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Generous 40% or £100 cashback deal launched by American Express and FREE NOW / mytaxi

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Of all the pointless rebrands I’ve seen recently, the clear winner is FREE NOW.  For some reason, the mytaxi black cab app – owned by BMW and Daimler – decided that being called mytaxi was clearly too obvious and easy to remember, so switched to FREE NOW …..

I know this is now a pan-European brand, but I’m not sure that FREE NOW necessarily works better in multiple European languages than mytaxi.  I didn’t even have a problem with Hailo, the original UK name.

It looks like the bodged rebrand has an upside, however.  In an attempt to win your business from taxi apps with more sensible names, FREE NOW is offering many Amex customers either 40% cashback on all rides OR £100 for taking 10 rides until 14th December.

FREE NOW 40% american express discount

You need to see if either of these offers is showing on the ‘Offers’ tab of your online statement page, and save it to your card.

I have both versions.  My Platinum card has ‘40% cashback on an unlimited number of rides’ and my British Airways Premium Plus card has ‘£100 back when you take 10 rides’.  The latter is better for us as we do a lot of £10 – the minimum fare – rides to school and back.

With two months to take advantage, this could work out very nicely indeed.  It could even swing regular Uber X users over to black cabs.

If you don’t already have a FREE NOW account, using Rhys’ promo code of ‘rhys.jon’ after downloading the app will earn you £5 credit.

PS.  If you missed it, take a look at our recent article on the 10 best reasons to get the free American Express Preferred Rewards Gold credit card.

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

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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:

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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

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Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

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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:

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British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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American Express Business Platinum

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American Express Business Gold

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Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

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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.

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

Category

American Express Gold card, American Express Platinum card, British Airways American Express, Marriott Bonvoy American Express

Comments (108)

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

  • Paul says:
    9 Oct9 October 05:49

    No changes to First on the 777-200ERs.
    Been confirmed on BA Yammer and a video of the new interiors confirms it

  • Anna says:
    9 Oct9 October 06:04

    OT – I have BAEC and Iberia accounts – remind me how I transfer avios from Iberia to BAEC these days?!

    • Genghis says:
      9 Oct9 October 06:39

      Avios.com (AerClub).

      • Anna says:
        9 Oct9 October 07:46

        So do I have to open an AerClub account – is there then a function to transfer from Iberia then out to BAEC?

        • BJ says:
          9 Oct9 October 07:50

          Yes, open AerClub then just use the combine my avios function within it . Pull into avios from IB and the push out of avios to BA for best results.

    • BJ says:
      9 Oct9 October 07:48

      IB-avios.com-BA, or just call BA CS.

    • Anna says:
      9 Oct9 October 09:35

      Thanks all!

    • RussellH says:
      9 Oct9 October 15:00

      For me, IB to/from BA has always worked. BA to/from Avios is the one that does not work. It used to, when I had an avios a/c, but now that it is just AerClub, it stopped working.
      Nothing changed with log-ins or passwords. Different LHS of the e-mail addresses, same domain for the RHS.

      • Tom says:
        10 Oct10 October 10:01

        I have aerclub/ba and IB and have never experienced any issues combining avios between any of my accounts. Then again all of my account details between the 3 programmes match, which is where a lot of people seem to fall over.

  • Nick says:
    9 Oct9 October 06:41

    I have used the FREE NOW app before, but paid in cash. I entered my Amex CC number this morning as another payment method in order to get the 40% discount and I received automatically a £10 promo credit for “First in-app payment” valid until 1st January 2099.

    • Nick says:
      9 Oct9 October 06:48

      PS This £10 promo MAY have been related to an earlier use of the app. TBH I don’t remenber, as it was several months ago, so please don’t take it as read.

    • Mike says:
      9 Oct9 October 07:32

      “valid until 1st January 2099” – should give me enough time to get round to using it

  • Holger Sell says:
    9 Oct9 October 07:40

    With all the competition with Uber, Kapten, Bolt etc FreeNow will have a hard time to compete. Will still see how the price compares with the 40% but usual BlackCabs are just too expensive for me.

