Any miles/points thanks to wire transfer?
 

Would appreciate your advice/opinion: is there any program (airline FF, hotel points accrual, cash back program, etc?) that would give me credit for paying through wire transfer? I will have to transfer substantial amount of USD soon (repaying school loan) and I was hoping I could benefit from transfers I will be making. (BTW, I asked the loan provider and I cannot pay back with credit or debit cards - only wire transfers). Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

try AMEX International Payments
 

You can try AMEX FX (or International Payments).

There is normally a 30k AMEX Membership Rewards sign up bonus and once you get going these rewards apply:

If you have an American Express Card enrolled in the Membership Rewards program, you can get points every time you make an eligible foreign exchange transaction. Get 1 point for every $30 you wire internationally (subject to a limit of 4,000 points per transaction) and choose rewards from over 500 leading brands in travel, shopping, dining and entertainment. Get rewarded with as few as 1,000 points!

My experience - it works very well in- and outbound and once setup it's much better and safer than using wire transfers.

I'd be happy to make you an intro and referral if you PM me.

So unless I'm missing something you would only get 4,000 MR points if you wired $120,000? Seems like weak sauce to me. Then again, a traditional wire transfer would earn you nothing...so I guess a few points is better than none.

Is this only for businesses? Or can I as an individual do it? I only have consumer AMEX cards.

better than nothing..
 

True the rewards are not that rich but depends on what you get otherwise - here is the landing page I was looking for.

Transfer to/from Europe are 'free' - there are no fees at all. However AMEX gives you a 1-2% worse FX rate. So depends on specifics but for some businesses 1m in transfer can add up quickly....

Thanks for replies. I didn't know about Amex FX so will look into that, however indeed conversion rate is not too generous.

Is there a minimum value for the FX transfers - like can I send 1K USD a month to say India and still earn the bonus for amex MR?

Thank you,

- naroowal

paperwork
 

sure that could work to some extent. But getting approved by AMEX requires some serious paper work (incl. prior years tax returns) so it may not be worth your time.