Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

1,000 quick free Amex Membership Rewards points for iPad / iPhone users

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American Express has teamed up with Venmo, a new secure online payments service which – with shades of Paypal – allows you to pay for transactions online without having to input your card details.

If you didn’t get the email from Amex, this is how it works:

You need to download one of the following apps from the App Store: YPlan, Hotel Tonight, livingsocial, Drivr, Bizzby

Open the app, log in (create an account if you don’t have one) and go to Settings

On the page where you store your credit card details, there will be a box marked ‘Send to Venmo’ which should be ticked if it is not automatically ticked

Add details of your Amex Platinum, Amex Gold or Amex Green and save

That’s it! You can then delete the app from your iPhone or iPad.

I tried it with YPlan and it worked fine – simply click the ‘equals sign’ logo in the bottom left to go to Settings and then go into the credit card pages.

What is not clear is if you can register supplementary cards as well. I have, just in case I get a double bonus.

You have until 14th November to register your card, so there is still time to do this if you were planning to apply for an Amex Gold (review) or Amex Plat (review) but have yet to do so. Think of it as an extra 1,000 points sign-up bonus!

Note that points can take 8 weeks to hit your Membership Rewards account.

This offer is not available for Android devices …. don’t ask my why.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

1% cashback uncapped* on all your business spending (T&C apply) Read our full review

Category

American Express Membership Rewards

Comments (53)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Pszczolka says:
    4 Oct4 October 10:31

    Can confirm it doesn’t work on Windows phones – no option given to ‘Send to Venmo’ – I know it was stated in the article that it’s only for iPad/iPhone but thought I might save anyone else the trouble of checking!

  • Jonny says:
    4 Oct4 October 11:26

    Just received the email from Amex – not mention of 1000 MR’s though!

  • Alan says:
    4 Oct4 October 11:46

    PS – have just secure messaged Amex to complain about an iOS-only offer, given Android is a much bigger platform!

    • Nick says:
      4 Oct4 October 12:31

      Fair play. I might do the same.

    • Neil says:
      4 Oct4 October 18:37

      Yes lets complain about only offering bonuses for purchasing in specific shops too. After all, I want bonus points on all of my spending…

    • Alan says:
      4 Oct4 October 22:02

      Excellent quick reply – will pass on feedback to technology/management team and 1k points credited.

      @Neil – this is different though – it’s more like offering a bonus at John Lewis but only their London stores. Oh wait a minute, that actually sounds like something Amex would do… 😉

      • Simon says:
        4 Oct4 October 22:33

        Always worth getting in contact with AMEX if you aren’t happy I’ve found their customer service to nearly always be excellent, with the small shop promo last year I got quite a few £5 credits for shops that didn’t take AMEX that were on the list … it ended up that I wanted the shop I went into not to take AMEX!

      • Geoff Richards says:
        8 Oct8 October 19:05

        I got a similar reply WITHOUT the offer of 1k points as compensation. 🙁

        “Currently our Marketing Team has no plan to extend this offer for Android users.”

  • Stewie says:
    4 Oct4 October 12:35

    Is no-one else worried about giving all their amex details (including exp date AND security number) to a random website, for 1000MR? Seems to be asking for trouble down the line….

  • Donnie Law says:
    4 Oct4 October 13:32

    I’m assuming this works in the US as well?

  • AndyGWP says:
    4 Oct4 October 18:21

    Given it a go, though I’m a supplementary card holder so hopefully it applies to them (I have not registered the wife who is the main cardholder)

    Don’t mind the 1000 MR going to her account, just hope it still counts! 🙂

  • Andrew says:
    4 Oct4 October 19:59

    Have given it a go on both my Plat card. Hopefully it will work – would make up for the fact that my Achica order was cancelled….even though I had used a Plat card!

  • AM says:
    5 Oct5 October 16:57

    pls let us know if it works with supplementary cards! would be so cool!

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