PayPal FAQs

About the Program

American Express and PayPal are allowing Card Members enrolled in the U.S. Membership Rewards® program to use points for purchases through PayPal.

Eligibility

To participate, you must have a valid U.S. Membership Rewards enrolled American Express® Consumer Card and/or a Business Card from American Express OPEN or American Express® Corporate Card, and you must be authorized to use points. Click here to view eligible Cards.

If the Card is eligible for and enrolled in the Membership Rewards program, the Basic Card Member is authorized to earn and use Membership Rewards points through PayPal. Basic Card Members can also earn points through their Additional Card Members’ spending, but Additional Card Members won’t be able to use points unless the Basic Card Member enables them to do so.

If you’re an Additional Card Member and the Basic Card Member enables you to use points, you can use points through PayPal. To find out if you are authorized to use points, please check with your Basic Card Member. If your Card was recently enabled to use points, it may take a few days before you are able to use points through PayPal. If you’re enrolled in the Corporate Membership Rewards® program and have permissions as a Program Administrator, you’re eligible to redeem points on behalf of your company. If you have any questions on this, please call Customer Care at 1-888-800-8564 or visit corporatemembershiprewards.com.

If your Card was recently enabled to use points, it may take a few days before you’re able to use points through PayPal.

I am the Basic Card Member and would like to change the authorization status of my Additional Card Member(s) to use Membership Rewards points. How do I do that?

Please visit the Card Authorization section on membershiprewards.com to edit your settings or call Membership Rewards program Customer Care at 1-800-297-3276.

If you’re enrolled in the Corporate Membership Rewards program and aren’t sure if you have permissions to redeem, please call Customer Care at 1-888-800-8564.

Using Points for Purchases

To use points through PayPal, you must first sign in or create your PayPal account. Please know that this action must be taken prior to making a purchase in order to use Membership Rewards points. Once you’re signed in, you can link your eligible Card to your PayPal account. Once you’ve linked your eligible Card to your PayPal account, your Card will appear in your PayPal wallet. Any eligible Card that is already in your PayPal wallet is already linked.

After you have linked your eligible Card, you can view the point balance and its associated dollar value for use on PayPal. At checkout, select the Membership Rewards option and enter the dollar amount you would like applied to your purchase. You may edit your selection before completing your purchase.

New PayPal Account

After you create a new account at PayPal and link your eligible Card, you’ll automatically be shown the available point balance and its associated dollar value for use through PayPal. During checkout, check the “Use Membership Rewards® points for a statement credit” box, confirm the dollar amount of the statement credit you’d like to receive, and then finalize your purchase order.

Existing PayPal Account

While checking out using your existing PayPal account with your existing eligible Card on file, you’ll automatically be shown the available point balance and its associated dollar value for use through PayPal. During checkout, check the “Use Membership Rewards® points for a statement credit” box, confirm the dollar amount of the statement credit you’d like to receive, and then finalize your purchase order.

If you decide that you no longer want to be presented with the option to use points for your purchase, please refer to the FAQ below, “I would no longer like to be presented with the option to use Membership Rewards points through PayPal. How can I remove that option for my purchase? If I change my mind and I want to use points in the future, can I do that?”

You'll only be given the option to use Membership Rewards points if:

You’re using an eligible American Express Card with an account that isn’t cancelled, isn’t past due, and for which you haven’t made any dishonored payments in the past 6 months;

You’re the Basic Card Member or authorized by the Basic Card Member to use points; and

You have at least two points in your Membership Rewards program account.

With respect to Corporate Membership Rewards points, you're a Corporate Membership Rewards Program Administrator.

You have the flexibility to use as many or as few points as you like. During the checkout process, you’ll see the available point balance and its associated dollar value to use toward your purchase. You can choose to use points for your entire purchase (providing you have enough) or for only part of your purchase – it’s up to you!

In certain cases, your Card account will not be charged until your order is delivered. If this happens and you no longer have the amount of points you had initially elected to use, the following will happen:

Your Card account will be charged for the purchase.

The available points will be deducted from your Membership Rewards account.

A corresponding credit for the deducted points will be applied to your Card account.

Any difference between the charge amount and the credit applied will remain on your Card account.

If you cancel your purchase and had used points toward that purchase, PayPal will refund the corresponding dollar amount of the purchase to the American Express Card account you used. Please allow 2 to 4 business days for the refund to post to your online statement.

If you’d like to have the Membership Rewards points you used returned to your Membership Rewards program account instead, please contact Membership Rewards Customer Care at 1-800-297-3276.

The Membership Rewards point balance shown through PayPal reflects a point balance that may not include your most recent point redemptions. If you have made recent point redemptions, please allow 2 to 4 business days for changes to be reflected on the Membership Rewards summary page.

You can review point activity and view your point balance by logging into your Membership Rewards program summary page at membershiprewards.com and viewing the “Activity Detail” tab.

If you’re enrolled in the Corporate Membership Rewards program, please log in to @ Work at atwork.americanexpress.com to see your program summary.

Your transaction should appear on your Membership Rewards summary page within 2 to 4 business days after your purchase. If it has been more than 4 business days since your transaction has occurred and the transaction is not showing on your Membership Rewards summary page, please contact Membership Rewards program Customer Care at 1-800-297-3276.

If there’s a processing error with your request to use points, your eligible Card will be charged and a corresponding credit won’t be issued to the eligible Card account for your transaction. In this event, if you’d like to use points for your transaction, please call Membership Rewards program Customer Care at 1-800-297-3276 or Corporate Membership Rewards Customer Care at 1-888-800-8564 for assistance.

If you used points for all or part of your purchase, your Card statement will show a charge for the total amount of your purchase and a statement credit for the dollar amount used in points, and your Membership Rewards program account will show the deduction of points.

Please allow 2 to 4 business days for changes to be reflected in both places. If a credit is processed after your Card statement closing date, it will appear in your next statement. If PayPal does not immediately charge your Card for your purchase, the credit for the dollar amount used in points may appear on an earlier billing statement than the billing statement containing the charge for your purchase.

In the unlikely event that this occurs, please call Membership Rewards program Customer Care at 1-800-297-3276 for assistance or please call Corporate Membership Rewards program Customer Care at 1-888-800-8564 for assistance.

You can view Membership Rewards point redemption information by logging into your online rewards summary page at membershiprewards.com and clicking on the "Activity Detail" tab.

If your company is enrolled in the Corporate Membership Rewards program, please visit @ Work at atwork.americanexpress.com to view your point redemption history.

I would no longer like to be presented with the option to use Membership Rewards points through PayPal. How can I remove that option for my purchase? If I change my mind and I want to use points in the future, can I do that?

If you decide that you no longer want to be presented with the option to use Membership Rewards points for your purchases, call Membership Rewards program Customer Care at 1-800-297-3276 for assistance. If you choose to do so, American Express will no longer share your points balance with PayPal. Alternatively, you can unlink your eligible Card from your PayPal Wallet to remove this option at checkout.

If you change your mind and decide you want to use Membership Rewards points and allow American Express to share your point balance for the eligible Card(s) on file with your PayPal account, you can relink your eligible Card in your PayPal Wallet or call Membership Rewards program Customer Care at 1-800-297-3276 for assistance.