American Express (or Amex) is one of the most popular credit cards to use for people interested in taking advantage of reward points acquired from their use. Rewards points can be used for a variety of things, but most commonly for travel, providing the most dollar value per point spent.

Why Do You Need Points?

  • Free flights to an exotic destination
  • Free gift cards to your favorite retailers.
  • Free Uber rides.

The actual dollar amount varies depending on how they’re spent, but you can assume that on average: one point = $0.005 on the low end up to $0.135 for the most valuable.

You’ll need a lot of rewards points to get some free stuff so here are the best ways to earn lots of American Express points.

Use Rewards Credit Cards

Sign up for rewards credit cards included in the rewards program. Not all credit cards from Amex qualify you for rewards points, and every card has a different offer. Choosing the right card based on how you intend to use it is essential to maximizing the amount of rewards points that you can get from them. The most popular rewards cards are:

American Express Everyday Preferred Card

  • Earns 50% bonus on points when used more than 30 times during the billing period.
  • Earns double points on travel purchases through Amex portal.

American Express Gold Card

  • Earns 4x points when used at US restaurants and supermarkets.
  • Earns 3x points on flights booked through Amex portal.
  • Earns 1 point for every dollar spent on qualified purchases.

Amex Business Green Rewards Card

  • Earns 2x points on travel booked through the Amex portal.
  • Earns 1 point for every dollar spent on qualified purchases.

Amex Business Platinum Card

  • Earns 5x on flights and hotels booked through the Amex portal.
  • Earns 2x points on travel purchases through the Amex portal.
  • Earns 1 point for each dollar spent on eligible purchases.

Take Advantage of Sign-up Bonuses

Amex rewards card not only provide you with opportunities to get a point multiple on every dollar that you spent. For the most popular Amex rewards cards, you’re given an additional sign-up bonus to encourage new users to enter the rewards program.

TIP: Keep in mind the minimum requirements to acquire the bonuses. The cards have a minimum spend value on the card within the first few months of opening an account with the card.

Use Multiple Reward Cards

You’ll be glad to know that you’re not limited to just one reward card at a time. The strategy of having multiple reward cards is advised for experienced credit card users to avoid harming your credit or incurring unnecessary interest and fees.

Multiple reward cards grant you the benefit of each. Amex points are aggregated between accounts so you’ll have a cumulative total based on the spending of each reward card. You can now take advantage of multiple sign-up bonus offers.

Specialty of Each Reward Card:

  • Everyday Preferred Card – reward point benefits targeted for spending in gas stations and grocery stores.
  • Amex Business Platinum Card – reward point benefits targeted towards business spending.

When you have multiple cards, you can choose which to use in different spending situations to maximize the amount of points you acquire from them.

Use Reward Card for Bonus Category Shopping

Amex’s popularity comes from its relationships with countless companies. The company established these relationships by encouraging spending at a particular company and in exchange, rewards its users with reward points.

Amex sections these partnerships into designated bonus categories that are applied to reward card expenditures. When you shop at an eligible retailer within the category, you’ll receive reward points for each dollar spent.

Bonus Categories Through Amex Include:

  • Travel: Airfare, hotels and car rentals.
  • Retail: Supermarkets, gas stations, restaurants, drugstores and department stores.
  • Business: Amazon online purchases, office supply stores, computer hardware, software, cloud computing, wireless telephone service providers, shipping, digital media advertising.

Business Spending and Authorized Users

The popular Amex rewards cards Amex Business Green Rewards and the Amex Platinum Business Cards can be utilized within your business to quickly generate reward points to your account. These cards have special bonus points given for business expenditures. The expenditures don’t always have to come directly from your spending, however.

Amex allows you to include authorized users under a reward card account. An authorized user is someone that you trust to be able to use a secondary card when they’re out on business trips for example. Since they are linked directly to your account, you’ll get bonus points as usual based on each of their purchases using the card.

Referrals

Amex Reward cards include a referral program for its users. The referral program works by allowing you to share a personalized sign-up link and for each user that registers using the unique code or link, you’ll be rewarded with additional points. Referral Bonuses range from 5,000 points to 15,000 points for each person you sign up! Be aware of the referral limits on each card. Referral bonuses are usually not unlimited and are capped after achieving a certain amount of referrals either over the period or lifetime.

Book Flights With American Express Travel

One of the best use for reward points is by redeeming them for travel. In addition to high point value on travel, Amex also gives reward points when you spend on travel. Amex has partnerships with several airlines and provides an exclusive Amex portal for booking trips and making reservations. For example, when you make a travel-related purchase with your Amex card or through their portals, you could receive even 2x points for every dollar that you spend.

Your Upgrades and Flight Perks

You can maximize travel using your Amex reward card by making a purchase for the additional points and utilizing points for different upgrades and flight perks such as first-class traveling or in-flight entertainment credits. Using these strategies, you can easily earn thousands of reward points to redeem your miles. Amex makes it easy to get lots of points the more that you use their reward card.