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John recently published a post saying how you should make a real effort to check the Nectar app regularly for offers. He’s right, but on that basis I thought it important to follow up with what I consider to be something of a “public service” post.

Beware of the bad deal

There are varying degrees of value you get from offers in the miles and points game, but occasionally a particular “offer” will be manifestly, unequivocally, bad value. The Amex Membership Rewards Points conversion to Nectar Points is one such example. The short rule to remember is this: if you convert MR Points to Nectar Points, you are basically throwing away money.

I thought it particularly important to restate this, as Nectar seem to be strongly pushing the Amex tie-up via the “Partner Offers” section on its website/app.

Why is this such a bad deal?

I think the vast majority of you will know this already, but Amex Membership Rewards Points convert to Nectar at a 1:1 ratio. That used to be a pretty poor use of your points given the fairly fixed value of a Nectar Point at 0.5p. Now, however, it makes no sense whatsoever.

The reason? Amex Membership Rewards also convert to Avios at a 1:1 ratio. Once you have Avios, you can convert them to Nectar Points and get 1.6 Nectar Points for every one Avios you convert (250 Avios become 400 Nectar Points). So a simple additional step will get you 60% more Nectar Points.

Do you want some Membership Rewards Points (that you definitely won’t convert directly to to Nectar)?

You will receive 22,000 Membership Rewards Points (convertible to 35,200 Nectar Points via the indirect route above) when you sign up for the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card and spend £3,000 in the first 3 months.