How to get Uber referrals in other currencies

Introduction

Some readers had warned me ahead of time, but if you don’t know, you can NOT use your $15 or $20 USD Uber referral credit in other countries.  When I was in London, while I had a handful of Uber USD credits in my account, they would not apply to the rides I took in London.

By day 5 in London (my 6th ride,) something strange happened.  My Uber ride was only for 2GBP.  I thought that was odd since all of my earlier rides were AT LEAST 7GBP.  I then looked in my transaction history and noticed a 10GBP referral credit was used.  That confused me even more.  Why and how did I get a 10GBP referral credit?  Did Uber think I moved to London?

When I looked in the Uber phone app, I saw this:

Sure enough, it changed my $20 USD referral to 10GBP.  I asked some Uber expert riders on what they think happened, and for a while, we couldn’t figure it out.  Eventually, someone found a link to Flyertalk to check your profile’s country.

Changing your country in profile changes referral currency

On the Uber web site, not the app, go into your profile and on the right side, you should see location.  This was what mine showed when I logged in.

That explained how I was getting GBP referrals – because the app thought I was based in the UK.  Once I changed the location back to the US and waited a day (could be shorter,) I checked the Uber app and my referrals went back to $20 USD.  All is well in the world again.

Lessons Learned

The key lesson learned today is – if you will be traveling to the UK or another country, it’s possible for you to change your country in your profile so you can start earning referral credit in that currency.  Then when you are in that country, you can use those credits.  Be careful though – the Vietnam referral code is only worth 50000 VND, which is worth $2.25, so it may not be worth your time to get referral credit in Vietnam.

Secondly, Uber credits can be used in Uber Eats, so go get your grub on.