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How to maximise the ‘£50 American Express cashback with PayPal’ offer

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As we covered last week, American Express has launched a cashback deal with PayPal. It is effectively free money if you are targeted for the offer.

There seem to be two versions, one for personal cards and one for business cards.

On my Marriott Bonvoy American Express, I am offered £15 cashback on a £70 PayPal payment.

On my Business Platinum card I am offered £50 cashback on a £250 PayPal payment.

Both offers expire on 4th March. Registrations are limited so register now via your online Amex statement or the app if you are targetted.

Here are two things about the offer you may not know.

Cumulative spend counts

Despite the wording on the offer, it IS valid on cumulative spend.

I proved it myself. Here is a screenshot from my Marriott Bonvoy American Express showing £70 of spend across two transactions:

….. and here is the email Amex sent me after the 2nd one had gone through:

It works when you buy gift cards from PayPal’s gift card service

You may not know that PayPal has a dedicated website selling gift cards – you can find it here.

Look at my 2nd transaction above. You will see that it is from the gift card site.

I bought a £31 Netflix gift card, to tip me over £70. Netflix, if you pay for it, is a good choice here. You can add the credit very quickly via netflix.com, and it will automatically stop your direct debit or credit card payment whilst it works through the balance.

PayPal also sells Uber gift cards which is an easy option if you use that a lot. Apple App Store and Google Play cards are also available.

Netflix gift cards are emailed to you as codes so you don’t need to worry about anything going missing in the mail.

Hopefully these two tips will make it easier for you to trigger the cashback. You have until 4th March to do the £70 or £250 target spend.

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 Gold card, American Express Platinum card, Amex Rewards Credit Card, British Airways American Express, Marriott Bonvoy American Express

Comments (67)

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

  • BJ says:
    13 Jan13 January 05:45

    Hey Rob…check your email I sent you last night!

  • AJN says:
    13 Jan13 January 06:51

    Hi Rob,
    We have this offer on both main and supplementary cards, does this mean we’ve got £15 back on each card?

  • BuildBackBetter says:
    13 Jan13 January 06:57

    Typo in the title? “How the maximise”

  • mark2 says:
    13 Jan13 January 07:26

    There is another part of the PayPal website with a wider choice of gift cards.
    You can buy GiftChoice Digital Cards here https://www.paypal.com/uk/gifts/brands/giftchoice. They only come in £25 denominations, but you can buy three at a time and they arrive by email in a few minutes. You get a code e.g. EP9TXFMB46M9YJ which you then redeem at https://www.giftchoice.co.uk/RedeemGiftChoice/Index to get a digital e-card by email.
    The available redemptions include John Lewis, Sainsbury’s (online and instore although it says instore only), most mobile phones, many restaurant chains etc.

    • Andrew says:
      13 Jan13 January 08:46

      Of course most of those retailers take PayPal, so probably easier to just use PayPal directly with them?

    • Guernsey Globetrotter says:
      13 Jan13 January 13:29

      A word of warning for any considering buying the a Netflix voucher to top-up their account – these cannot be applied where your subscription is collected via iTunes. You can only apply a voucher by closing your account and opening a new one. I imagine doing this will end my grandfathered £5.99 p/m rate for standard HD service and increase it to the normal £9.99 subscription. Thus the £15 saving via Amex will be wiped out in less than 4 months by the increased fee and thereafter I’d be out of pocket… Annoying as I’ve already bought a £70 voucher and I now need to figure out if I can get a refund on it… otherwise it’s a gift to someone I guess !

  • Lilly says:
    13 Jan13 January 07:49

    Thanks Rob, only got the £15 offer, and I wouldnt have spotted it as its on the card I use least!

  • Andrew says:
    13 Jan13 January 08:39

    It’s a shame platinums here didn’t get the $30 a month on Paypal (no minimum spend) for the next 6 months like in the US. Their benefits are laughably better and only $550 annual fee.

    • Rhys says:
      13 Jan13 January 08:52

      Amex also charges 1.75% – 3.15% interchange fees to merchants which eventually get passed on to the consumer. In the UK they’re capped at 0.3%!

      • Andrew says:
        13 Jan13 January 09:09

        Bring back high interchange fees I say!

      • WillPS says:
        13 Jan13 January 09:46

        I thought that didn’t apply to Charge Cards (which the Platinum is), and even for Credit Cards only applies where the card is co-branded (which the Platinum isn’t)?

        • WillPS says:
          13 Jan13 January 09:46

          Amex Credit Cards, that is.

        • Super Secret Stuff says:
          13 Jan13 January 10:27

          Every Amex is excluded from the interchange fee cap. But they have to remain competitive which the charges. So market forces mean they can’t charge UK merchants as much as they do with US merchants.

          Further, where is the incentive for them to give you more benefits? There is very little competition. Particularly as the costs of setting up a competitor to Amex with Visa and MasterCard so widely accepted, wouldn’t offer a great return on investment. (Amex can charge what they like because they are the bank, interchange and processor all in one).

          That said Visa and MasterCard could easily take Amex on if they felt inclined too.

          • Nick says:
            13 Jan13 January 11:15

            Higher interchange costs are passed on to everyone in the form of higher prices. Some of us are able to get a benefit back in points but huge sections of society can’t do this. For those shouting ‘bring back high interchange’, think about what you’re saying… ‘screw the poor, I want points’. It’s almost Marie Antoinette levels of uncaring. Thankfully some of us have a moral compass!

          • Doug M says:
            13 Jan13 January 12:43

            Nick exactly right. I think Andrew was joking.

      • Nate1309 says:
        13 Jan13 January 19:33

        I thought the platinum card was one of the few cards not to incur the 0.3% limit as it is not a co-brand?

  • Alan says:
    13 Jan13 January 08:43

    Still no sign of it on my Plat – just 50-odd useless offers as usual!

  • Nglen says:
    13 Jan13 January 09:10

    Does this work on money sent to other individuals or just retailers?

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