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How to make £36 per year by NOT using your Amex Gold Deliveroo credit

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American Express Preferred Rewards Gold recently added a valuable new perk for cardmembers.

Each month, you receive 2 x £5 credits to spend at Deliveroo. There is no minimum order.

As long as you order something at least twice per month, you are getting £120 of free credit from American Express each year. This is an excellent return in your first year of having Preferred Rewards Gold, given that the card is FREE in Year 1. It also comes with a sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points, worth at least £160, and two free airport lounge passes.

Our full review of American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is here and you can apply here.

When the Deliveroo benefit launched, some Head for Points readers complained that they couldn’t use it. If you are in a Deliveroo area but rarely order takeaway, you should look at the new grocery delivery companies on the app.

How can you make £36 per year without using Deliveroo at all?

I’m glad you asked.

Deliveroo has a subscription service called Deliveroo Plus. There are two subscription options, one at £11.49 per month and one at £3.49 per month.

You will need to download the Deliveroo app and create an account. Register your Preferred Rewards Gold card as your payment choice. Under your profile you see an option to register for Deliveroo Plus.

(I am not sure if you can sign up for Deliveroo Plus if you are physically not in a Deliveroo delivery area at the time of signing up. You may need to wait until you are in an urban area or try with a VPN.)

The £3.49 per month plan gives you free delivery on all orders of £25 or more.

Sign yourself up.

Why should someone who never uses Deliveroo pay for Deliveroo Plus?

It’s simple.

There is no minimum spend requirement to trigger the £5 American Express credit.

Your £3.49 monthly subscription to Deliveroo Plus will trigger an immediate £5 credit to your American Express Gold card. You make £1.51 profit each month. It’s not much, but it involves zero work once you are signed up and you’ll make £18 per year.

Here is proof it works, from my wife’s Gold card:

You can double this by signing up a friend or your partner for their own Deliveroo account, using the same Amex Gold card for payment.

This second subscription will trigger the second monthly £5 statement credit, earning you another £18 per year.

In total, you will make a profit of £36 over a year. This makes a decent dint in the £140 annual fee for Preferred Rewards Gold if you choose to continue after the first year.

And, of course, if you DO ever decide to order some food or groceries from Deliveroo, you’ll benefit from free delivery on orders of £25+ thanks to your Deliveroo Plus subscription.

This technique also saves you money if you use Deliveroo once per month

If you only use Deliveroo once per month, you can use this technique to increase your savings as long as your order is for at least £25. £25 is the Deliveroo Plus free delivery threshold.

Let’s assume you make one Deliveroo order per month, comprising £25 of food and the £2.99 delivery fee. Your total cost is £27.99, and you will receive a £5 cashback credit via Amex Gold.

If you sign up for Deliveroo Plus, however, the maths looks like this:

  • First transaction – £3.49 Deliveroo Plus fee, which triggers £5 cashback
  • Second transaction – £25 food order, no delivery fee due to Deliveroo Plus membership, order triggers the second £5 cashback

You have spend £28.49 in total but received £10 back.

This compares to spending £27.99 by not having Deliveroo Plus but only receiving £5 back.

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Comments (37)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Robert says:
    10 Jul10 July 05:23

    “incorrect Card Number Entered: Unexpected Error Occurred”. Is Deliveroo onto this scheme already??

    • Barraclough says:
      10 Jul10 July 06:40

      Glad it’s not only my card showing this error.

    • Alex M says:
      10 Jul10 July 07:40

      Same here… and last time the restaurant of my choice was shown as Not open yet, so had to order via Uber instead…

      • Harrier25 says:
        10 Jul10 July 12:30

        Worked for me going through the website but refused to add Amex card going via Google Play app.

        Thanks for sharing Rob. A profitable little tip!

    • qrfan says:
      10 Jul10 July 08:08

      Worked fine for me a a few seconds ago.

  • Nick says:
    10 Jul10 July 06:03

    I suppose this is a cheap way for them to get customer sign ups… very handy to show investors in ‘Britain’s worst ever share listing’

    • Ls says:
      10 Jul10 July 07:25

      Shares up 30% over their actual start prices (not ipo price)

      • TGLoyalty says:
        10 Jul10 July 10:02

        They won the first of the employee vs self employed court cases

  • Alex says:
    10 Jul10 July 06:33

    It’s also possible to donate to charity via the Deliveroo app, Full Life fundraising allow you to make ‘orders’ of any value to fund meals for homeless people and disadvantaged children etc.
    These bill just like any other Deliveroo order and I presume should trigger the credit.

  • Matty says:
    10 Jul10 July 06:51

    I’ve noticed service charges appearing alongside the delivery charges now. I used to get free delivery from my local takeaway until this crowd turned up.

    • mradey says:
      10 Jul10 July 07:12

      Yup, same here. Most local take-away joints had free delivery before the online guys came along.

      • Andrew says:
        10 Jul10 July 07:36

        The real benefit of deliveroo of course being that you can get delivery from places that wouldn’t normally have the option. You can still often get free delivery by calling or using their website direct

        • Bagoly says:
          10 Jul10 July 12:41

          and so saving them having to pay Deliveroo (which is probably why they add a service charge)

          • Brian W says:
            10 Jul10 July 19:04

            The service charge is a fee added by Deliveroo not the restaurant.

    • The Savage Squirrel says:
      10 Jul10 July 09:37

      My (very popular and excellent) local chippie told Deliveroo to f**k itself during the Pandemic, knocked out its own app and website ordering system that works well for less than £2k and employed its own small army of local teenagers with bikes instead (with much fairer conditions than Deliveroo riders too). Talking to the owner about it all, the amount of money he saved/made by doing things himself vs 35% fees at Deliveroo is astonishing.
      I can see why places signed up to Deliveroo as an emergency in the mad scramble to survive of March 2020, but more and more places are going to figure this stuff out…

      • TGLoyalty says:
        10 Jul10 July 10:04

        Which is great for your local that knows it’s a good chippy

        There will always be a market for a global player like Deliveroo

      • Char Char says:
        10 Jul10 July 12:33

        Sounds like they took Deliveroo fees rather personal, Deliveroo isn’t a replacement for online ordering anyway its an additional offering, many businesses will offer Just Eat, Deliveroo and Uber Eats as well as having their own website.

      • Number9 says:
        11 Jul11 July 09:48

        We’ve got 2 chip shops, they don’t even take cards let alone use fancy apps cash is king in our chippy. Lol

  • Frances Morris says:
    10 Jul10 July 09:27

    Bit of a faff for £36. Deliveroo don’t deliver here… so interesting points

  • Char Char says:
    10 Jul10 July 09:55

    VPN won’t change your gps setti no on your phone, as you can use the website I’m sure you can choose your delivery address without gps location

  • Mouse says:
    10 Jul10 July 09:59

    Sure fire way to have this unintended benefit shut down, thanks Rob

  • Adam says:
    10 Jul10 July 10:36

    Does the similar strategy work for dell cash back on Amex Business Plat?

    • Rob says:
      10 Jul10 July 11:07

      No, it only repays what you spend – but you can eBay the stuff.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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