American Express is currently offering discounted gift cards to those with Membership Rrewards points. Usually gift cards can be redeemed at a rate of 1 point = 1 cent, at the moment they are offering up to a 30% discount on selected gift cards (meaning that 1 point would be worth a maximum of 1.42 cents). If you have a membership rewards balance, you should have received an e-mail giving more information about this sale and also what discount your entitled to.
People have reported receiving discounts of 10%, 20% or 30%. 10% off seems to be the most common discount that has been offered and it doesn’t look like the discount amount is tied to the amount of spending that has been done on the card, as those with high spending have reported getting a 10% discount as well.
Most people will find that they are able to get better value out of their MR points by transferring them to a hotel or airline partner and then redeeming for free airfare or an award night at a hotel. That said these gift card discounts are great for those who would prefer a gift card or even cash.
If you’d like to turn your points into cash, your best option is to use giftcardgranny.com to see which cards have the highest resale value and greatest discount. Also remember you can get an additional 4% cash back when selling to cardpool through topcashback (limit of $1,000 in gift cards per lifetime).
This offer will be running until September 24th, 2014. Will you take advantage of this offer? If not what do you use your membership rewards points for?
“limit of $1,000 in gift cards per annum”. Is it per annum? I thought it was per customer/life-time.