    • Nick says:
      9 Oct9 October 08:17

      …and have to be some of the most uncomfortable taxi’s in the world! They’re real boneshakers, with no lumbar suppport in the awful seats, and with the growing number of speed humps in London they’re just a pain! Frankly, whether 40% discount is even worth substituting for a comfortable front seat in the likes of a Prius I don’t know?

    • SimonW says:
      9 Oct9 October 10:47

      FreeNow doesn’t give you an estimated cost when you book. So you are at the mercy of the driver. Though at least now he will have to pay tax on his earnings….

      • Crafty says:
        9 Oct9 October 23:49

        Depends where you are… was fixed price last week when I was in Poland, and averaged 30-50% cheaper than Uber. However, driver availability was less.

  • Ian M says:
    9 Oct9 October 07:41

    OT – Concorde Room at JFK.

    Said I’d post to let people know if I got in last night. They accepted my LHR-DME boarding pass and didn’t even look at my pass for departing JFK. They said they could only scan a pass departing from JFK so to just walk in.

  • TripRep says:
    9 Oct9 October 08:23

    Any idea how much a normal FREE NOW ride from LHR–> LGW would be?

    • Rob says:
      9 Oct9 October 08:52

      Gatwick is outside the metered zone so the driver can charge what the heck he/she likes, can’t they?

      • TripRep says:
        9 Oct9 October 10:02

        Seemed a very London centric answer, ie assuming too much.

        My question was to seek useful information from regular users, never had experience of the service before or where the metered zone is

        • EvilDoctorK says:
          9 Oct9 October 10:57

          According to https://www.taxi-calculator.com/taxi-fare-estimation you’re looking at ( if they used the meter ) about £150 … I guess that sounds about right- though as noted Gatwick is outside the taxi area so they can charge whatever they like .. no way I’d consider that option for getting between the airports, even with 40% rebate … if you want a car go with Uber or some prebooked minicab service will cost half or less .. otherwise take the bus

          • Paul says:
            9 Oct9 October 15:21

            Thanks! This is really useful. Having used mytaxi before, from Woking to LHR – it came out at around £40, so circa £10 more expensive than an uber (and to the earlier point – outside the M25).

            I messaged free now via twitter to get some approximate pricing last night – no response as yet!

          • Paul says:
            9 Oct9 October 20:08

            Free Taxi came back on Twitter
            £150 from Woking to Gatwick. It’s £60 via Uber / local taxis

            Glad I checked!

    • Bob says:
      9 Oct9 October 15:33

      Fyi , for airport to airport , i find kabbee very competitive.

    • TripRep says:
      9 Oct9 October 17:12

      Appreciate the useful constructive answers. Cheers.

  • Mij says:
    9 Oct9 October 08:26

    Does anyone free if the booking in advance for the FREE NOW will give you an estimate. I went as far as putting in my details of the journey but didn’t press the final button to book it in case it charges me to cancel.

    • Lumma says:
      9 Oct9 October 14:43

      Yes you can. You can also select to pay cash. We used it to book taxis for customers at a restaurant I worked at. It’s £10 minimum fare. Sometimes the cab drivers would cancel the job for cash fares

  • Shoestring says:
    9 Oct9 October 08:51

    That’s £360 more per year than my Avro Simple & Supersave tariff (you won’t have seen this tariff on most comparison tools but the citizen’s advice tool includes it). Based on £600/ year each for gas & elec. So even with the £220 discount, I’m out 🙂

    • Shoestring says:
      9 Oct9 October 08:54

      What you can do is bank your £220 discount then switch to Bulb – they pay any exit fees – then switch to another provider if you wish though Bulb are quite competitive.

    • xcalx says:
      9 Oct9 October 08:58

      Like the CA tool. Just tried mine EDF1yr fix sept 20 v2 … Avro £61 cheaper and outfox £136 cheaper. I have £70 exit fee +£25 switch, so will leave it for now.

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