Bits: how to beat Travelex’s new delivery fees, three good points deals with The Economist

News in brief:

Travelex increasing its delivery fees on smaller orders

Travelex relaunched as an Avios partner a couple of weeks ago.  You can now earn points – but only when you buy in advance via this special link – on your foreign currency orders.

Travelex lets you pre-order over 40 currencies and collection is available with as little as four hours notice.

This is what you need to know:

Collect 1 Avios for every £1 when exchanging over £300

Collect 1 Avios for every £2 when exchanging below £300

You must pre-order via the Travelex website here, for airport collection, for Travelex store collection or delivery

You can credit your Avios to BA, Iberia Plus or avios.com

Avios will be added within 14 days of collection or delivery

On 30th July, Travelex is changing its fee structure for home delivery and ‘click and collect’ and not in a good way.

The key changes are:

The minimum order for free home delivery increases from £500 to £600

‘Click and Collect’ orders under £500 will incur a fee, whilst at present anything over £100 is free

Home delivery fees are increased sharply on orders under £600

If you want to pre-order some currency and earn Avios, I recommend ordering before 30th July if you want under £600.  Do compare rates with the non-Avios Travelex site first as they can differ.

More points-earning opportunities with The Economist

The Economist continues to throw out interesting miles and points-related subscription offers in every direction.

The current British Airways offer expires on 31st July.  This (see here) gets you 8,800 Avios with a £179 one-year print and digital subscription.  2-year, print only and digital only deals are available too.

There was, last night, an Iberia offer still showing online with 13,200 Avios.  This appears to have been a mistake, however, as it pulled very early this morning and replaced with a 4,400 Avios offer.

Accor is also running an offer.  You will receive 6,000 Le Club AccorHotels points with a £179 subscription.  Assuming you use them for hotel stays, the points are worth €120 off a future trip.  This is more than 50% of your fee returned.

Whilst you should always take professional advice, most self-employed people should be able to argue that a subscription to The Economist is a tax deductible business purchase which brings the net price down even further.

A 2-year subscription is £315 which, for a self employed person paying 40% tax, would net out at £189.  The 12,000 Accor points received, which have no monetary value as per the rules of the scheme, would get you €240 (£212) of free nights, so you are effectively being paid £33 for taking up the offer …..

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Accor Live Limitless update – April 2025:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.