How to boost your Amex spend by using PayPal for online purchases – like BA First Class crockery

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If you tried to buy some British Airways First Class crockery in the sale this week (which is still running – BA has now restocked), you will have noticed that Whatabuy, the sale site, does not take American Express.

Here is the checkout page:

You will that there is no American Express logo. However, this doesn’t mean that you cannot use an Amex card.

Go back a stage on Whatabuy and you see this:

Whatabuy accepts PayPal.

And PayPal DOES let you use American Express.

You do not even need a PayPal account to pay with PayPal – you can click on the ‘Pay with PayPal’ link and enter your card details directly. That said, it makes sense to open an account and link your American Express card as you do not need to remember your card details when paying.

Next time you pay a retailer who does not accept Amex but does take PayPal, click through to PayPal instead.

There are no extra fees for using PayPal with retailers.

Note that some retailers manage to block PayPal from showing the American Express option if they do not accept Amex themselves so this is not always a solution. In the majority of cases, as with Whatabuy, it will work just fine.

The only thing worth noting is that you lose some of your consumer protection if the retailer goes bust if you pay with PayPal. This is because you do not have a direct contract with the retailer. PayPal does have its own reimbursement scheme called PayPal Buyer Protection which may cover you but it is not legally enshrined.

Get £10 for opening a free PayPal account

PayPal is currently offering you £10 if you open a PayPal account.

You need referring, so drop us an email at hello at headforpoints.com. We will send you 1p by PayPal to the email address you supply.

To claim your 1p, you need to follow the link in the email you will receive to open a PayPal account.

When you make your first PayPal payment of £5 or more before the year-end, you will receive £10 in your PayPal account. Whichever member of the HfP team ends up referring you will also get £10, although it is capped at £50 so we’re not getting rich here! The offer ends on 31st December.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 2021 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit or charge card, here are our November 2021 recommendations based on the current sign-up bonus.

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the top current deals:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee 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.

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and a long list of travel benefits Read our full review

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

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company 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 Credit Card

1% cashback and no annual fee Read our full review

Category

General

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

James. says:

28 Nov28 November 09:41

Have had a sour relationship with PayPal and will never use them again.

Used it for various eBay purchases, selling, matched betting, online shopping.

After 18 years of use and probably pumping £100,000s though the platform they closed my account. Trying to talk to someone about why they closed my account was only faced with dead end bot responses.
- John says:
  
  28 Nov28 November 10:20
  
  I thought they didn’t like anything that could be construed as gambling
  
  I close and open a new account every few months
sayling says:

28 Nov28 November 10:22

A free penny from HfP, you say… 🤔

😂
Jonathan says:

28 Nov28 November 10:43

Be careful buying anything from overseas on PayPal either. They enforce their own currency conversion at terrible rates (5-10% below spot) & there is no longer a way to opt out. Curve etc. won’t help either.

I’m amazed they’re allowed to get away with this as it’s so blatantly exploitative but fits with the direction of travel over issues such as buyer “protection”. Definitely a company that needs reigning in or avoiding unless you’re exploiting one of the few loopholes left.
- Alex W says:
  
  28 Nov28 November 10:50
  
  Is that new? Tried it couple of months ago and managed to opt out. It was quite difficult to find the option I recall.
- BuildTheWall says:
  
  28 Nov28 November 13:09
  
  You can choose to avoid it on desktop version. The choice is not available on mobile version.
  - Lady London says:
    
    28 Nov28 November 14:54
    
    try clicking ‘Desktop version’ in Chrome settingaa on mobile if this happens and reload if it doesn’t automatically
- Lady London says:
  
  28 Nov28 November 14:52
  
  they cant force their rate legally I believe, though they do keep hiding the right to opt out in different places.
  
  If you want the true ‘Manila’ experience then just let Paypal think you’ve made minor transgression. Dealing with Manila will mostly take years off your life unless you’re very lucky.
PM says:

28 Nov28 November 10:47

Not directly related to this offer but do not forget about the new inactivity penalty charge from paypal coming into force from 15/12/20.

I echo the same sentiments about very poor customer support from paypal, painfully long times to resolve complaints, zero personalisation, dealing mostly with bots or random representatives assigned ad hoc to a case unaware or only vaguely aware of previous correspondence.

The wasted time and stress of dealing with paypal is worth much more than £10 but I guess some will want to test it themselves.
- The real John says:
  
  29 Nov29 November 17:36
  
  Just don’t keep a balance in paypal, they won’t put accounts into negative with the inactivity charge. Preferably close your account if you don’t foresee yourself using it in the next month – it’s easy to open again if you need to
Lady London says:

28 Nov28 November 14:48

I know everyone here’s going to laugh at me for asking this but is there any reason not to have a second Paypal account?
- Bagoly says:
  
  28 Nov28 November 15:57
  
  In the days when one could only have one credit card on an account, I had one per relevant credit card.
  Now I just have one for GBP and one for EUR – that way I don’t need to find the exchange rate workaround when buying an item priced in EUR.
- memesweeper says:
  
  29 Nov29 November 11:46
  
  I have one personal and one for my business
Josh Davies says:

28 Nov28 November 18:02

An interesting opportunity you may not know about is PayPal Giving Fund. If you are feeling charitable you can donate to PayPal Giving Fund and ask them to forward it to your prefered charity (e.g. Cancer Research UK). No fees using AMEX. Charity gets 100% of your donation and you can add gift aid and get a tax receipt. Tis the season of good will after all!
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  28 Nov28 November 18:27
  
  Thanks I’ll give that a go next time. I’m donating to my usual causes.
Trent says:

28 Nov28 November 21:38

PayPal does resolve Chinese order disputes for merchandise ordered online. It was about a month but I received a refund to my account with very little contact with PayPal. They’re my preferred way to purchase online for