How to Redeem Amex Points for Cash in 2026 (And Why You Usually Shouldn't)

Disclaimer: Redemption rates, card terms, and annual fees change frequently. Verify current rates in your Amex account before redeeming. Nothing here is tax advice; consult a CPA for your situation.

Amex will happily convert your Membership Rewards points into cash. It will just pay you badly for the privilege. Most cash-out paths return 0.6 to 0.7 cents per point, which means a 100,000-point balance that could cover a $2,000-plus business class ticket becomes $600 on your statement.

There is one exception worth knowing about, a few situations where taking the haircut is genuinely the right call, and a tax wrinkle that works in your favor. This guide covers every way to turn Membership Rewards into cash or cash-equivalents in 2026, with verified current rates and the math on what each path costs you against the travel redemptions in our guide to the best Membership Rewards redemptions.

Key facts: Amex Membership Rewards cash-out rates (2026)

• Statement credits (Cover Your Charges): 0.6 cents per point
• Pay with Points at checkout (Amazon, Best Buy, PayPal merchants): typically 0.7 cents, up to 1 cent at some merchants
• Gift cards: 0.5-1 cent per point depending on brand
• Morgan Stanley Platinum Invest with Rewards: 1 cent per point into an eligible Morgan Stanley account
• Schwab Platinum Invest with Rewards: 1.1 cents per point, capped at 1 million points per calendar year (0.8 cents after the cap)
• There is no direct points-to-bank-account or check option
• Travel transfers, for comparison: 1.5-15 cents per point depending on route and cabin
• Cash-outs of spend-earned points are not taxable income; the IRS treats them as purchase rebates

Every Way to Turn Amex Points Into Cash

Five paths exist. Here they are from worst to best.

Redemption path	Rate (cents per point)	Cash from 100,000 points
Statement credit (Cover Your Charges)	0.6	$600
Pay with Points at checkout / Amazon	0.7 (up to 1 at select merchants)	$700
Gift cards	0.5-1, varies by brand	$500-1,000
Morgan Stanley Platinum brokerage deposit	1.0	$1,000
Schwab Platinum brokerage deposit	1.1 (first 1M points/year)	$1,100

Statement Credits: 0.6 Cents

Amex calls this Cover Your Charges. You pick an eligible charge on your statement and apply points against it at 0.6 cents per point. It feels like cash back. It is cash back at roughly half the rate a no-annual-fee 1.5% card would have paid you on the same spending, on points you probably earned with a card charging $325 to $895 a year.

This is the default cash option most cardholders find first, and it is the worst one Amex offers. If you’re going to take a haircut, at least shop the other paths below.

Pay with Points at Checkout: Usually 0.7 Cents

Amex partners with Amazon, Best Buy, PayPal, and a list of other merchants to let you apply points at checkout. Amazon’s Shop with Points rate is 0.7 cents per point. Amex’s own published range for checkout redemptions runs 0.7 to 1 cent depending on the merchant.

One trap specific to Amazon: Amex periodically targets cardholders with offers like “use at least 1 point, get 40% off up to $60.” Those promos can be excellent because you can apply a single point and pay the rest with your card. The standard everyday rate, though, is 0.7 cents, and spending six figures of points at that rate is how people quietly torch hundreds of dollars of value.

Gift Cards: 0.5 to 1 Cent, Read the Fine Print

Gift card rates vary by brand. Some retail brands price at a full 1 cent per point while others sit closer to 0.5 to 0.7 cents. Amex advertises “up to 1 cent” for a reason. Check the specific brand’s rate in the redemption portal before assuming you’re getting the top of the range, because the difference between 0.5 and 1 cent on a 100,000-point redemption is $500.

A gift card is also not cash. It’s cash you’ve pre-committed to one merchant, which makes it strictly worse than an equivalent statement credit at the same rate.

