American Express Membership Rewards - Preserving Points on Expiring Card

I am writing this as a reference document for a common question: "My card is expiring and I don't want to pay the annual fee. How do I get value from my points."

There are a number of ways, not all of which will be applicable to every situation.


Transfer your points to a friend's account - not. This is not a possible solution. Amex does not allow transfers, even within immediate family. (There may be occasional exceptions, but definitely not to be counted on.)
Transfer your points to a travel partner. By doing so, you are of course committing to using the points on that partner, and much of the value of Membership Rewards points is the ability to defer transfer until you actually want an award. If possible, look for transfer bonuses for your preferred partners.
Sell or give your points to someone who wants to put them in their travel partner account. It is not against Amex T&C to sell points, as far as I know. Officially, Amex only permits transfer of points to an authorized user on your card, but there are many reports of being allowed to transfer to someone else, and no reports of such a transfer being refused. If you want to sell them, finding a buyer is a non-trivial problem, but you might consider Craigslist or a company bulletin board if you have one. Note that advertising for a buyer on Flyertalk is not permitted.
Sell your points to a points broker. This is not against Amex rules. However, if you transfer your points to your own partner account and then book an award for which you are compensated, you are almost surely breaking the rules of the partner, and risk having the award voided and having your account deactivated and all points forfeitted. Thus, this is extremely risky unless you are transferring points to a program in which you already have few or no points.
Park them with a Blue card. Amex Blue has no fee, and if you get one, your points will become "Membership Rewards Express" points. They can be redeemed for gift cards, merchandise, and (I think) for travel booked through Amex, but can no longer be transferred to travel partners. You will get at most 1 cent per mile in value. If you buy gift cards and then resell them, you will take another haircut on value. However, the points are preserved and if you later get a card participating in the full Membership Rewards program, you can then transfer them to travel partners.
Redeem them for merchandise, gift cards, or travel, as in the previous parapgraph. In addition, if you are in Membership Rewards First (only with Platinum cards) you can effectively convert them to cash at 1 cent per point by using them for "everyday charges."
Get a new Amex card with Membership Rewards. There are several cards with no annual fee the first year and some have signup bonuses. This effectively buys you a year, and may even get you more points.


If anyone can think of others, please reply and I will add them to the main post.

1) Amex does not allow transfers, even within immediate family.
3) Amex only permits transfer of points to an authorized user on your card, but there are many reports of being allowed to transfer to someone else, and no reports of such a transfer being refused.


I'm confused (as usual).

1) from your MR account to someone else's MR account - not allowed

2) from your MR account to an authorized user's (or some other person's) TRAVEL PARTNER (i.e. airlines, hotels...) point account - allowed in the US.

Transfer your points to a friend's account - not. This is not a possible solution. Amex does not allow transfers, even within immediate family. (There may be occasional exceptions, but definitely not to be counted on.)

Depends which country your card is in. In the UK you can transfer any number of MR points to a spouse (I think only to a spouse but am willing to be corrected) for £15.

1) Amex does not allow transfers, even within immediate family.
3) Amex only permits transfer of points to an authorized user on your card, but there are many reports of being allowed to transfer to someone else, and no reports of such a transfer being refused.


I'm confused (as usual).

"Transfer" is being used to speak of 2 different things. In no. 1 he means transfers between MR accounts. In no. 3 he means transferring MR points to an airline or hotel partner account. MR to MR transfers are not allowed. However, MR to airline or hotel partner are in practice allowed for anyone you want to send your points to.

Depends which country your card is in. In the UK you can transfer any number of MR points to a spouse (I think only to a spouse but am willing to be corrected) for £15.

I will correct myself - "Allow another Cardmember to get the reward they have always wanted by giving your points as a gift. At a cost of only £15 per transaction you can gift as many points as you want to another UK Cardmember's account. Call Membership Rewards on 01273 863 863 for more details (http://www.americanexpress.com/uk/content/membership-benefits/membership-rewards-benefits.html)".

7. Get a new Amex card with Membership Rewards. There are several cards with no annual fee the first year and some have signup bonuses. This effectively buys you a year, and may even get you more points.

