Amex Membership Rewards Turbo 2026: When the 15 Euro Pays Off

The Membership Rewards Turbo is one of the few American Express add-ons where the maths almost always works. Almost. For 15 euros a year you earn 1.5 instead of 1 Membership Rewards point per euro, on the first 40,000 euros of annual spend. That sounds like a no-brainer, and for most cardholders it is. Whether it is for you depends on two numbers: how much you put on the card, and what a point is really worth to you.

The Turbo is a German Amex product. It applies to cards issued in Germany.

What the Turbo actually is

According to the American Express terms, it works like this:

• Fee: 15 euros per year, charged on the day you enrol and then automatically every year on that date.
• Earn rate: 1 extra point per 2 euros of spend. So 2 euros earn 3 points instead of 2.
• Cap: at most 20,000 extra points per 12 months. That equals 40,000 euros of spend. Anything above that earns the regular 1 point per euro.
• Who can get it: main cardholders of a personal or business card issued in Germany that takes part in Membership Rewards. The Gold, Platinum and Business Platinum all qualify.
• Supplementary cards: included automatically at no extra cost. A supplementary cardholder cannot activate the Turbo alone.
• Term and cancellation: 12 months, renewing automatically. You can cancel with one month's notice before the end of the term, in writing or by phone.

You activate it in your online card account under Rewards or Membership Rewards. The higher earn rate then applies automatically.

The maths: when 15 euros pays for itself

The Turbo adds half a point per euro. So the only question is how much you need to spend before those half points are worth 15 euros.

The answer depends entirely on the value of a point:

• At 1 cent per point (a cautious value for airline transfers): 3,000 euros of annual spend. Above that you are ahead.
• At 0.8 cents: 3,750 euros.
• At 0.5 cents (typical if you redeem for vouchers or statement credit): 6,000 euros.
• At 0.3 cents (weak redemption channels such as Payback): 10,000 euros.

Here is what typical spend levels look like at 1 cent per point:

• 10,000 euros of spend: 5,000 extra points, worth 50 euros. After the fee, 35 euros.
• 30,000 euros: 15,000 extra points, 150 euros of value, 135 euros net.
• 40,000 euros and above: the full 20,000 extra points, 200 euros of value, 185 euros net. That's the ceiling, however much more you spend.

If you redeem well and get 1.5 cents per point, the full Turbo is worth 300 euros, or 285 euros after the fee. That's the most it can return in a year.

When the Turbo is not worth it

There are three situations where the 15 euros is poorly spent:

You barely use the card. If you hold the Amex for lounges or insurance and pay with another card day to day, you won't reach the few thousand euros needed. With a card that is often not accepted in everyday shops, this is more common than it sounds.

You redeem points badly. If your points go to vouchers, Payback or your card bill, you need several times the spend before the Turbo pays off. Before collecting more points, it is worth looking at how to redeem them better. That lifts the value of every point, not only the extra ones.

You plan to cancel the card soon. Cancel before redeeming or transferring your points and you risk losing them. The rules are in our article on Membership Rewards points expiry. On top of that, the Turbo renews automatically. If you cancel the card, cancel the Turbo at the same time, otherwise the one-month notice period simply runs on.

Several cards: the Turbo is per card account

The official terms don't say it outright, which is why conflicting claims circulate. In practice it is clear: the Turbo belongs to the card account. If you hold, say, a Gold and a Platinum as two separate main cards, you activate the Turbo on each card account separately and pay the 15 euros twice.

That gives a simple rule: a second Turbo only makes sense if enough spend goes through the second card too. The threshold of roughly 3,000 euros a year at 1 cent per point applies to each card account on its own. If almost everything goes on the Platinum and the Gold sees little use, book the Turbo on the Platinum only.

Supplementary cards are not a separate card account. They hang off the main card, are included in the Turbo at no extra cost, and all their spend lands in the main card's points account. You should therefore assume the 20,000 extra points apply to the main and supplementary cards together, not to each card separately. A couple spending over 40,000 euros between them will hit the cap sooner than expected. What does and doesn't come with the Platinum supplementary card is covered in its own article.

When to activate it

The fee starts on the day you enrol, and the 12 months run from then. Two practical rules follow:

• Activate before big spending, not after. Extra points only apply to spend after activation. If you have a large booking or the minimum spend for a welcome bonus ahead of you, switch the Turbo on first.
• Note the date. The notice period ends one month before the anniversary of your enrolment. If you only want the Turbo for one high-spend year, put the date in your calendar.

What the Turbo means for the Platinum maths

When you ask whether the Amex Platinum is worth it, points are one of the few items with no strings attached: no partner merchant, no split credits, no expiry date to chase. The Turbo makes exactly that item bigger. At 30,000 euros of spend and 1 cent per point, it turns 300 euros of point value into 450 euros, for 15 euros extra.

The Amex Platinum calculator shows what that looks like with your own numbers. Enter your spend and your point value, and it shows what the Turbo would add even while it is switched off.

Verdict

The Turbo is the rare Amex option with small conditions and a clear payoff. From roughly 3,000 euros of annual spend and a point value around 1 cent it pays for itself; above that it is worth up to 185 euros a year, or up to 285 euros if you redeem well. It isn't worth it if you rarely pay with the card or give your points away for vouchers. And if you hold several main cards, remember that the Turbo is per card account, and so is the fee. It only pays on the cards that actually carry spend.