To participate, UK cardmembers need to sync their cards with their Foursquare accounts at sync.americanexpress.co.uk. Using Foursquare, they can then locate and check in to participating venues nearby. Redeeming a reward is relatively effortless: Offers are automatically credited to Cardmembers' American Express accounts after clicking "Specials" and "Load to Card" within the Foursquare app.
A number of well-known franchises will be offering deals through the AmEx-Foursquare partnership at launch, including Bella Italia, Cafe Rouge, Eat, House of Fraser, Nando's, PizzaExpress, Primark, Strada and Tesco.
Those retailers are each offering £10 cash back on purchases of £10 or more, except for Eat and Tesco, which are offering £5 cash back on purchases of £5 or more.
Vouchers are a sizable market in the UK: 28 million people regularly redeem coupons, averaging £136 pounds in discounts per year, according to a 1,000-person survey executed by American Express in May.
Foursquare will not receive any revenue from the partnership for now, but expects to in the future, Evan Cohen, general manager at Foursquare, told Mashable. It should at the very least help expand the app's reach in the country, which has a much smaller userbase compared to the U.S.