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I really want to refer my wife for the Platinum, for the associated points for both of us. Just not sure if we will easily spend 6K in 6 months, as our spending on Amex seems to have dropped over the last year. So thought I would ask for any suggestions on how to get to 6K.
In theory, we should have a holiday for 2023 to pay a balance for, before the 6 months is up, which would take us easily to the 6K. But just in case, I’d love ideas from other people.
Gift vouchers for Amazon and your usual supermarket can come to quite a sum. Effectively you are just bringing forward spend you would make anyway.
Always try and pay with Amex even if places don’t give that option. My largest success here was for a £3,000 holiday rental firm that only took Visa and Mastercard. Except Amex went through fine.
Quite often PayPal is an option for places that don’t take Amex and frequently you can use Amex on PayPal for this.
Failing all that put your wife’s card behind the bar somewhere on a Friday night. You’ll hit the target easily then!
The tips above are great, I can only really add:
1) Christmas presents!
2) Pre-pay for things that would otherwise fall outside the six months, such as a booking a cancellable hotel stay but paying up front, or paying for car/home insurance in one go rather than monthly.
3) If you’re booking next year’s holiday, pay your taxes/charges on the Platinum (assuming you are doing a points booking)
4) See if any of your bills can be paid by credit card. Most don’t offer AMEX though, my Council tax and water bills can be paid by Visa/MasterCard. School dinners for the kids (which really add up!) are discouraged on AMEX but can still be paid on it (ParentPay).Christmas presents is my main recommendation at this time of year. Or buy a year’s worth of family birthday presents via multiple Amazon or other vouchers.
With the recent PayPal offer I got a load of M & S vouchers then have been using them to send flowers to friends and family on birthdays.
I pay my council tax via PayPal as well each March, which is a good chunk towards a spend target. Also car/house insurance companies generally take Amex IME so we pay those up front – it works out cheaper in the long run as well. Car tax as well if it’s that time of year.
If you like wine (also a great gift), stock up on a few nice cases from somewhere like Laithwaite’s – they usually have decent offers on.
Family and friends trips and outings – offer to manage all the arrangements and pay on Amex. Your fellow travellers will be extremely relieved and grateful that all they have to do is transfer their share of the cost to you, especially if they’re like mine and wouldn’t recognise an avios if they tripped over one in the street!My favourite two uses for Amex are:
– Council Tax: Some councils permit you to pay by card using Payment Card which works at PayPoint locations. Many Coops permit you to pay the council tax bills via PayPoint using Amex. Remember to cancel your DD.
– Energy Bills: Some gas and electric companies permit you to pre-pay/top-up your account via Amex payments. Ring and ask. Remeber to get your DD adjusted if you put substantial sums through.
I would guess most people’s bills will be pushing £5k pa for both of those combined over the next 12 months. So, subject to having suitable savings, you should easily hit your £6k limit by pre-paying for your annual Council Tax and Energy Bills. Stick in some gift cards for Amazon and [INSERT YOUR CHOICE OF SUPERMARKET HERE] and hey presto 60k MR report points are yours before you can say “flexible friend”.
Amazon topups if all else done. 10 year expiry. And their subscribe & save is decent value.
If you want to go down the buy cancellable hotels and get money back, VRBO is one ive used countless times. Some places in Kensington are £1k a night so its easy to hit that spend, and free cancellation til Aug 2023.
Thanks everyone, some excellent suggestions. Will definitely investigate council tax paid by card. Always felt nervous about hotel pre-book and cancel; once I’ve hit spend target and got the bonus paid to me, would the cancellation just put me into a possible negative points situation for a while ?
You can buy things on sale and sell on eBay/Local sites. Lego is quite a good one and in the run up to Christmas if you pick the right items you won’t have an issue selling them on
Christmas presents is my main recommendation at this time of year. Or buy a year’s worth of family birthday presents via multiple Amazon or other vouchers.
With the recent PayPal offer I got a load of M & S vouchers then have been using them to send flowers to friends and family on birthdays.
I pay my council tax via PayPal as well each March, which is a good chunk towards a spend target. Also car/house insurance companies generally take Amex IME so we pay those up front – it works out cheaper in the long run as well. Car tax as well if it’s that time of year.
If you like wine (also a great gift), stock up on a few nice cases from somewhere like Laithwaite’s – they usually have decent offers on.
Family and friends trips and outings – offer to manage all the arrangements and pay on Amex. Your fellow travellers will be extremely relieved and grateful that all they have to do is transfer their share of the cost to you, especially if they’re like mine and wouldn’t recognise an avios if they tripped over one in the street!Are you able to tell us more? My local council will only accept Visa/Mastercard. When I had properties scattered across the country, I had the pleasure of paying council tax bills to virtually every council across the UK and found that Visa/MC was the norm.
