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Great Deal! Earn 40 Amex Points Per Dollar When You Buy Magazines

5 years ago
4 Comments
by Charlie
a hand holding a card and typing on a laptop
Written by Charlie

Here is a great way to earn any amount of Membership Reward points with this deal for earning 40 Amex points per dollar when buying magazines! Great way to top up an account!

This deal comes around a few times a year for airline shopping portals and is always a great way to top up an account for an award without having to buy a minimum. But, Amex points (Membership Reward points) are worth quite a bit more than the miles in US programs so this is an even better deal!

Buy Magazines and Earn 40 Amex Points Per Dollar

Link: Magazines.com Portal Offer (It says CashBack but if you converted your account to earn Membership Reward points, you will earn MR points instead at 1 point/1%)

If you have an American Express card that earns Membership Reward points, you can either sign-up for a Rakuten (formerly Ebates) account or just convert your existing account from earning cash back to Membership Reward points. It is just that simple!

Next, you just shop through the link above and buy magazines! You will earn 40 Amex Membership Reward points per dollar as long as your purchase follows the terms below. That is great because it means you are essentially buying Membership Reward points for 2.5 cents each – and you get the magazines! While most people would not value MR points at 2.5 cents each, you can certainly get far more value than that from them so this is a great way to top up an account for an award you want!

Just remember to not use any codes that are not available on the Magazines.com website! It can invalidate your earnings!

Special Terms:

  • Cash Back is not available on auto-renew purchases
  • The redemption of gift cards or the following titles:
    • American Patchwork & Quilting
    • Better Homes & Gardens
    • Country Gardens
    • Diabetic Living
    • Do-It-Yourself
    • EatingWell
    • Every Day with Rachael Ray
    • Family Circle
    • FamilyFun
    • Fitness
    • Martha Stewart Living
    • Martha Stewart Weddings
    • Midwest Living
    • Parents
    • Siempre Mujer
    • Successful Farming
    • Traditional Home
    • Wood
    • Fit Pregnancy
    • Flex
    • Globe
    • Men’s Fitness
    • Muscle & Fitness
    • National Examiner
    • Natural Health
    • OK! Magazine
    • Shape
    • Soap Opera Digest
    • Star
    • The National Enquirer

The auto renewal mention refers to earning Cashback/points when you sign-up for auto-renewal – you won’t earn the points/CashBack when it renews. So, buying a subscription now is just fine and, better yet, your points will post to your account today!

You can buy as gifts or donate – or buy yourself a magazine for your next trip! You are getting Amex points at a nice rate so who cares, right? 🙂

Give or Donate

You can buy magazines as gifts or even to donate to your library/hospital/school. They would likely be happy to receive them and you will get 40 points per dollar for your kindnessIf you would like an example, check out this page for the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital. It tells you what kind of magazines they would appreciate the most so it could be a good way to get some for something good without waiting to hear back from the organization as to what would be best.

Final Thoughts

This is a portal bonus that does come around a couple of times a year and is always a good way to buy miles for less than retail without having to buy up to a certain tier like mileage sales require. Plus, you can get more gifts, donate items, or even get a nice magazine for yourself while you are at it!

Some of the links on Running with Miles are affiliate links that pay a commission if a purchase is made. Running with Miles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

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About the author

Charlie

Charlie has been an avid traveler and runner for many years. He has run in marathons around the world for less than it would cost to travel to the next town - all as a result of collecting and using miles and points. Over the years, he has flown hundreds of thousands of miles and collected millions of miles and points.
Now he uses this experience and knowledge to help others through Running with Miles.

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4 Comments

    • Absolutely right! I used to have that in that section but I must have taken it out (maybe so as not to confuse or have it mistaken that I am giving tax advice?)

  • I am slightly new to this valuation game. Can you explain or direct me to a place where I can learn how to calculate the value of Amex points?

    • Value of miles/points for redemption can very much be subjective. It is generally understood that Amex Membership Reward points are truthfully worth about 1.6-1.8 cents per point. But, if you were to transfer 55,000 Amex points to Aeroplan, for example, you could redeem for a business class ticket between Europe and the US that may cost $4,000. That means that, after taxes and fees, those points would have an outright value of 6.3 cents per point. But, none of us would ever pay that much for a ticket like that so it comes down more to what a realistic value would be based on what you would be willing to spend. For instance, you could base it on what you would be willing to spend for an economy ticket and then add a couple/few hundred to that for the value of business class.
      A great tool to help is over at Frequent Miler – called his Reasonable Redemption Value. You can certainly get more value out of your points than it shows but it is a great place to start – https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/reasonable-redemption-values-rrvs/