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Amex Shop Small is back – get £5 for every £10 purchase in July

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American Express is bringing back its ‘Shop Small’ promotion this July.  And this means a potential £50 for every American Express card you hold!

Lloyds TSB and MBNA Amex cards are included as well, so this could be a very generous deal for some people.

If you missed ‘Shop Small’ last year, it is a very simple idea.  American Express produces a huge list of small, mainly independent, shops up and down the country which accept Amex.  There is a website listing all the shops and many also have a blue ‘Shop Small’ logo in their window.

American Express Amex Shop Small

When you spend £10 or more in a ‘Shop Small’ during July, you will receive a £5 credit from American Express on your statement!

This time, American Express has put a cap in place.  This should stop some of crazier stuff that went on last year where people managed to do literally hundreds of transactions.   They are also insisting that you spend £10 to get £5 back, rather than the £5 to get £5 back they offered in 2012.

You are now restricted to 10 transactions per card account (supplementary cards do not get their own 10 transactions, I think – but this is to be confirmed).  Each transaction must be in a different shop – but, of course, you can visit the same shop using different Amex accounts.  Online transactions do NOT count.

How to get started

The first thing to do is to register all of your American Express, Lloyds TSB Amex and MBNA Amex cards at the ‘Shop Small’ website.  (Corporate cards and pre-paid cards cannot take part.)

The second thing to do is to look at the list of participating shops and working out how best to use them.  Don’t forget that a lot of pubs are taking part as well!

Happy hunting!

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Comments (47)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Johnny5a says:
    27 Jun27 June 09:04

    How do you define an account?
    Account = 1 main card + supplementary card holders?
    Account = all cards where account is main holder ?

    eg: Mrs J5a is the main holder for Platinum Card and BA Premium Plus and I’m BA Blue.
    So would it be maximum £150 credit or £100 credit, ie account each?

    • Rob says:
      27 Jun27 June 09:09

      I think it is ‘per statement’ so supps don’t get their own allowance but if you had a Plat and BA Amex you can double up. To be confirmed, though, about supps.

      • pazza2000 says:
        27 Jun27 June 09:13

        Curious about the ‘card account’ and ‘supp’ rule also. I understand 10 total locations across a card account, however could each individual sup be used at one said location within this allowance?!?!

        • Rob says:
          27 Jun27 June 11:40

          If they cap it at 10 per statement, then you will only get to use the same shop once, whichever card is used.

          If it is 10 per card then of course supps can double up.

          We may need to wait until the promo has been running a week or two to see what happens in reality.

  • where2travel says:
    27 Jun27 June 09:47

    The data is worryingly inaccurate (so no change from last year on that front).

    Places are on there that don’t take Amex (including some I reported last time round), shops are on there that bear no resemblance to their actual location and I’ve seen a number of shops/restaurants that have closed down are still listed so it’s woefully out of date.

  • tangey says:
    27 Jun27 June 10:03

    10 stores within 10 metres for some.

    0 stores in 60 miles radius for me.

  • Alan says:
    27 Jun27 June 10:43

    Well at least they seem to have quite a few more non-London locations this time around – shame it’s only £10 for £5 this time!

    • Johnny5a says:
      27 Jun27 June 11:23

      Just looked at Cardiff – one, yes just one! store!

      • Alan says:
        27 Jun27 June 11:24

        Yeah – only one for Dundee too, but at least a fair number in Edinburgh. Pretty random selection though!

  • Mike says:
    27 Jun27 June 16:09

    Shame it’s not spend £5 get £5 again. I ate lunch for free for about 2 weeks last time. £10 is too much for lunch for me but maybe I do dinner instead.

    Hopefully this is a sign that the Amex/Foursquare specials are going to make a comeback!

    • Blenz101 says:
      27 Jun27 June 19:19

      Funnily enough I called to activate a card today and the agent was very keen to tell me about the Foursquare app as part of her sales pitch – she advised to keep checking over the next few weeks as offers are due to return and most certainly haven’t come to an end.

  • gnarlyoldgoatdude says:
    27 Jun27 June 16:36

    The wife’s hair dresser is the only useful one….and the first to be found after multiple zoom outs.
    Shame she had her hair done last week.

    Once again I find this scheme to be useless. I couldn’t make a single saving last time, and won’t this time either.

    The thing that works for me is the FourSquare campaign when Shell take part.

  • Matt says:
    27 Jun27 June 17:27

    The lists do seem very out of date, some of the restaurants listed by me were closed by environmental health years ago and plenty of places listed don’t take Amex limiting the usefulness of the promo, still its better than a kick in the teeth and I imagine I can get £20 or so back. If I were in London it would be easy to make £50, the main problem is the lack of small retailers that actually accept Amex, whilst major retailers tend to accept it, small businesses near to me generally do not.

  • JimM says:
    27 Jun27 June 17:58

    Just one example, this address seems a bit out!

    No 1 Lounge Stansted
    44 Carnaby St, London, W1F 9PP

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