Surprises are sometimes fun in the points and miles world.
My wife and I were recently reminded of that when we received Shop Small credits we didn’t expect!
Why Am I Bringing This Up Now?
Amex’s Shop Small promotion (which works with Bluebird!) expires September 20. But despite 2020 being a complete garbage fire, the past couple of months have flown. (At least something in my life is flying.) Before you know it, September will be gone — and so will your Shop Small offer.
Before you forget, I want to give you this reminder — and inspire you to look outside the box a bit.
A Couple of “Surprise” Credits
My wife and I planned to use our respective Shop Small offers on take-out dining from local restaurants. But then those magical “you’ve earned $5 back for shopping small” emails popped up in our inboxes — much to our surprise!
Doctors Bills
A couple of our doctors got around to billing us for visits we made before the COVID-19 pandemic. We paid those bills with our Shop Small cards, not expecting anything — other than earning our cards’ base points.
But those doctors’ practices are small businesses! So when we received $5 statement credit on the first bill we paid, we changed our payment strategy.
One of our doctors’ bills was something like $50. So my wife charged $10 each time across five transactions on her Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express. It was a little more work than paying it all in one shot — but we earned $25 back instead of only $5.
Check the Amex map of participating business — and don’t forget your physicians, eye doctors, dentists, vets, and other health-care businesses.
Gift Cards
As I wrote several weeks ago, eGifter purchases code as small business purchases. So if all else fails, buy yourself some gift cards worth $10 (or more) and get $5 off each.
Final Approach
Remember the Shop Small offer expires September 20 — which will be here before you know it. The minimum purchase is just $10 — so make sure to get something you’ll use, or that’s helpful for your budget. There are plenty of qualifying small businesses — not just restaurants and shops.
— Chris
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Hey Chris
1. Is there a way to see how many $5 credits I’ve already used and how many left? Also are these good on ALL AMEX cards?
Thanks
Hey, howdy, hey. First, make sure you add the benefit to one of your cards. Unfortunately, you can only add it one.
Log in to your account count how many $-5.00 credits you’ve received. That’s pretty much what I do.
I had a chat with Amex customer support because purchases at a local supermarket designated as a shop small merchant was not being credited.
It turned out that because the merchant didn’t set their street address correctly on the backend, the address showing up in the shop small map and the transaction did not match, so it did not trigger the credit.
Ugh, that stinks!
Thanks for the reminder and data points, Chris!
I’ve got my Authorized Users signed up for the Shop Small opportunity as well. Some are not on my non-branded AmEx Plat or Gold, so I guide their purchases towards the typical single point/dollar spend – liquor stores for beer or wine, or get this, the local Acura dealer for my daughter to get maintenance or replacement parts for her new-to-her used car, while I try to use the non-branded Gold at restaurants to get a small rebate while still pulling in 4X MR for the spend!
Cheers!
I was surprised when my storage unit rental received the credit. It’s a national chain, but apparently still “small?” And my wife registered for an online virtual conference and got the credit.
It’s working well for our cards
Hey Chris!
Would you happen to know if a wife who has an authorized user card (i.e. husband is primary, wife is authorized user) and the authorized user adds the ‘Shop Small’ offer to the authorized user card can they also add the ‘Shop Small’ offer to one of their own personal/primary/none authorized user cards and effectively double dip?!
I don’t have any data points yet — but what a wonderful excuse to use my AU card on wife’s Blue Cash Preferred for a purchase!