American Express: 30,000 Membership Rewards Points For Sending 4 Wire Payments Of $500+

The Offer

Direct link to offer

  • American Express is offering 30,000 Membership Rewards points when you send 4 eligible foreign wire payments of at least $500 each within 90 days of enrollment.
  • You’ll also earn 1 Membership Rewards point for every $30 of eligible foreign currency transaction (up to 4,000 points per transaction)

The Fine Print

  • 30K Membership Rewards® offer: To earn 30,000 Membership Rewards points for activation of your FXIP account, you must satisfy the following conditions:
    • (i) you must complete an FXIP application form and a Membership Rewards registration form and submit them to us
    • (ii) your FXIP application and Membership Rewards registration must be processed and approved by us; and
    • (iii) you must complete at least four foreign currency payments each equivalent to at least $500 through your FXIP account no later than 90 days after you have received your welcome email and account login information from FXIP.
  • Same currency transactions (such as USD to USD) are not eligible for this offer.
  • If all eligibility criteria have been met, points will be credited to your Membership Rewards account within 12-15 business days after the 90 day period ends. The value of the points received may be taxable income to you.
  • Please consult your tax advisor if there are any questions about the tax treatment of points. Bonus ID B2YY

Our Verdict

Some things to note:

  • All American Express business cardholders receive a waiver on the Amex transaction fees charged for the first six months. American Express Business Platinum cardholders always receive this fee waiver.
  • They require a lot of information regarding your business to be eligible. If you don’t have a legitimate business that regularly sends foreign payments it’s unlikely you will be approved
  • Despite no fees being charged, make sure you compare the exchange rate being offered with other exchanges

I suspect most readers won’t be eligible for this bonus as they won’t be approved for an account. Despite the spread likely being quite large, if you send four payments of $500 you should still come out well ahead with the fees being waived.

Hat tip to Frequent Miler

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14 Comments
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Amex Platypus
Amex Platypus (@guest_590705)
May 5, 2018 05:15

I checked on one USD to GBP transaction and the spread was $11.90 more expensive than TransferWise. For 4 transactions, that would be $47.59. Not a bad deal for 30000 points.

Haven’t gotten the points yet. Still doing my 3rd and 4th transaction.

AN
AN (@guest_571463)
March 18, 2018 11:16

Halfway though the application:

“This must be a business checking account based in the United States.”

Adam d
Adam d (@guest_569181)
March 12, 2018 17:57

wire payments, welcome to 1984

Amex Platypus
Amex Platypus (@guest_569150)
March 12, 2018 17:06

Just applied. Form was a bit long, but only took 5 minutes. Will keep youse updated here.

George
George (@guest_568998)
March 12, 2018 11:38

what about conversion rate? is it similar to bank rate or we are going to get short end of stick here….

Jo
Jo (@guest_568954)
March 12, 2018 10:44

On the offer page it says – Business Platinum receives “a waiver on the international wire transaction fees”. This sounds nice. 30k pts on $2k wire.

vince
vince (@guest_568936)
March 12, 2018 10:11

Is this actually taxable?

Yao
Yao (@guest_569480)
March 13, 2018 04:18

Looks like it is:

“The value of the points received may be taxable income to you. Please consult your tax advisor if there are any questions about the tax treatment of points.”

Sami
Sami (@guest_568923)
March 12, 2018 09:41

Interesting offer. Being American/Canadian seems pretty straightforward but I wonder where the MR points go if you don’t have an Amex MR card yet? just this FXIP account?

Amex Platypus
Amex Platypus (@guest_569152)
March 12, 2018 17:07

I don’t think you can have MR without an Amex card, but this offer does seem ambiguous about this.

Sami
Sami (@guest_569690)
March 13, 2018 17:26

thanks… i have AMEXs (including biz one) but no Amex MR cards.

Peek
Peek (@guest_568920)
March 12, 2018 09:39

You’re missing a comma in the amount in your title there.

David
David (@guest_568924)
March 12, 2018 09:44

A zero, rather.

Chuck
Editor
Chuck(@chucksithe)
March 12, 2018 10:07

Fixed, thanks