[Expired]AmEx Offer: Shop Small, Spend $10+ & Receive $5 (Limit 10)

Update 9/20/20: Today is the last day to use this offer up.

Update 8/23/20: Last chance to enroll in this offer is midnight tonight. You can use the offer through 9/20/20.

Update 7/26/20: They’ve extended the enrollment end-date from 7/26/20 to 8/23/20. Offer still expires for usage on 9/20/20, as before. Hat tip to reader Vic

Update 7/7/20: You can use the Fluz app to buy gift cards to places like Amazon and Target and trigger this credit. And the eGifter website too. And the Samsung Pay gift card app too. And Mygiftcardsplus too.

Update 6/30/20: It’s finally showing today for some people who couldn’t get it to show yesterday.

Update: This Shop Small offer is showing on the Amex Connect site (direct link) which means it can be added to cobranded Amex cards like the Wells Fargo card, etc. (ht ADKFlyer) You can also find it on your Amex prepaid card, such as Bluebird/Serve. (ht Emily) Should be possible to get multiples of this offer by using an ordinary Amex card, your cobrands cards, and your prepaid cards. Hopefully Amex is fine with that.

The Offer

Direct link to offer (in store) | Direct link to offer (online)

  • Spend $10, get $5 back, up to 10 times when you shop small by 9/20/20

The Fine Print

  • Must enroll by 7/26/20 8/23/20
  • Spend must be on a US business location on the shop small map (or online directory) by 9/20/20
  • Limit of 10 statement credits (total $50)

Our Verdict

American Express used to offer these shop small discounts on Small Business Saturday for many years:

It’s nice to see this offer return, especially with so many small businesses hurting right now due to COVID-19. If you own a small business, accept American Express and are on the shop small map my recommendation would be to put together ‘packs’ or gift cards for $10 and inform your customers about this promotion so that you can both take advantage of it. I’d love to see other card issuers/payment networks offer something similar but I doubt we see it. This should be an easy $50 in credits for most people.

Hat tip to readers @PackBagPoints & @mp3461
    William Charles
  • On September 20, 2020, 21:08
Tags: american expressbig

View Comments (513)

  • Maybe some purchases on the 20th and even got the email, but looks like the purchases ended up posting on the 21st...
    Anyone else have this issue?

    • i have the same issue.... i guess i made the purchases too late/ didnt clear in time
      my data point:
      purchases made during the afternoon during the day of 9/20 posted on 9/20 a day or 2 later and i got my credit 9/22
      purchases made later in the day/night of 9/20 are now posting on 9/21 and i still didn't get credit yet
      will update if i get any credit in a few days

      • It's ridiculous, especially since we got the email, AMEX can see when the card was swiped so they should honor it

        • update...its not looking good... still no credit...will check for a few more days....we might need to talk to amex rep....

          • updating with good news ,

            payment was indeed seen and confirmed by the helpful amex chat support on 9/20 even though it was finalized/posted 9/21

            he told me that my credit was issued sept 25th and will post in about 3-5 business days,

            Will update again when i receive the credit in my account

            tip: if you still haven't received the credit, contact amex support on your phone app and they will let you know. if it qualified or not and when u will get your credit

  • It was a great offer, I had it on BBP and Serve cards.
    Used it to get nearly 50% discount on my favorite 6-pack in a local liquor store

    • This was a nice bonus and way to help out the small businesses that I likely would not have shopped at otherwise.

  • Anyone has issues with not getting the promo even though the store is listed in the shop small website?

  • I had some issues with my Aspire card. None of the $10 gift cards purchased were reimbursed $5.00. When I bought something other than the gift card at the same merchant I received $5.00 back. Must have been how it was coded? So I didn’t make out as well as previous years.

    • Where did you buy the gift cards? Did the charge come in with the same retailer name as when you made a purchase? I had a local restaurant that I could have bought gift cards from online, but I was concerned who the charge would come from. Then it turned out that the minimum purchase was $25, so I didn't bother.

    • I organically used this offer. So far received credit for 9 purchases, and made final purchase at a shop small restaurant today.

    • 60 redemptions across 6 cards/AU's, I made a mistake on Friday and redeemed it one too many times on one card when buying $10 gift cards at a local cafe, and forgot about the offer entirely a couple of times when making a purchase at a local grocery store that qualified (and I was actually using n AMEX card but had already maxed out that one). Finally got that one on the 3rd try.

      • Same. I had 60 redemptions, got all Target GC from egifter, and then used to preorder a PS5 and Demon’s Souls. 50% off on the hottest item of the year seems pretty good to me.

        • I used a most of mine at local restaurants. The only non-local gift cards I bought were a couple of Grubhub from Fluz at the beginning when they still worked, and 9 last night at egifter to finish off one card that I hadn't even used until yesterday. I now have $130 in gift cards for local restaurants to use, and $90 from Amazon. Oh, and I paid a dental bill $10 at a time. Actually should have paid them again last week before it expired.

  • Confirming that egifter is still working. For the sake of those who don't want to do all the research, given that we have less than two hours to go, you cannot buy an Amazon gift card directly, but if you gift someone another card (I have been using Target), they can swap to another card, including Amazon, when they accept the gift.

    • +1 to this. I did it earlier for the 3x I was missing on SO card and 10x on my card. Interestingly I've been receiving the emails on SO purchases and received them within a few minutes of these purchases; however, all 10x of the purchases on my card did not receive an email even though I confirm this was the card with the offer and showed as pending.

      I presume it will post, but wanted to note the conflicting DP within my own tests since I used the exact same account and emails to complete purchase & exchanged the Target for Amazon gift cards and redeemed all 13 within an hour.

      • We don't get AMEX Offer redemption emails on my wife's account (I get normal AMEX emails, plus notices of new offers). Not sure why. I had a US Bank card that I had not used until today. I bought a gift card at a local wing place and got the email, so I knew that was working, then used the final nine redemptions at egifter.

    • Has anyone tried it on 9/21? I still have 8 offers left on this card. It says that on the offer, but might be a big pain to contact WF and ask to honour it.

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