The Brokerage Route: Morgan Stanley at 1 Cent, Schwab at 1.1

Two co-branded versions of the Amex Platinum convert points into real, withdrawable cash through a feature called Invest with Rewards:

• The Amex Platinum for Morgan Stanley redeems points at 1 cent each into an eligible Morgan Stanley account.
• The Amex Platinum for Charles Schwab redeems points at 1.1 cents each into an eligible Schwab brokerage account, for the first 1 million points per calendar year. Points beyond the cap redeem at 0.8 cents.

The Schwab version is the headline act. The money arrives as plain cash in your brokerage account (Amex says 4 to 6 business days; in practice it often lands within minutes, per Frequent Miler’s testing), and from there you can invest it or wire it to checking. There’s no longer a minimum redemption amount, so you can sweep odd balances down to the last point.

The cap matters for heavy hitters. Amex added the 1-million-point annual limit in 2024 after some cardholders treated the card as a money printer on big business spend. Cash out 1.5 million points in a year and the last 500,000 only earn 0.8 cents.

Both cards require an existing eligible brokerage relationship to apply, both carry the same $895 annual fee as the standard Platinum, and both earn the same Membership Rewards. If you want the full Platinum credits-versus-fee breakdown, our Amex Platinum vs Chase Sapphire Reserve comparison runs that math.

What About Transferring Points to My Bank Account?

You can’t, at least not directly. Amex offers no ACH transfer, no check, no Venmo-style payout for Membership Rewards. The Schwab and Morgan Stanley brokerage deposits are the only routes to withdrawable cash, and everything else resolves to a statement credit or a gift card. Anyone selling a different story (points brokers, “we buy your miles” services) is asking you to violate Amex’s terms, which can get your points confiscated and your accounts shut down. Don’t.

The Math: What Cashing Out 100,000 Points Actually Costs

The Points Guy values Membership Rewards at about 2 cents per point for planning purposes, and our Membership Rewards redemptions guide documents transfer redemptions running 1.5-3 cents in economy and 4-15 cents in premium cabins. Put a 100,000-point balance against those benchmarks:

What you do with 100,000 points	Value received	Gap vs. a 2.0-cent travel redemption
Statement credit (0.6)	$600	leaves $1,400 behind
Amazon Shop with Points (0.7)	$700	leaves $1,300 behind
Gift cards (0.5-1.0)	$500-1,000	leaves $1,000-1,500 behind
Morgan Stanley deposit (1.0)	$1,000	leaves $1,000 behind
Schwab deposit (1.1)	$1,100	leaves $900 behind
Typical airline transfer (2.0)	~$2,000 in travel	baseline
ANA business class to Japan (4-7)	$4,000-7,000 in retail airfare	$2,000-5,000 ahead of baseline

Two honest caveats cut the other way. First, travel valuations measure retail prices you might never have paid in cash, while a Schwab deposit is real money that pays real bills. $1,100 you’ll actually use can rationally beat $4,000 of first class you’d never have bought. Second, points devalue and cash doesn’t. Award charts get worse over time, never better, so a strategy of hoarding seven figures of points “for someday” carries depreciation risk that cash in a brokerage account does not.

The fair framing: cashing out is a bad exchange rate, not a moral failing. Pay the spread knowingly or don’t pay it at all.

Who Should Cash Out Anyway

Most people reading a points site should transfer to partners and fly. These four groups are the exceptions.

You genuinely never travel. If you haven’t boarded a plane in three years and don’t plan to, points earned at 4x on dining were still a fine return, and 0.6-1.1 cents of cash beats zero. But the better fix is upstream: stop earning transferable points and carry a flat cash back card instead. Our credit card strategy guide covers when cash back beats points outright.

You’re leaving the ecosystem. Membership Rewards points live and die with your card accounts. Close your last MR-earning card and the unredeemed balance is forfeited, so redeem or transfer everything before you cancel. If you’re downsizing your card portfolio and the annual fees no longer pencil out, a 0.6-cent statement credit on the way out beats donating the balance back to Amex.

You hold the Schwab Platinum and value certainty. At 1.1 cents, a heavy spender can treat the Platinum as a 1.1%-plus cash back card with lounge access, hotel status, and the full credit stack on top. On 5x flight spend, that’s an effective 5.5% cash return. It’s still less than a great transfer redemption, but it is guaranteed, immediate, and denominated in dollars rather than in award charts that can devalue.

