American Express Links Up With PayPal, Venmo To Enable Customers To Split Payments

Amex, PayPal, Venmo To Enable Bill-Splitting

American Express is teaming up with PayPal and Venmo to offer a new way for their customers to send money, split purchases and manage their expenses.

The new program enables American Express consumer cardholders to use the new Amex Send & Split service, according to a news release. Cardholders will be able to send money to any PayPal or Venmo customer directly from the American Express App.

In addition, using the new service, customers will also be able to split purchases — for example, for food delivery or gifts — on PayPal and Venmo, and get paid back directly to their Amex cards. The total can be split evenly or certain amounts can be specified for each person, with any money to be returned appearing on the card statement as a credit. A cardholder can still earn American Express rewards for split purchases.

PayPal said it is “always looking for new and exciting ways to make it easy” for customers to send and receive money. The new Amex service arrives during the run-up to the holiday shopping season.

Cardholders can enroll from the Amex App. Starting on Nov. 23, Venmo customers will be able to enroll directly from their accounts, the release said.

Earlier this month, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman talked up the company’s latest successes with its buy now, pay later (BNPL) service in the U.S., France and the U.K. He told investors that PayPal has already seen growth that has exceeded its expectations, and that the company will look to expand in this area.

“I think it’s going to be one of our big growth drivers as we go into next year and into 2022,” said Schulman. “And by the way, there’s a ton more we can do with this, too. We have a large roadmap around this for Venmo as well.”