Amex's newish T&Cs prohibit sign-up bonuses on personal charge cards for those who already hold an Amex personal charge card. I have been on the lookout for reports of whether this is being enforced, but I haven't seen anything. (Of course, you could get a business card with MR and still get the sign-up bonus.)

While I haven't found this in the T&C's, the following has worked for us. Your spouse has his/her own MR Amex and is also an AU on your MR Amex - you can transfer the points from spouse's account to your MR account prior to cancelling spouse's own MR Amex. We have done this twice - the last time being about 4 months ago.

While I haven't found this in the T&C's, the following has worked for us. Your spouse has his/her own MR Amex and is also an AU on your MR Amex - you can transfer the points from spouse's account to your MR account prior to cancelling spouse's own MR Amex. We have done this twice - the last time being about 4 months ago.

I need to do this.
How is this done. There does not appear to be an online method.
Who do I call and how do I state it so it will go through smoothly.

...There does not appear to be an online method.


Correct, this is not a published feature, but rather something that Customer Service apparently has the ability to do on an exception basis. You will need to call and ask.

You can keep your points alive for another year by acquiring the Business Green Rewards Card from American Express OPEN, before you cancel your card. There is an offer on my website below for 5,000 points for first purchase, first year annual fee waived. I used this to keep my points alive until Delta offers another bonus for transferring them to its miles. On my Credit Cards > Annual Fee cards page in the American Express section near the bottom of the page.

Does any one know here if I redeemed my points today for gift card (arriving in 10 days), can I cancel say on coming Monday without affecting my redemption? I believe it should be fine but just want to make sure.

If I am closing my american express business gold card soon, do I need to transfer my MR points or something to avoid losing them? I have another amex business card on the online account. thank you.

If I am closing my american express business gold card soon, do I need to transfer my MR points or something to avoid losing them? I have another amex business card on the online account. thank you.

Does the other Biz card participate in the MR system (ie. can you earn and burn MR with it)?

I waited too long, as my wife's annual fee is past due.

Any suggestions on something i can do via Secured Message? I thought there wasa fee card I could downgrade to (from the business gold card) but I can't seem to find that post.

Has anyone just ignored all the advise on this board and tried making a phone simple phone call.

I had the Platinum and Gold cards for the last year. I accumulated 240,000 points. I got my wife a gold card 1 month before my cards expired. I got myself a card as an additional user on her account.

SIMPLE TRY THIS. IT WORKS

Call the MR number and ask to transfer your points to your wifes account.
This will then delay your need to move them to a partner airline or hotel.
100% certainty this works. First time called and got same answer. Second time did it for real.
My 240,000 points are now safe for another 10 months until I know what to do with them or get a favorable tranfer bonus.

I will be able to get another AMEX card before her card fee hits and then do the same and transfer them back to me next October 2013.

Originally Posted by jrreynolds
...There does not appear to be an online method.

Correct, this is not a published feature, but rather something that Customer Service apparently has the ability to do on an exception basis. You will need to call and ask.

Has anyone just ignored all the advise on this board and tried making a phone simple phone call. Call the MR number and ask to transfer your points to your wifes account.

It sounds like you followed the advice you were given on the board by MIA. Glad it worked out for you.

Has anyone just ignored all the advise on this board and tried making a phone simple phone call.

I had the Platinum and Gold cards for the last year. I accumulated 240,000 points. I got my wife a gold card 1 month before my cards expired. I got myself a card as an additional user on her account.

SIMPLE TRY THIS. IT WORKS

Call the MR number and ask to transfer your points to your wifes account.
This will then delay your need to move them to a partner airline or hotel.
100% certainty this works. First time called and got same answer. Second time did it for real.
My 240,000 points are now safe for another 10 months until I know what to do with them or get a favorable tranfer bonus.

I will be able to get another AMEX card before her card fee hits and then do the same and transfer them back to me next October 2013.


Amex also transferred my points to my wife's MR account with a phone call. Interestingly, they required that she give her permission on the call to allow me to make the transfer to her account.

The points were out of my account an in mine when I checked the next day.