I recently switched to Octopus and can use Amex to top up the account. My previous provider was not allowing this unfortunately. Otherwise, you can use it with amazon, paypal and supermarkets/fuel.
Happy spending 🙂
BT via PayPal, and EE take Amex directly.. BT refund your extra at regular intervals btw. Into the direct debit bank account. As do infinity. Plus get pre pay Pay Point cards for other utility bills, eg Affinity, tv license..pay at the co op or similar terminals, if you have the time. With Octopus, they will let you keep a basic £5 direct debit. Supermarket gift cards really are great, esp where you get your petrol….Amazon invaluable too…even if l object to their values… and always search for the paypal option on online shopping….
I’m in a similar boat. Interested to know if the following would count as eligible spend towards the AMEX Platinum Sign Up Bonus:
Currently working towards a bit Hilton Honors points redemption. About to buy the max points I can prior to the closure of the 100% Buy Points bonus that ends tomorrow. If I buy the points in $ on my AMEX Plat card, will this purchase count towards my £6000 SUB goal?
Anyone who can confirm either way has my thanks!
Does anyone know whether buying Hilton Honors points on an AMEX Platinum would count towards the £6000 sign-up bonus goal? Thanks in advance to anyone who can confirm!
Does anyone know whether buying Hilton Honors points on an AMEX Platinum would count towards the £6000 sign-up bonus goal? Thanks in advance to anyone who can confirm!
Yes, but you’re paying a 3% fee you could avoid with a 0% FX card.
Cheers Rob.
Yes – I wondered about that. Will have to give it some thought.
Was thinking of buying them on the Platinum card as it’ll push me over the £6000 sign-up bonus and allow me to net another 120k points when I convert the membership rewards to Hilton Honors. On the other hand, I could buy them using my Curve card, pay no FX fees and filter the payment down onto my Virgin Atlantic Rewards+ card. Decisions decisions!
Cheers Rob.
Yes – I wondered about that. Will have to give it some thought.
Was thinking of buying them on the Platinum card as it’ll push me over the £6000 sign-up bonus and allow me to net another 120k points when I convert the membership rewards to Hilton Honors. On the other hand, I could buy them using my Curve card, pay no FX fees and filter the payment down onto my Virgin Atlantic Rewards+ card. Decisions decisions!
If you won’t hit the platinum spend target without this purchase then it’s worth the 3% hit. If you’ll manage it AnywY with subsequent spend put it through Virgin+. Isn’t the Hilton earn rate converting virgin to HH marginally better if using the paid card to earn?
1.5 points per £1 spend x 3/2 =2.25 HH points if my maths is correct.
Are you able to tell us more? My local council will only accept Visa/Mastercard. When I had properties scattered across the country, I had the pleasure of paying council tax bills to virtually every council across the UK and found that Visa/MC was the norm.
You need to see if you council allows payments via 3rd parties such as PayPal or paypoint. Mine takes paypoint so I just go to the local co-op or spar who take Amex.
I guess council tax paid at the post office, too?
I guess council tax paid at the post office, too?
I dont think you can use Amex at the PO for bills anymore. Mine doesn’t anyway.
I guess council tax paid at the post office, too?
I dont think you can use Amex at the PO for bills anymore. Mine doesn’t anyway.
Worth calling at a few local Post Offices to check if they take AMEX
Luckily mine does
That why my thoughts of taking the Platinum out in early October would just include next years Council TaxWorth also mentioning to make sure your Council Tax Bill has a Barcode or QR Code on
“With Octopus, they will let you keep a basic £5 direct debit”
My DD with Octopus is £2 😁
You need to see if you council allows payments via 3rd parties such as PayPal or paypoint. Mine takes paypoint so I just go to the local co-op or spar who take Amex.
My council take PayPoint but say it has to be cash only. Co-ops in the area know and enforce this but if you drift to a Co-op outside the area…happy days!
Wow @Wally, that has to be a record lowest dd for energy.. l thought l was doing well with £5.
It also might be worth swallowing a billhop payment if a bill needed, to get you there if the aim was to cancel quickly. We have used it before to get a 241 done sooner, for an F redemption. Definitely worth it for that. But really, supermarket gift cards incl petrol can eat up quite a bit of it. Am sure you will make the spend.
One final thing l did was gifted my OH some money via PayPal. Birthday, gifts anything. As a one off it’s fine under F&F.
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