Amex Offers: Do Electronic Wallets Trigger the Offer Credit?

A few readers asked recently about using an electronic wallet for Amex Offers.

Can I use Paypal or Visa Checkout when taking part in an Amex Offer? Will the Amex offer credit trigger properly?

What Works?

As per the terms on all Amex Offers: “in most cases, you will not receive the statement credit if your transaction is made with an electronic wallet or through a third party or if the merchant uses a mobile or wireless card reader to process it.”

What works in practice?

• Paypal usually will not work for AmEx Offers, though it seems to work for Chase Offers
• Visa Checkout has been working
• Amex Checkout has been working
• Masterpass should work as well
• Apple Pay in-store has been working
• Apple Pay in-app purchase has been working
• Android Pay in-store has been working
• Android Pay in-app purchase has been working
• Samsung Pay should work, YMMV
• Smart cards, such as Coin – unknown if they work with Amex Offers

Paypal

When paying with Paypal, the charge comes up differently and has Paypal in the transaction details. Since it’s coded differently, Paypal checkout will not trigger the offer credit.

Example of Paypal transaction

Note: multiple data points (in the comments here) indicate that Paypal payments worked for generic “insurance offers” from Amex. My best guess is that an Amex Offer which is for a general category is triggered by keywords and will work with Paypal, e.g. “insurance”, “bookstore”, “utilities”, or something of that sort.

While Amex Offers don’t usually work when you check out with Paypal, Chase Offers reportedly do work when using Paypal checkout, and I just experienced the same myself (12/1/23).

Also, other merchant-specific (i.e. Saks) AmEx credits could get triggered when checking out with Paypal. Same thing for the Amex business Platinum Dell credits.

Note: We once saw an Amex Offer for Best Buy getting triggered with Paypal payment. The comments show mixed reports: apparently Paypal does work on some offers but not on others. We have also heard a report of Chase Offers NOT working. So in the end, it seems to be offer dependent, with Chase Offers working most of the time and Amex Offers working some of the time.

Visa Checkout, Masterpass

Visa Checkout or Masterpass should both work to trigger the offer credit. The key here is that the charge appears on the statement exactly as if you paid directly on the site. These wallets merely facilitate the payment and don’t charge it themselves.

Visa Checkout has been confirmed multiple times that it works to trigger Amex Offer credits. Masterpass should work too as it comes up on the statement as a direct purchase.

Example of Visa Checkout transaction

Example of Masterpass transaction

Amex Checkout

With regards to Amex Checkout, it is clear on the statement that the charge was done through their checkout system.

Example of Amex Checkout transaction

But it’s been confirmed that this works to trigger Amex offers without a hitch. Either they specially enabled that feature or the ‘CHKOUT’ addition is just for tracking purposes and has the same internal coding.

Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay

• In the comments of this post, it’s been confirmed that Apple Pay is working. Another DP
• Another report confirms that Apple Pay in-app works as well.
• Android Pay is also working.
• Android Pay in-app works as well.
• Samsung Pay has worked too (1, 2, 3,), though others reported that it wasn’t working for them.
• Multiple data point report Samsung Pay working for Chase Offers as well.