What's the easiest way of spending money on CC?

MagicByNature

I am thinking of applying for an AMEX which gives 20,000 Membership Reward points if I spend £2,000 in the first three months. Problem is, I can't really spend that much in that time. Is there any clever way of spending that amount? Of course, I know that I could use PayPal or Western Union to put it on a bank account - but all those transactions would incur charges.

How about buying something expensive, and then returning it for a refund a few days later?

simax

That won't work as your refund would claw the points back.

Why not put all your normal spend on the card? Petrol, groceries, utility bills etc.... that would be a start, Make an early start on Christmas presents?

[Deleted User]

Once of the easiest ways to hit spending targets is to buy supermarket gift vouchers and effectively pay for your shopping in advance for a few months. For example, if you shop at Tesco, you could buy a few months worth of vouchers to use for your normal shopping.

You might get away with buying an expensive item and then refunding it but it's not certain - I've heard of people doing this. The bonus 20,000 points are triggered by the transaction that takes you over the £2000 spend target. So long as you don't refund this transaction, you may get to keep the points.

For example - say you bought an expensive laptop for (unrealistic I know) £1999 - this would earn 1,999 points. Then you bought a DVD for £5. The £5 transaction will earn you 20,005 points (becasue it takes you over the £2,000 target. If you then return the laptop, you may only loose the 1,999 points from that transaction. I've never done this but I've heard it can work.

MagicByNature

simax wrote: »

That won't work as your refund would claw the points back.

Why not put all your normal spend on the card? Petrol, groceries, utility bills etc.... that would be a start, Make an early start on Christmas presents?

That wouldn't be enough in my case. I can maybe go a little over £1000 in three months. Too bad I can't pay my rent by card.

[Deleted User]

Another option is to pay for some of your utilities in advance. I believe companies like Sky, O2, Virgin Media, Vodafone etc will allow you to make a payment that will put your account into credit.

[Deleted User]

Actually, I've just remembered another way. You can use your card to buy American Express Travellers cheques (in pounds sterling). These count as a purchase so will trigger the sign up bonus.

You can have them home delivered and then pay them into your current account, just like cash. It will cost you a 1.5% fee (for the cheques) though so it's not worth it for long-term points earning, but for the sign-up bonus it's not bad.

I wouldn't recommend doing it in one go though. Use the card as much as possible for the first month and then maybe do the travellers cheques to make up the difference. A large purchase of cheques could be picked up by anti-fraud checks.

Maestro.

MagicByNature wrote: »

That wouldn't be enough in my case. I can maybe go a little over £1000 in three months. Too bad I can't pay my rent by card.

Sounds as if you spend around the same as me - not a high spender. Are you sure your spending habits in general justify the use of AmEx? There are other cashback deals out there which, as a low spender, might be more profitable for you.

DunPin

Lazyloki wrote: »

Actually, I've just remembered another way. You can use your card to buy American Express Travellers cheques (in pounds sterling). These count as a purchase so will trigger the sign up bonus.

You can have them home delivered and then pay them into your current account, just like cash. It will cost you a 1.5% fee (for the cheques) though so it's not worth it for long-term points earning, but for the sign-up bonus it's not bad.

I wouldn't recommend doing it in one go though. Use the card as much as possible for the first month and then maybe do the travellers cheques to make up the difference. A large purchase of cheques could be picked up by anti-fraud checks.

Really? That sounds quite interesting as you can then pay off the card presumably with the travellers cheques, the 1.5% could add up though

[Deleted User]

DunPin wrote: »

Really? That sounds quite interesting as you can then pay off the card presumably with the travellers cheques, the 1.5% could add up though

I'm not sure that purchasing TCs would qualify for the double points. I would plan on it only giving 1 point per pound.

You're right about the 1.5% fee, that's why I reckon this trick is only worth it to hit the minimum spend for introductory bonus on the Gold card - £30 (1.5% of £2000) is a great deal to earn 22,000 Amex MR points. However, once you have the intro bonus, this isn't such a good idea as the fee will outweigh the points.

Unfortunately I believe this only works with the Amex charge cards (Gold, Green or Platinum) so this isn't an easy was to get the companion voucher from spending £10k on the British Airways card.

Also, if anyone is thinking of doing this, I'd check with your bank to make sure that a) they accept deposits by TC and b) they don't charge any kind of processing/handling fee.

[Deleted User]

MagicByNature wrote: »

Too bad I can't pay my rent by card.

Are you sure you can't?

My Council will happily take rent, and CT payments, by card.

forgotmyname

What is the 20,000 membership points actually worth? Buy stuff for family and friends?

Offer them a small discount?

My mum had an offer for extra cashback points on one of her CC's. So we did our shopping and ordered stuff for the next couple of months.

Points eearned paid for xmas dinner.