You need the money. Job loss, surprise tax bill, medical expense. A points balance is an asset, and liquidating an asset at a known discount during an emergency is what assets are for. No spreadsheet should talk you out of that.

Are Cash-Outs Taxable? (Good News)

Cash feels more like income than a flight does, so people worry the Schwab route triggers a tax bill. It doesn’t, as long as the points were earned by spending.

The IRS treats spend-based credit card rewards as rebates: a reduction in the price of what you bought, not income you received. That position is documented in Chief Counsel Advice 200437030 and has been consistent practice for decades. The form of the redemption doesn’t change the analysis. Whether 100,000 spend-earned points become a flight, a statement credit, or $1,100 in your Schwab account, you’re recovering part of the purchase price you already paid, and no 1099 is issued.

The exceptions involve points you didn’t spend to earn. Referral bonuses are taxable income, and issuers send 1099s for them. Bank account opening bonuses are taxable even when paid in points. Business owners deducting card spend have a separate technical wrinkle about reducing deductions by rewards received. Our guide to the tax efficiency of credit card rewards covers all of it, including why tax-free rewards are worth roughly double their face value to someone at a 50% combined marginal rate. That same logic applies here: $1,100 of tax-free cash from a Schwab redemption is equivalent to about $2,200 of gross salary for a high earner, which takes some of the sting out of the exchange rate.

Action Steps

1. Price your balance both ways before redeeming. Multiply your points by 0.011 (Schwab) or 0.006 (statement credit), then compare against a real award you’d actually book. Make the decision with both numbers in front of you.
2. Never cash out at 0.6 if you can get more. If you’re determined to extract cash, check gift card rates for brands you already buy from and check whether Amex is targeting you with an Amazon promo before settling for Cover Your Charges.
3. If you’re a Platinum person who might ever cash out, pick the Schwab flavor. Same fee, same benefits, plus a 1.1-cent exit valve the standard card lacks. You need a Schwab brokerage account first.
4. Redeem before you close your last MR card. Forfeited points are the only redemption worth zero. Transfer to a partner or cash out, in that order of preference, before canceling.
5. Don’t hold the cash decision to a travel standard you’ll never use. If you haven’t redeemed for travel in two years, your real-world point value is whatever the cash-out pays, and your card lineup should change to match.

Sources

• American Express: How much are Membership Rewards points worth: Official rates for statement credits (0.6), checkout (0.7-1), gift cards (up to 1), and Amex Travel
• American Express: Pay with Points at checkout: Participating checkout merchants
• Charles Schwab: The Platinum Card from American Express for Charles Schwab: Card terms and Schwab account requirement
• Frequent Miler: How to convert Amex Membership Rewards to cash with the Schwab Platinum: 1.1-cent rate, 1M-point cap, redemption mechanics and timing
• Upgraded Points: Amex Schwab Platinum Invest with Rewards rate: Rate history and current 1.1-cent rate
• AwardWallet: Schwab Platinum cash-out limit: The 1 million point annual cap and 0.8-cent overflow rate
• US Credit Card Guide: Amex Platinum for Schwab review: 2026 fee ($895) and current cash-out terms
• US Credit Card Guide: Amex Platinum for Morgan Stanley review: Morgan Stanley 1-cent Invest with Rewards
• NerdWallet: Using Membership Rewards at Amazon: Amazon Shop with Points 0.7-cent rate
• The Points Guy: What are Amex points worth: Valuation benchmark and gift card rate variation
• IRS: Chief Counsel Advice 200437030: Rebate treatment of spend-based credit card rewards

Related Resources

• Best Ways to Redeem Amex Membership Rewards: The transfer partner sweet spots worth 4-15 cents per point
• The Tax Efficiency of Credit Card Rewards: Why rewards are rebates, and the exceptions that get a 1099
• Amex Platinum vs Chase Sapphire Reserve: Whether the Platinum’s fee pencils out at all
• Building Your Credit Card Points Strategy: When cash back beats transferable points entirely