The PayPal / American Express cashback deal definitely works with PayPal’s gift card shop

A couple of weeks ago, American Express launched a new cashback deal with PayPal which is well worth a look.

This is an offer which triggers when you pay for anything, on any website (in theory £ payments only), via PayPal.

With the offer available across supplementary cards too, the sums add up. Looking at my wife and I, we have a potential of £340 cashback available which we still have three months to trigger.

I am determined to get every last penny of the £340!

Our £340 of potential cashback is made up of:

• My Platinum: Spend £70, get £15 back (valid three times)

• My Marriott Bonvoy Amex: Spend £70, get £15 back (valid three times)

• My Business Platinum: Spend £300, get £60 back (valid once)

• My British Airways Premium Plus: Spend £100, get £20 back (valid once)

• My wife’s Gold: Spend £100, get £20 back (valid once)

• My wife’s British Airways Premium Plus: Spend £70, get £15 back (valid three times)

• My wife’s supplementary Platinum: Spend £70, get £15 back (valid three times)

• My wife’s supplementary Business Gold: Spend £300, get £60 back (valid once)

It is worth noting that, after our original article, Amex widened out the offer to more cards. If you checked when we first wrote about this and didn’t see it, you may want to check again.

All PayPal offers end on 31st October.

Cumulative spending counts

Whilst this wasn’t surprising, I can confirm from my own spending to date that cumulative spending counts.

However, the only time I received an email from American Express about triggering the cashback was when I hit a threshold in one purchase. For the others I have triggered so far, the money turned up after a couple of days despite receiving no email.

PayPal sells gift cards and they count for cashback

Not a lot of people know that PayPal sells gift cards for various retailers – see here.

I did some test transactions and they worked – the cashback was triggered.

These were done with Uber gift cards, which can be used across rideshare and Uber Eats.

If you have Netflix, you can buy a Netflix gift card and credit it to your account – your monthly direct debit is automatically suspended until the value of the gift card is used up.

I would image that Spotify gift cards work in the same way. The Spotify offer is more attractive than it looks. The 12-month Spotify Premium gift cards gets you 12 months for the price of 10, so you save £20 immediately and then get Amex cashback on top. Do note that Spotify gift cards are only valid for individual subscriptions and not family ones.

Airbnb gift cards are also available.

Other routes for triggering the cashback

There is an active thread on this offer in the Head for Points forum – click here.

You will find other recommendations there, including a gift card website which sells Amazon vouchers. I don’t want to publicly recommend sites which I haven’t tried myself but you will find details in the forum if you want to give it a go.

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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:

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.

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.

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.