re a number/value person, you wind up doing exactly what you appeared to have done: figuring out the true value per point of each reward under consideration (been there myself).

So rather than choosing solely based on preference (a true reward), you base your selection on the value of the reward per point. A smart financial move to be sure, but don’t you wish each reward had roughly the same value per point? That way you could just pick the one you want. No math, no fuss.
Comment by Michael B. Rubin — Nov 29th 2007 @ 9:12 am
I love the Amex rewards store gift cards. I use my card all year long, then cash in my rewards points for gift cards that I give as holiday gifts.

The store gift cards offer much more bang for my buck than the rewards gifts or Amex gift cards.
Comment by HollyP — Nov 29th 2007 @ 11:23 am
Nickel, i’m curious why you didn’t sign up for a new card? Therefore not have to worry about expiring points. That’s what I did a few months ago when i decided I wanted to go with the Amex Starwood program
Comment by dong — Nov 29th 2007 @ 1:59 pm
I actually like using the points over cash back. Since I am on a strict budget this probably doesn’t make sense but I like feeling I am getting the free extras I had to cut out in order to save money. If I earned money rewards, honestly it would just go into savings or to pay off debt and wouldn’t be any fun.

I usually choose Barnes & Noble Starbucks cards as I can sit back and know that I can get a couple free paperback books and a coffee or two and relax.

I do have the Amex Costco card–and what I found a bit cheesy was I got a large promo booklet that talked about all the cool things I could buy with my rebate. It really is a shopaholic mentality.
Comment by SC — Nov 29th 2007 @ 2:17 pm
Thanks for the AMEX tip a few months back. Got my 250 dollars worth of gift cards (home depot and restaurants) last week.
Comment by Bill — Dec 1st 2007 @ 8:12 am
The selection of items in AmEx’s rewards program is very limited, and seems to be getting smaller by the day. I was going to order a $50 Dell Accessories GC (w/ very restrictive terms) but just today I found it has been removed.

Their restaurant choices are for run-of-the-mill chains and their electronics choices are super-inflated. If I am redeeming these ‘free’ rewards, I would prefer some high-end restaurants or something useful like gas cards!! My girlfriend’s CITI rewards has these options.

I ended up getting a Home Depot GC but I still have 30k points I need to use up sometime. I believe they screw around with their program during the holidays, inflating points and removing vendors.
Comment by Patrick — Dec 20th 2007 @ 9:15 pm
Aw. I need to clean up my credit before I can apply for these awesome reward credit cards.
Comment by Meg — Jan 7th 2008 @ 2:59 am
I would like to use my points to purchase an ipod. How do I do this? thanks, P harvey
Comment by penelope harvey — Jan 27th 2008 @ 10:11 pm