How to Use American Express Membership Rewards Points for Travel and Everyday Purchases

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American Express Cobalt^® Card

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Most reward programs focus on travel purchases. Why? It’s all about making the most of your trip at a lower cost! Especially since it’s often the best value for redeeming points.

The American Express Privilege-Points program is one of the few where you can also apply your points to other expenses, without losing value.

How to Use American Express Membership Rewards Points for Travel or Purchases

It’s easy to redeem your American Express Membership Rewards points for travel purchases and even for everyday purchases. The redemption method and ratio are the same.

Charge any travel or other purchase to your card and redeem your points by logging into your online account.

Here, the example is for a American Express Cobalt^® Card but the procedure is the same for American Express Membership Rewards cards.

On the home page, choose one of your Membership Rewards cards and click on “View and redeem points“:

Next, you’ll see a history of your last 3 months of purchases or your last 150 eligible purchases on the card. If you wish to apply Membership Rewards points to previous purchases, please call American Express customer service.

Here, I’ve chosen to apply points to a transaction with FoodHero. The rate is 1,000 points = $10.

Then click on the “Use Points” section, then “Cover it with Points“.

You can adjust the slider to choose the exact number of Membership Rewards points you want to use for this transaction. Here, I’m choosing 5,488 Membership Rewards points for a credit of $54.88.

Click on “Redeem Now“.

A confirmation screen appears. Simply check, accept the terms and conditions and confirm the transaction. The credit will be posted to your account within 24-48 hours and marked “Points for purchases”.

You can also use your Membership Rewards points to pay for all or part of an order on Amazon.ca. However, the exchange rate is less favourable, with 1,000 points equalling a $7 credit.

Here are all the American Express Membership Rewards cards that allow you to use points for all your expenses:

Use Points for Everyday Purchases

Generally speaking, it doesn’t make sense to apply points to anything other than travel: their value is much lower. The exception is Membership Rewards points, which have the same value for all types of expenses (1,000 points = $10 statement credit).

Comparison – Against a Statement Credit

In general, the redemption rate for a Statement credit is unfavourable, but this can allow you to use your points that are lying dormant and that you don’t know what to do with!

Be aware that programs may require a minimum number of points to exchange for a statement credit. These numbers have been standardized to give a sense of scale and to better compare them, as they do not have the same value.

Bottom Line

American Express Membership Rewards points are among the best loyalty program points. They’re beloved for their flexibility, and for making sure you can use your points without losing value.

For a higher level of points usage, you can even transfer your Membership Rewards points to other programs.

Although the American Express Cobalt^® Card is the Membership Rewards credit card we’ve long recommended, find the one that best suits your needs in this article.

Go further with American Express Membership Rewards

To maximize your Membership Rewards earning, check our complete American Express Membership Rewards program guide and our best American Express Membership Rewards credit cards ranking, updated monthly by the Milesopedia team.