One of my favorite American Express promotions is Small Business Saturday. Small Business Saturday is a promotion from American Express where you can receive a $25 statement credit for spending $25 at a “small business”.
“Eligible merchants include any independently owned small businesses that accept the American Express Card. Purchases made online, at large, national chains, at franchised business locations and at government agencies are not eligible. Prepaid, corporate cards and ExpressPay transactions are not eligible.”
Last year, American Express provided a Facebook page where you could search for small business by zip code. This helped make sure that you were spending the money for the promotion at the correct place.
Another added benefit was American Express would email you as soon as you charged at least $25 at a qualifying business which helped also to ensure that you were spending at the right business.
Here is a write up of my experience from last year.
To prepare yourselves for the Small Business Saturday promotion this year, which has been announced as November 24th, I would recommend doing the following:
1)Add authorized users to your American Express cards.
I have had success registering myself and my authorized users for the Small Business Saturday promotion. I have found that if you call to add the authorized users rather than doing it online, you don’t have to provide social security numbers.
2)Have all your cards ready when the registration day is announced
There are always a limited amount of spots available for this promotion – therefore I have all of my cards ready and handy when the registration is announced so that all of the cards can participate. Registration for Small Business Saturday 2012 is currently not open.
3)Map out the small businesses you’re going to visit
Preplan via their Facebook page of all of the places you’ll visit. We were able to be more effective that way.
4)Look for other ways to maximize the value of this deal
A local electronics store had a promotion where you could buy a $100 gift card for $50. By purchasing this with our registered American Express card – were were able to get a $100 gift card for $25 after statement credit.
There is also a local restaurant specializing in wings that will give you a $5 gift card with the purchase of a $25 gift card. It was another easy way to gather some additional gift cards for free.
Good luck supporting small business on November 24th!
Hi,
We have a magazine subscription business that counts as an Amex small business (do a search for Discount Magazine in zip code 33913).
For all the people who want to get the easy $25 bonus, we will work with you to split the orders, give additional discounts, basically whatever it takes to get you that free $25. (We’ve been in business over 30 years also!)
Magazines are a great christmas gift, so knock out 2 birds with one stone!
We also match competitors prices, so you are guaranteed to get the best price.
Call 800-999-5070 M-F 930-5pm EST. Ask for Marc.
Mention you saw this on the blog posting and i’l take care of you the best I can…
Easy way to spend the $25, get the bonus $25, and get your christmas shopping done!
The site says that sign-up begins November 18
Any word when signup will begin?
j – should be in the next couple of days
I have an Amex Blue and an Amex Blue Cash and they both worked the last two years. All Amex credit cards should work except for gift cards, prepaid cards, and corporate cards.
I did this last 2 yrs and its great. But my cards have changed…..refresh my memory…..which AMEX cards does this work for? all? some I have a wierd like the BOA Virgin AMEX or the AMEX blue cash card, besides the usual SPG personal and biz and AMEX gold biz and PRG.
@daniel – for me Delta AMEX, Hilton, Starwood all worked. Not sure about the others.
but the statement credit is only 1 per account, is it not? so authorized users wouldnt matter, even if their card number is different
@wise2u – it’s $25 credit per user – I have done this the past two years
Thanks,
For clarification, you are allowed to make single purchases per registered card per retailer to as many retailers listed? Or, once you make a single purchase per registered card, you are not allowed to make any purchases at any other retailers?
Hi RZ – if you have 5 authorized users that have all registered their card numbers – then you can make either 5 purchase (one per each user) at that retailer OR you can make 5 different purchases at 5 different retailers. Each user is considered it’s own card and does not limit what the others do.
Do you think the prepaid Amex cards will qualify for this?
@MillValleyMom – no, they will not.