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Closing Amex: What to do with Membership Rewards points?

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howardroark
Established Member

Closing Amex: What to do with Membership Rewards points?

I no longer have a need for my Amex Gold card, now that I have an Amex revolver. I would like to cancel it before the annual fee hits. However, I have accrued a fair amount of Membership Rewards points. What should I redeem them for? I was thinking about transferring them to Starwood Preferred Guest points, but that transfer rate looks pretty bad. I am not planning a trip at the moment, so I don't know if airline transfer is the best route to go. Even so, I mainly fly JetBlue and that transfer rate is not 1:1. Any ideas?

Message 1 of 9
8 REPLIES 8
Startome
Regular Contributor

Re: Closing Amex: What to do with Membership Rewards points?

Is that a card that offers cash back toward credit balance?

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Message 2 of 9
Crashem
Valued Contributor

Re: Closing Amex: What to do with Membership Rewards points?


@howardroark wrote:

I no longer have a need for my Amex Gold card, now that I have an Amex revolver. I would like to cancel it before the annual fee hits. However, I have accrued a fair amount of Membership Rewards points. What should I redeem them for? I was thinking about transferring them to Starwood Preferred Guest points, but that transfer rate looks pretty bad. I am not planning a trip at the moment, so I don't know if airline transfer is the best route to go. Even so, I mainly fly JetBlue and that transfer rate is not 1:1. Any ideas?


Some of the gift cards are 1 to 1.  Your goal is to get at least 1 cent per point vaue.  The good airline transfer partners might not be worth it as you need to have enough for trip and miles probably expire.

 

Other option is to get Blue revolver which has no AF and you can retain your MR points that way.

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Message 3 of 9
thelethargicage
Valued Contributor

Re: Closing Amex: What to do with Membership Rewards points?

Redeem them for Traveler's Cheques!  The conversion rate is pathetic, but at least they're as good as cash.


Message 4 of 9
ibmrad7
Established Contributor

Re: Closing Amex: What to do with Membership Rewards points?

How many points do you have? You can sell them off for cash. (Ethics Police please ignore this). You could make close to 260$ for 20K MR points.

Message 5 of 9
longtimelurker
Epic Contributor

Re: Closing Amex: What to do with Membership Rewards points?


@ibmrad7 wrote:

How many points do you have? You can sell them off for cash. (Ethics Police please ignore this). You could make close to 260$ for 20K MR points.


If they have gift cards you can use, 20K MR would be $200 in that.  Not sure the $60 extra is worth the risk of getting cards closed by selling.  If you have a lot more MR points, it might be!

Message 6 of 9
howardroark
Established Member

Re: Closing Amex: What to do with Membership Rewards points?

Thanks for the feedback guys. I am going to redeem my points for a few $100 gift cards, at $0.01/point.

Message 7 of 9
ibmrad7
Established Contributor

Re: Closing Amex: What to do with Membership Rewards points?

Yeah .. it's a risk. I have done it multiple times but dont think it's in T&C that you can't transfer your miles to someone's else account.

 

Todays rate in 13.3, so 20K would get you 266.

Message 8 of 9
Networth
Frequent Contributor

Re: Closing Amex: What to do with Membership Rewards points?

I did not know you could even sell MR points, nice to know though.

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Message 9 of 9
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