coljung

Wondering if Paypal can be used towards min spend with Amex cards.

Thx in advance!

acarney

I'm confused why you couldn't directly use the Amex to purchase the stuff online... or did you find somewhere online that doesn't accept Amex?

scubadu

That was my assumption when reading the post.

Regards

coljung

It's simple, many stores here accept Paypal online but are unable to refund via Paypal in store. So that refund is made in cash/debit. And basically to Amex / Paypal the transaction went through, because it was never refunded through them.

So, getting back to my question, would Paypal transactions count towards min spend ?

captaindomon

Soooo.... you're planning to make large purchases through Paypal with Amex backing, and then return them to the store for cash? That's fraud, and against Amex T&Cs. So no, that's not a good idea. It's manufactured spend.

Finkface

Not to mention it probably costs these stores money to accept paypal. So you are fine with making a business (especially if it is a small business) pay the price so you can MS? Not cool.

acarney

Ya, that sounds a lot more fishy and like someone is going to care. I wouldn't risk it with large sums, the best is Amex just catches on and kicks you out (wonder if they would also disable your Canadian cards?) worst case someone wants to dig deeper to see what's going on (stolen credit card, money laundering, etc).

Find an airline or hotel or something with really generous change terms and book travel really really far in advance to hit min spend? Then changes dates somewhere down the road to something you'll actually be able to use? I mean that's still not terrible honest, but at least the money is staying with the company and being spent for it's intended reason...

I know people play this kind of game to keep companion fares valid as long as possible, etc

coljung

Thanks for the responses.

sbm12

I would not play games with paypal unless you want to find your account frozen, potentially with your money locked up in it.

Gig103

Even for legitimate purchases (not purchase/return games) I could see Paypal counting as a "cash equivalent" since anyone can send anyone else a Paypal payment.