Last year, American Express launched its Small Business Saturday event that encouraged its customers to shop at local businesses instead of large chains on Black Friday. This year, Amex is going a step further and adding an incentive to Shop Small by offering bonus points.
Now through Dec. 31, you can earn double points by shopping at select merchants with one, or a few, of your enrolled American Express cards. The bonus points are capped at $100,000 on personal cards and $250,000 on business cards. Unfortunately, no additional rewards will be earned if a card already earns some sort of a category bonus. The list of small businesses eligible for this promotion is available at shopsmallnow.com.
It’s important to enroll your card prior to shopping to qualify for the bonus points. The offer is available on more than 50 personal and business American Express cards.
- Membership Rewards cards will earn one additional MR point per dollar spent.
- Delta SkyMiles cards will earn one additional mile per dollar spent.
- Blue Cash cards will earn an additional 1% back per dollar spent.
- Hilton HHonors cards will earn three additional Hilton HHonors points per dollar spent.
- Starwood Preferred Guest cards will earn one additional Starpoint per dollar spent.
- Plenti Credit Card will earn one additional Plenti point per dollar spent.
- Schwab Investor Card will earn additional 1.5% cash back per dollar spent.
The fact that this many Amex cards are included in this promotion presents a good opportunity to score a large point haul if you shop locally anyway. If you have multiple credit cards issued by Amex, I recommend enrolling all of your eligible cards so that you can make sure every bonus point counts. I was able to enroll all three of my American Express cards: Gold Delta SkyMiles Credit Card, Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card and the Platinum Card from American Express, but there’s no way I’d max out the promo on either of those cards.
Will you take advantage of the option to earn bonus points? Will this promo be enough to shift your holiday season spending to local merchants in your area?
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