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Does Aldi in the UK now take American Express cards?

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It looks like Aldi is starting to target American Express cardholders.  There have been rumours about the discount supermarket starting to accept Amex but as we couldn’t find anything online, I got on the tube.

As a picture sent to me by a reader showed, Aldi is promoting contactless payment with Amex but the Amex icon has been covered with black ink for now.

The cashier told me that Amex should be accepted from February, but she couldn’t confirm a date.  (I had to use my Mastercard to pay for the German bratwurst).  Others have been told that 1st February is the launch.


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Comments (99)

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  • Genghis says:

    M&S is no longer in Curve rewards as of a couple of months ago.

  • Lewis King says:

    I’ve got a banner at the top of AMEX promoting the Aldi news.

    • Alan says:

      Yep, same here. I guess that’s confirmed then.

      • RussellH says:

        Just paid for two bags of shopping with Amex at Aldi, so yes, I can also confirm that it works. I shop there regularly, not least because the cats insist on Aldi – they will not touch Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Tesco, Lidl or Asda. But also because I like Aldi, though they have dropped a lot of the European stuff that they used to have. But, as Rob mentioned, their Thüringer Bratwürste are still good.

        • Lewis King says:

          I much prefer Lidl, and have a Tesco Clubcard credit card that is used almost exclusively there. Let’s hope they follow and add Amex, it’s a big chunk of my spend!

    • JamesB says:

      Probably an amex offer coming soon as tgey have a track record of media offers.

  • Doug M says:

    One thing I find slightly annoying with Amex is Android pay, and contactless. Often places that say they take Amex and Android pay reject payment. Try the actual card contactless and it may work, if not do a full chip and pin and it almost always does. Sort of defeats the so called convenience of Android pay and contactless. Is this retailers, Android, Amex, my card or something else. It’s almost always smaller retailers like pubs. Never a problem in Pret, supermarkets, Eat etc.

    • RussellH says:

      AFAIK, when contactless works with Visa/M’card, but not Amex, but Amex does work on chip+PIN, it is simply because the retailer has not realised that they have to configure their terminals separately for contactless Amex, as well as contactless Visa/M’Card.

      Wilko for one I always have to use Chip+PIN.

      I would guess that the same may apply to pay-by-phone, but since I do not have that sort of phone, that one is not a problem for me.

      • Mzungu says:

        Amex contactless always failed in my local Cafe Nero, but Chip & Pin was OK. Today I was told that they have new terminals that now take Amex contactless – and it worked! Maybe they are just configured properly as you suggest.

  • Cate says:

    OTish, I’ve just logged on to Amex and found this statement on the The Preferred Rewards Gold Card card:

    ‘Choose a return flight from London to one of over 100 destinations using your bonus Membership Rewards® points when you spend £2,000 in your first three months’

    Is this new?

  • Cate says:

    Thanks Rob 🙂

  • Ade says:

    Haven’t see it mentioned, and as I recall someone asking a couple of weeks ago

    Heathrow rewards have relaunched the 3k bonus points for £150 spend for 2018

    My pet dog is looking forward to buying some gift cards.

    • Anna says:

      Is that even if you used the offer last year?

    • Liz says:

      Where did you see the offer – I asked a couple of weeks ago

      • Liz says:

        Found it on Avios site.

      • Rob says:

        It just reappeared. Look on avios.com. We had an article on it for today but it got pushed back, and has now been pushed back from tomorrow due to the Nectar story.

    • RussellH says:

      Does your dog need its own Avios a/c?

      • Liz says:

        Just applied again.

      • Ade says:

        Slightly related
        I have a ‘spare’ avios account, that i’ve accumulated approx 5k avios (genuine error, not a pet), how do I go about utilising this (adding them to our BA family stock pile),
        We have a BA family account ( comprising 3 members, 2 adults and 1 child)
        Each adult has their own avios account, linked to their respective BA account.
        The avios accounts are not not part of any family account.
        I also have one Iberia (linked to both the BA and avios account)
        and then this spare avios account, What is the process to absorb it into the fold?
        Thanks in advance

        • mark2 says:

          probably easiest to just transfer the points to your BAEC account. That is what I do with my ‘spare’ Avios account which is useful sometimes.

          • Rob says:

            4500 is a one way eco redemption to many places, could use them that way.

      • JamesB says:

        @Russell, I cannot speak for anybodies dogs, but your nanny might benefit from her own account!

        • Axel says:

          I think your Nanny needs to be over 18 to sign up. This discounts most Nannys in Europe.l!

          Easier to be 18 in Dog years

  • charlesrhona says:

    Amex website advises that Aldi now accept Amex Cards.

  • Jason Hindle says:

    I hope the Aldi news is true, but Googling for it reveals nothing, and the Amex UK web site isn’t terribly usable. Aldi is one of the few remaining places I go that don’t take Amex.

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