Paying off debt via points Amex card

Sirant

I’ve just received my BA Amex which offers 25000 Avios points + 2-4-1 companion ticket and 1 Avios point per £ I spend but I have to spend 10k in the next year.

I have also recently been given £15000 to consolidate debt on 4 credit cards.

Rather than just paying the cards off directly from my bank account, I was thinking, there must be a way of paying them off via the Amex (to get the points) but I cannot think of a way to pay them off via the Amex as the credit cards will not accept payments from an Amex credit card. Does anyone have any suggestions?

stevenhp1987

No way.

If you do find a "way", and they find out, your account will be instantly closed.

Of all the major lenders, Amex are one of the most strict when it comes to cash transactions on their cards.

You cannot use credit to pay off credit (unless via a balance transfer, which will give 0 points).

Terry_Towelling

Sirant wrote: »

I’ve just received my BA Amex which offers 25000 Avios points + 2-4-1 companion ticket and 1 Avios point per £ I spend but I have to spend 10k in the next year.

I have also recently been given £15000 to consolidate debt on 4 credit cards.

Rather than just paying the cards off directly from my bank account, I was thinking, there must be a way of paying them off via the Amex (to get the points) but I cannot think of a way to pay them off via the Amex as the credit cards will not accept payments from an Amex credit card. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Can you please first clarify something? Have you been 'given' £15K to pay off the debts on four credit cards, or have you 'borrowed' £15K to bring those 4 separate debts into one place? It sounds like the former - sorry, I know it's none of my business.

You need to read the T&Cs of the Amex Card first. Do they specifically state that points will only be awarded for purchases made? If so, you then need to understand what they mean by a purchase? I would expect that 'cash' or 'cash-like' transactions will not be included in the promotion, so any sort of money transfer option (if there is one) will not qualify.

It's also a bit concerning to hear that a £15K debt might have been eradicated and you are now desperate to spend another £10K in a year. If you are tempted to spend unnecessarily just to reach the target, you'll probably find it is better to just buy two tickets up front and have your choice of journey. These 'free' tickets are often beset with restrictions on routes and numbers etc.

JGUK

With the caveat that others have talked about regarding debt.

And with doing the maths to see if it actually makes financial sense for you to do it;

https://billhop.com/gb/

BillHop will let you do roughly what you want, BUT there is a 2.95% service charge which on 15k is around £440.

£15,000 spend on an AMEX will give you 15,000 Avios at the flat rate with no bonuses.

15,000 Avios direct from BA cost around £250.00 (with 3,000 extra bonus Avios currently being thrown in).

"Buying" 15,000 Avios by that simple mathematics seems to be a really bad deal by my basic calculations, but I can't speak specifically for you.

Anyway the option is there, not sure in which case it would make sense to use it but it is there.

Craig1981

i am sure, or rather hoping, that when OP means spending £10k in a year, means he will be using the card for everyday purchases an dpaying off in full with the statement

if OP doesnt mean this, then OP,please consider the above posts, you dont want to spend and create more debt for what is little reward for air miles

stevenhp1987

JGUK wrote: »

With the caveat that others have talked about regarding debt.

And with doing the maths to see if it actually makes financial sense for you to do it;

https://billhop.com/gb/

BillHop will let you do roughly what you want, BUT there is a 2.95% service charge which on 15k is around £440.

£15,000 spend on an AMEX will give you 15,000 Avios at the flat rate with no bonuses.

15,000 Avios direct from BA cost around £250.00 (with 3,000 extra bonus Avios currently being thrown in).

"Buying" 15,000 Avios by that simple mathematics seems to be a really bad deal by my basic calculations, but I can't speak specifically for you.

Anyway the option is there, not sure in which case it would make sense to use it but it is there.

You cannot use BillHop to pay credit using an Amex: https://billhop.com/gb/support-category/pay-invoices-and-bills/#faq-anchor-invoices-cant-pay-billhop

JGUK

Didn't know that, thanks !

If the Curve card supports AMEX again soon (which there are rumours they will) then that is a Mastercard Debit card that might work with no additional charges.

Not sure it will work or if the AMEX thing will go through !

stevenhp1987

JGUK wrote: »

Didn't know that, thanks !

If the Curve card supports AMEX again soon (which there are rumours they will) then that is a Mastercard Debit card that might work with no additional charges.

Not sure it will work or if the AMEX thing will go through !

It won't work.

Curve, now sends the MCC (Merchant Category Code) of the original transaction (rather than treating everything as a purchase) so Amex will know you're trying to pay off a loan/credit card and will block the transaction (and potentially start a "credit review").

JGUK

Thats a shame, but both are still handy for other uses I guess, just not specifically paying off bills from financial institutions !