How to use Amex points.

[JBTX]

I’m sitting on about 190,000 Amex points, mainly from gold card and bank bonuses. What is the best way to use them? Home Depot has a good 1:1 ratio but it may take a while to go through $1900. Everybody always says they are good to transfer to rewards programs but I don’t travel a lot. Are there any other ways to get 1:1 value other than Home Depot. Most other redemption options seem to take substantial hair cut.

[WinstonTeracina]

If you don't travel much and are looking to redeem your miles as a statement credit you're probably not getting the most value from your AMEX cards and would likely be better off switching to a pure cash-back card that offered a flat 1:1 redemption value as a statement credit. What exactly do you have the Gold card for if you don't travel much? There are other cards that reward you for dining, travel and grocery purchases that don't come with the $250 annual fee and the "inflexibility" of the membership points.

[index245]

One off ramp (if you don't want to use on transfer partners) is signing up for the Charles Schwab Platinum Amex. You'll need to open a CS brokerage account. Then you can cash out the points at 1.1 CPP.

It has a $695 annual fee but a bunch of credits that can mostly discount. 100000 points after $6K spend. You can cancel after 12 months once the annual fee hits if you don't want to keep it. They'll reverse the second fee if you cancel within 4 weeks of the 2nd fee posting.

Sounds like you might be better served by a different credit card setup long term.

[teamDE]

Good heads up on Home Depot. I also have an Amex Gold and going on a million freaking points. I need to start burning them and I just spent $1000 at Home Depot. Darn.

I wish the Amex transfer to JetBlue was better as I do fly with them frequently. I also have Chase points and they transfer to JetBlue at 1:1. I have been starting to use Delta more, though.

[junior]

I'd either plan for a future business class ticket at an airline that gives maximum value or cash out at less value with something I can use now.

[smby]

They have promos at time for transfering to Hilton points at 1.5x to 2x normal rates...that is a great deal

[McDougal]

The Points Guy has some thoughts on this, but mostly for travel. I agree the Amex card is not the best if you don't travel much
https://thepointsguy.com/guide/redeemin ... mum-value/

[Harmanic]

We bought Home Depot gift cards and then sold the cards on a website that buys gift cards. Better return than cash back and statement credits. You need to check which cards are on sale and how much they can fetch on a famous card exchange website.

[need403bhelp]

I’m sitting on about 190,000 Amex points, mainly from gold card and bank bonuses. What is the best way to use them? Home Depot has a good 1:1 ratio but it may take a while to go through $1900. Everybody always says they are good to transfer to rewards programs but I don’t travel a lot. Are there any other ways to get 1:1 value other than Home Depot. Most other redemption options seem to take substantial hair cut.

AmEx Biz Plat + AmEx business checking account results in 1:1 redemption for cash to business checking account

[02nz]

Home Depot has a good 1:1 ratio but it may take a while to go through $1900.

Amex occasionally runs sales where you pay fewer points, I think Home Depot has been on sale before for 20% less or something like that.

[JBTX]

Thanks for the replies.

I got the cards just for the upfront bonuses and plan to cancel after 1 year to avoid fee. Already have cancelled one of them. I do have some other no annual fee Amex cards I hold onto.

Sounds like hold on to them for now and use for either Home Depot or maybe future hotel travel.

[pizzy]

One off ramp (if you don't want to use on transfer partners) is signing up for the Charles Schwab Platinum Amex. You'll need to open a CS brokerage account. Then you can cash out the points at 1.1 CPP.

It has a $695 annual fee but a bunch of credits that can mostly discount. 100000 points after $6K spend. You can cancel after 12 months once the annual fee hits if you don't want to keep it. They'll reverse the second fee if you cancel within 4 weeks of the 2nd fee posting.

Sounds like you might be better served by a different credit card setup long term.

You don't need to wait for the renewal AF to be charged to cancel, Day 366 is long enough.

[psteinx]

How does one accumulate 200K-1M Amex points?

[THY4373]

They have promos at time for transfering to Hilton points at 1.5x to 2x normal rates...that is a great deal

You can buy Hilton points very frequently for 1/2 a cent per point so even with the bonuses I don't consider converting MR to HH to be a particularly good value except to top up an account. Also OP says they don't travel much.

[THY4373]

How does one accumulate 200K-1M Amex points?

Lots of business spend
Lots of personal spend
Manufactured spending
Leveraging lots of signup and other bonus offers

Some combination of the above will get you there.

[Jags4186]

How does one accumulate 200K-1M Amex points?

It wasn’t that long ago that AMEX was offering signup bonuses worth up to 500,000 points.