Get 30,000 Membership Reward Points With The Amex Platinum Currency Card

If you’ve run out of sign-up bonuses you are eligible for you may still be in luck! American Express is offering 30,000 Membership Reward Points on their Amex Platinum Currency Card (available in US dollars or Euros.)

Please note this article does not serve as the recommendation of any credit product. We are just highlighting an offer you might not otherwise know about. If you are thinking of taking out a credit product ALWAYS seek INDEPENDENT financial advice.

Yes… that means you can currently hold a Gold, Platinum, or any other Membership Reward earning American Express card and still get the bonus. This is because the card runs on a different Membership Reward scheme to the aforementioned cards.

What are the Amex International Currency Cards?

Amex offers two cards for those who want to bank in USD (International Dollar Card) or EUR (International Euro Card) rather than their home currency. This is beneficial because (for example) if you have a lot of expenses in USD this would allow you to avoid the 3% FX fee. These are available in Blue, Green, Gold & Platinum variants (with similar benefits to the personal UK cards.) They aren’t available to residents of the USA, Singapore, the European Union (UK exempt) and you need to be an existing Amex customer (6 months+) to apply. You can find out more details about them here – https://www.americanexpress.com/icc/index.html

The Amex Platinum Currency Card

Currently, the Amex Platinum Currency Card has a sign-up of 30,000 membership reward points when spending €5000 / $5000 on the card but whilst the majority of the transfer partners are the same there is one BIG difference, the transfer rate is often worse. Take, for example, Avios, with a UK membership reward card transfers are 1:1 into Avios with an international currency card they are 3:2! That means your 30,000 membership reward points is only equal to 20,000 in the UK scheme IF you are redeeming for Avios.

There is a way around this (although you still won’t receive 30,000 Avios) and that is transferring your membership reward points from your ICC account to your UK account. This will lead to them being ‘converted’ by the current exchange rate e.g. 1 EUR equals 0.84p so 10,000 membership reward points on the EUR card would be worth 8,400 in the UK scheme. That would mean the 30,000 membership reward points are actually worth 25,200 which isn’t quite so bad… Obviously, if you had the USD card the rate would be worse with 1 USD equalling 0.74p giving you around 22,000 membership reward points in the UK scheme.

There are 3 different partners compared to the UK card…

• Jumeirah One – 4:1
• Qatar Airways Privilege Club – 3:2
• Malaysia Airlines – 1:1

There are several partners that have a 1:1 rate which can represent a great deal because you can transfer membership reward points from your UK account to your ICC account and have them boosted by the relevant exchange rate. For example, 100,000 UK membership reward points would equal 120,000 on the Euro card (1GBP = 1.20 EUR) and 136,000 on the Dollar card (1GBP = 1.36USD)

• Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
• Finnair Plus
• Malaysia Airlines Enrich
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer

You can view all the partners you can transfer your membership reward points into here – https://www.americanexpress.com/en-xb/rewards/membership-rewards

Unlike the UK version, the ICC versions have a minimum income requirement of €65,000 for the Euro card and $65,000 for the Dollar card. There is also an annual fee of €550 / $550. We assume it’s pro-rata refunded upon cancellation like all other Amex cards but you’d need to check…

The card comes with the same hotel statuses and lounge access that you do with the UK card BUT the travel insurance has an age limit of 80 compared to 70 on the UK card.

You can read more about the card benefits and apply (if you so wish) on the website here – https://www.americanexpress.com/icc/cards/the-platinum-international-currency-card.html

Is it worth getting the Amex Platinum Currency Card?

If you are able to spend $5,000 or 5,000 euro in local currency AND have a dollar or euro bank account (Revolut offers one) you might be able to make it work. If you aren’t able to spend in local currency you’d be paying 3% FX fees top that with fees/poor exchange rate when paying off the card by bank transfer (you need a bank account in the same currency to pay via direct debit) you are sure to wipe out the value of the sign-up bonus and more!

Conclusion

As you can see this is far from the easiest sign-up bonus to take advantage of! If you fit the niche market of being able to spend in local currency (you can pick up a EUR account from Revolut easily) you might be able to make it work.