Paying AMEX from US bank

Rayalst

Hi all, a few months ago, after reading this site, I picked up a British Airways American Express card, the main reason being that my wife is American and we'll be doing regular flights across the Atlantic to visit family. 

We recently gave birth to a daughter and are planning on flying out to the US in the next few months, I was planning on booking the flights using the AMEX card as it should give me a good amount of Avios points which I can use on future trips.

Thankfully my mother in law gifted us a sizeable amount of money as a christmas gift, unfortunately it's in my wife's US account, first world problem I know!

I was planning on using Transferwise, or Wise as it's called now to move the money from her US to UK account, then clearing the credit card. 

Does anyone know an easier way, or is this the best? 

Thanks for any assistance. 

DullGreyGuy

If she has a debit card for the account then she could just pay the AmEx directly but you are then exposed to their FX fees

Rayalst

DullGreyGuy said:

If she has a debit card for the account then she could just pay the AmEx directly but you are then exposed to their FX fees

She does, not an option that had occurred to me actually. Although I did have a look on the AMEX app for banks you can transfer from and they were all UK banks, might look into it further though to see if it can be paid from other banks. 

Thanks 

lr1277

This Amex webpage suggests you can pay off your UK amex card with an international payment (bottom of the page):

https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/customer-service/how-to-make-payment.html#use-a-debit-card 

If you wife's account allows it, and the fees are not worse than Wise's fees, might be worth considering.

HTH

PRAISETHESUN

I'd stick to a specialist currency transfer service such as Wise/Fineco/etc for this. Paying off a foreign (in the eyes of the US bank) credit card will invariably cost more due to international transaction fees, poor exchange rates, or both. Transfer the USD to GBP and then use it to pay off the GBP Amex in the usual fashion.

Marchitiello

PRAISETHESUN said:

I'd stick to a specialist currency transfer service such as Wise/Fineco/etc for this. Paying off a foreign (in the eyes of the US bank) credit card will invariably cost more due to international transaction fees, poor exchange rates, or both. Transfer the USD to GBP and then use it to pay off the GBP Amex in the usual fashion.

Unless it is a forex fee debit card issued by a US banks (which I have used the other way around few times)