Amex Travellers Cheque Cards were withdrawn from sale in July 2007. This post is retained for historical purposes only.

As you will read from later posts in this thread, Amex is blocking TCC cards belonging to FT'ers as soon as it realises that they are being used mainly for ATM withdrawals within the UK. However, this does not stop new clients applying for a card using the method I outline below, as the fundamentals of the scheme have not changed.

Amex will block you reloading your card as soon as you make your first withdrawals. You should therefore work out what it will cost to buy the card, load it (you MUST put on the full £3,000 straight away, as you will be blocked very quickly) then withdraw the cash, assuming that you can never reload.

The deal is still relatively attractive on this basis. You pay £20 for the card plus make 12 withdrawals of £250 at £1.50 a throw means a spend of £38 to earn 4,500 miles with a Premium Plus Amex. This is OK but not great BUT that it also puts you £3,000 nearer to hitting your £10k Amex target for the year. This could be the biggest benefit of the TCC now.

(Or use the premium BMI Mastercard. 6,000 BMI miles for £38 is a very good deal in my book.)

Raffles 8/5/06


This thread is about a new way of accumulating up to 9,000 BA Miles (or 12,000 BMI miles) every four weeks for just £36.

This was originally discussed over in the “Triple Miles With Travelex” thread and we now have enough proof that it works to lay down all the details. This post is the result of a massive FT joint effort by sib, schofs, TheMajor, knifeandfork, oyster, fiona, MarkUK, Roger, bobnick, paulyd, UK Flyer 1 and FF99. And thanks to tristan727 who misposted a link and accidentally started all this in the first place!

Please note that I have been updating this thread with new information as it becomes available. Check the 'Edit' date at the bottom of this post for the last update.

To take part in this scheme, you need to live in the UK and have easy access to a free-of-charge cashpoint AND a branch of your bank where you can pay in money. If you do not have a free-to-use cashpoint near your home or office that you can get to every day then this promo is not really for you.

What is the deal?

You are going to buy an American Express Travellers Cheque Card, or TCC for short. This is the new electronic version of travellers cheques.

Instead of carrying around physical travellers cheques, you pay Amex some money and they give you a plastic card with an identical level of credit on it. The card can be used in most places where you would normally use an Amex card. You can also use it at ATM’s for a charge of £1.50 per withdrawal.

The card is available in £, $ or Euro. We are only interested in the £ card. The other cards are very poor value for money because Amex charges a 4% fee when you load them up. All the discussion that follows refers solely to the Sterling TCC.

The key part of this plan – and the reason it works for us – is that Amex lets you pay for your TCC with your credit card (Amex, Mastercard or Visa). The transaction goes through your card as a Purchase and NOT as a Cash Advance, so you do not pay any cash handling fees to your card company.

This means that buying or reloading your card will earn you BA Miles if you use a BA Amex or a Tesco Visa, or BMI miles if you use the BMI MBNA card. Or, indeed, miles or points with any other loyalty programme you happen to have a credit card from. With the BA Amex, it also counts towards your £15,000 '2 for 1' spend target.

What are the key rules to remember?

Full T&C's can be found on any of the sites where you can order a card. You should read them carefully. In summary:

a) There is an upfront fee of £20 for the card

b) You can put up to £3,000 on your TCC when your order it. The minimum order is £200.

c) You can top it up online by a maximum of £3,000 in any 14 day period

d) You can withdraw up to £250 per day from any LINK ATM (at a flat fee of £1.50), as long as you do not exceed £3,000 in any 14 day period. All of the major banks, I think, are part of the LINK network.

There does not seem to be any other way of getting at the cash other than by withdrawing it at £250 per day from an ATM. This is why you need to live or work close to a cashpoint. We have proved that some cashpoints will give you up to £300, but this theoretically puts you in breach of the T&C of the card.

Once you’ve withdrawn the cash, you will need to pay it into your bank account so that you have some money to pay your credit card bill. It is important to note that after a few days this will probably trigger a flag at your bank for money laundering. Do not do this promo if you have anything to hide …

So, to summarise: the most you can put on the card every 14 days is £3,000. The most you can withdraw every 14 days is £3,000, with an official daily max of £250.

If you load the maximum £3,000 per fortnight, you will earn (£3,000 x 1.5) 4,500 BA Miles every two weeks using the BA Premium Plus Amex or (£3,000 x 1.2) 3,600 BA Miles on a Tesco Visa. The standard fee-free BMI Mastercard will earn you (£3,000 x 1.5) 4,500 BMI miles whilst the premium £65-fee BMI Mastercard will earn you (£3,000 x 2) 6,000 BMI miles.

The cost to you will be (12 withdrawals at £1.50) £18. This ignores the £20 cost of the card but this is a one-off payment.

This works out at just 0.4p per BA mile using the BA Amex!

If you want to cancel your card, you can send it back to Amex and they will refund the existing balance to your credit card. However, Amex will charge you an £8 fee. You are better off withdrawing all the remaining funds from a cashpoint after topping up the card to a suitable sum.

How do I apply?

There are currently four places we have found where you can order a TCC card:

http://www.firstrate.co.uk/Currency/...nformation.asp
www.americanexpress.com/uk/travel/default.shtml
http://www.thomson.co.uk/po/showEsse...o?essential=fx
http://www.easyjet.com/EN/Planning/Travel/amex.html

If you choose to apply for a card, please pick one of these links at random. First Rate is the Post Office / Bank of Ireland joint venture that sells foreign currency through PO's.

Are we certain you can earn miles ordering a TCC?

Yes. Note that you definitely cannot earn Amex Membership Rewards points for buying a TCC - this is specifically banned in the T&C. However some FT'ers have found that, in reality, this is not the case.

What should I do if I have any questions?

Post them here. You will be helping your fellow FT’ers if you do not, please, ring up Amex and ask them any questions about whether buying a TCC earns you miles or not. Obviously, for any general questions, ring Amex directly.

How long can I get away with this?

Based on current experience, Amex will block your card when it realises that you are using it solely for ATM withdrawals. At that point, you will not be able to reload it although you will be able to spend the money currently on the card. To date, this appears to happen once you have put over £10,000 through the card, although experiences vary. Your £20 card will not be refunded!

My recommendation would be to keep the card topped up as high as possible at all times to ensure that you charge as much as you can to it before the plug is pulled.

Good luck!