Since July 2012, MS Society has offered 5,000 American Express Membership Rewards points for donations of $150 (or more). It’s a super easy way to top your Membership Rewards account – essentially you are buying points for 3c / point, however donations to charity are tax deductible, so depending on your income tax rate, you can get the real cost down to less than 2c per point.
It’s no secret around these parts that I love American Express Membership Rewards points – you can read my full Membership Rewards guide here. The flexibility Membership Rewards points offer, and the manner in which they can be earned faster than other Credit Card program points, are a great advantage over other programs in Australia. However, it’s always worth having on hand some options to boost your points balance, even if it does mean spending money, if you’re trying to reach a specific goal.
This bonus seems to be repeatable across multiple donations, despite the MS Society donation page having a slightly hidden popup which says bonus points are only available once. In practice, the bonus points have been credited for each transaction on my account, and the Amex offer terms don’t reference this restriction.
This ‘deal’ from MS Society has been around for nearly two years, but it’s worth resurfacing again as it could possibly end in June, and may yield Membership Rewards points for around 2c per point, depending on your tax rate. Note that I’ve reworked the original post on this from last year, and brought along the comments too as there’s some useful thoughts in there.
The donation page over at MS Society is here which outlines the deal is valid until the end of June 2014. The American Express page on the offer is here.
How I used this offer
Last year I was trying to increase my Membership Rewards balance for an exceedingly good redemption from Europe to Sydney on Malaysia Airlines, which we ended up flying over Christmas.
I was about 30,000 Membership Rewards points short to book for 3 people, so I needed a way I could get those points as quickly and reasonably as possible.
My thoughts on taking advantage of this
American Express themselves offer to sell you points at $25 per 1000 – an effective cost of 2.5c / point – so this is a better deal than buying points directly from the source, assuming your income tax rate provides an effective discount that’s greater than 16%.
MS Society most likely pay American Express a decent chunk for the 5,000 points they offer, but clearly it’s a worthwhile proposition for them – and it’s a nice warm fuzzy feeling to donate and receive points than just pay the bank for them.
My advice would be to not over-indulge in this deal – there are a few potential hoops to jump through or loopholes that might screw it up – Amex may not post the points quickly, your accountant or the ATO might not like the multiple donations, or the multiple donation loophole may get shut down. However this has been out there for nearly two years, so I can’t see anything changing any time soon.
I’ll let you draw your own judgment on this – but for me, I made 6 donations over the course of a couple of weeks and had points credit in good time for each. Now I’m done and won’t use it again.
In many circumstances, it’s not going to be worth ‘buying’ points at this price. However, with the combination of the Malaysia Airlines great value redemption on the route and dates I was interested in, it meant I could easily top my Membership Rewards account in a cost-effective way.
Immanuel Debeer MS Society state you can and you receive an email tax receipt, from memory, to assist.
Can you claim this back on taxes?
I just saw this has been extended until June 2014
Thank you for the great post (and great website). Just used your Amex referral link: small token of gratitude for a very useful site for Australian based travellers.
Thanks, appreciate it!
Bonus Points only available for donations made for Multiple Sclerosis in NSW, ACT, VIC & QLD.
Does that mean if I am in SA, I can’t get them??
Didn’t spot that, seems odd. Maybe there are different donation / charity laws in SA/WA/NT? Not sure how this would be administered, may still be worth giving it a go if you can bear the risk.
I notice that you spaced your donations one day apart – FYI, there’s no need to do that. You can just make them immediately after each other and the bonus points still post.
Thanks – was just being a tad conservative, could see the previous day crediting before doing the next!
thats good to know
If you do more than three transactions it blocks you and flags your transactions with MS staff. Hope my points still post.
I’ve done >3 (significantly), over the course of a week. All points have posted, and now transferred out to make a booking.
Sorry I meant consecutively, MS emailed to ask if it was a mistake and I told them no and to process them as is. The points have posted though!
Good stuff – so you did more than one in a day and they have you a call as a result to check?
The maximum it would allow me to do was three. Didn’t even have to call just emailed them back to ask them to process them as separate donations which they duly did. Flights now booked – thanks for sharing.
Nice – where are you headed?
off to Europe in July – looking forward to my first A380 flight, normally fly Etihad or BA.
Also note that this may be a glitch in the system and they may fix this. Terms note:
Donations are made in Australian Dollars (AUD). All donations over $2 are tax deductible. Please retain receipt.
Multiple donations and donations over $150 will not earn more than 5000 bonus points.
Interesting. It took me ages to find where that was referenced; it’s not on the Amex offer page terms, but buried in an info box next to the donation amount.
Given this has offer has been up and running since July 1 last year, I don’t *think* it would change now – but you never know. Well found.
And thinking about it, given the terms on the Amex offer page don’t reference the multiple donation restriction, you’d have a fairly strong leg to stand on when arguing it with Amex.
Great way to top up an account, but 8-10 week waiting for the bonus points to post is a long time when hoping to book a redemption flight
These have posted next day for me – see the screenshot in the post above, it’s my account. Check the dates.
Just looked at that screenshot myself – it’s not clear, but the purchase is made and bonus points are credited at time of purchase hitting the account, no later.
Good work Keith!
Wow Keith what a generous way to earn points! I’m so impressed that this is totally legit and possible! Are you aware of any other charities doing this? Kudos for sharing it!
Haven’t seen any others, no. See the comment from captain_sloth though, there are some buried terms which in theory restrict the bonus to a single donation. But that’s not what I’m seeing in my account.