Foursquare and Amex partner in UK to offer local deals to customers

Source: Daily Telegraph
By Emma Barnett

Foursquare has partnered with American Express in the UK to offer its credit card holders exclusive location-based deals by ‘checking-in’ to the likes of Tesco and Strada.

The location-based social network, which hopes to catch on in the UK this year, has added a feature which allows its users who have American Express credit cards to sync their card with the app.

Every time a user then checks in to a location where a specific deal is on offer, such as Tesco, there will be the option to “add deal to card”.

When the user then pays for their goods or meal, the particular deal, such as a £10 discount, will automatically be added or subtracted from their transaction a three to five days after the purchase. Users will receive a notification on their phones via the Foursquare app that the deal has been activated.

The current places where there are deals exclusively available to American Express card holders in the UK via Foursquare check-ins include House of Fraser, Strada, Tesco and Pizza Express.

Dennis Crowley, co-founder and chief executive of Foursquare, told The Telegraph: “This is the first time we have created a partnership like this in the UK. We already have a partnership in place with American Express in the US…I think these sort of deals paired with this sort of functionality shows another side of Foursquare to UK users.

“For large numbers of people in the US, deals are becoming the primary reason to user Foursquare.”

Crowley said the new Foursquare UK team would be continuing to grow the number of deals available in the UK to American Express card users and those without access to the card.

American Express executives stressed that their customers’ user data would not be at risk through the partnership as when a card holder syncs their card with Foursquare, “all card information is stored in American Express’ encrypted data servers. The company does not share this data with Foursquare”.

Last week Foursquare, announced the creation of a series of Olympic ‘check-ins’ in a bid to encourage people to get fit and offer one user the chance to win a ticket to the Games.

Earlier this year, on a trip to the UK, Foursquare’s founder, Dennis Crowley told The Telegraph that the service would be as big in the UK as it is in the US this time next year .

“The UK is a little behind the US in terms of getting on board with Foursquare – but that’s because we haven’t had a dedicated team doing deals with British brands – making the service really come to life for people over here,” Crowley told The Telegraph.

“Give Foursquare another year or so and we will be there – and it will reach the same popularity as it has in the US. The deals we will strike with British retailers, media and restaurants are key to Foursquare’s growth in the UK. Now we have a dedicated and growing team here – it will make a huge difference.”