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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

18,000 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.

  • Heran says:
    13 Jan13 January 09:28

    Does it work if using it to pay another PayPal account directly (fee applied)?

  • Optimus Prime says:
    13 Jan13 January 09:34

    Does anyone know of a reputable site where you can buy Amazon gift cards with Paypal? I found this one – https://dundle.com/gb/amazon/ – but never heard of it before.

    • mark2 says:
      13 Jan13 January 10:02

      I tried it. The codes have credited to Amazon, There was a charge of £2.70 to buy £70.
      BUT payment seems to have been taken in EUR so may not count for statement credit.

    • Sandgrounder says:
      13 Jan13 January 11:48

      Dundle.com also offer MasterCard gift cards. I was tempted but then I remembered I owed my wife 70 and went her that on PayPal. But then she remembered, after having withdrawn the funds, I had already paid her and sent it back again. Which was convenient.

      • Doug M says:
        13 Jan13 January 12:44

        That I wouldn’t have done. Small amounts in the scale of things but the to and fro looks suspicious.

        • Sandgrounder says:
          13 Jan13 January 13:15

          The notes were very clear 🙂 70 isn’t going to trigger a review. I don’t advise anyone to try to use PayPal for MS, they are very aggressive in tackling it. Small amounts sent and then refunded aren’t going to ever see the light of day.

    • Julian says:
      13 Jan13 January 12:51

      16% 1 Star reviews for Dundle at http://www.trustpilot.com/review/dundle.com?stars=1

      i know nothing whatsoever about them myself.

      • mark2 says:
        13 Jan13 January 13:26

        I just used them perfectly satisfactorily except that they charged in EUR so not £15 back, which defeated the object when that was the only reason for the purchase. But the only way to learn is to make mistakes.
        I ignore TrustPilot.

  • NigelthePensioner says:
    13 Jan13 January 10:23

    Regrettably my two cards that are linked to PayPal are both AmEx cards, so I guess there was no reason for AmEx to target me with these offers!

    • BuildBackBetter says:
      13 Jan13 January 11:48

      That could be the reason why I didn’t get the offer!

    • Julian says:
      13 Jan13 January 12:49

      Good point as also only have Amex set up as an Amazon payment source here having deleted expired Visa and Mastercards some time ago.

    • mr_jetlag says:
      13 Jan13 January 13:48

      All our Amexes are linked to Paypal but we got the offer on ARCC and wife’s BAPP.

  • Andrew says:
    13 Jan13 January 10:35

    Amex offers seem a bit thin on the ground at the moment – nothing new this week really and normally Monday is a good day for them.

    • Nick says:
      13 Jan13 January 11:17

      Same here, last two weeks have been terrible. I suspect it’s to do with lockdown and market uncertainty… the companies that would typically have high marketing budgets in January aren’t spending this time round.

  • Julian says:
    13 Jan13 January 12:45

    46 offers available on my Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card this morning but none involving Paypal.

    So shortage of spending offers from Amex not a problem in my case. Simply not one there for PayPal but only for the usual purveyors in the main of high priced tat (most of whom will of course only be purchasable from online at present and not in their shops) plus the odd expensive hotel chain.

    Anyway you are reminding me to spend the £10 I earned from Curve by buying £100 of Amazon Gift cards just before Christmas before I forget all about it and find my account possibly closed when my current Curve Blue (but coloured black) Legacy Mastercard expires at the end of April 2021….

    • Andrew says:
      13 Jan13 January 13:35

      Yes when I say I have a shortage of offers – I mean a shortage of anything remotely interesting – I’ve got c50 offers, none of them of any use.

  • The Savage Squirrel says:
    13 Jan13 January 13:02

    You’re still down with the kids, Rob, buying your clothes from Shein 😉

    • Rob says:
      13 Jan13 January 14:29

      You would be shocked how much stuff you get for £30 for Shein. I am too scared to look at the labels to see where it’s made.

      • Bagoly says:
        13 Jan13 January 17:58

        As a very slight salve to your conscience, it’s not Bangladesh.
        And given the location, it is perhaps easier that a good proportion of the clothes seem to be polyester rather than cotton!

    • mr_jetlag says:
      13 Jan13 January 16:48

      That entire website looks like a party from Philip Green’s yacht 🙂

  • mr_jetlag says:
    13 Jan13 January 13:46

    Thanks for the tip re. cumulative spend, was buying some cheap chinese kit off Ebay and remembered I had Paypal’ed a Pizza delivery last weekend. Offer triggered on my ARCC. Not keen on the gift cards route.

  • Matty says:
    13 Jan13 January 14:44

    I’ve sent 2 x £70 payments to my partner, which she has withdrawn. She has sent me 2 x £70 payments, which I have withdrawn. I’ll report back if there are any issues.

    • xcalx says:
      13 Jan13 January 15:02

      I sent £75 to mrs xcalx’s paypal account on the first day of the offer. No £15 back as yet.

      • Lee says:
        13 Jan13 January 16:54

        Same for me, no credit yet after 6 days though received email right after

        • Matty says:
          13 Jan13 January 18:00

          Good point. Hadn’t thought to check that. Nothing showing after 5 days. Received 3 emails immediately afterwards.

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