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Get £5 back on a £10 purchase via American Express ‘Shop Small’

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Shop Small is back!  If you have an American Express credit or charge card (unless it is a Lloyds Avios one), you can make big savings on your Christmas shopping from tomorrow (Saturday) until 16th December with ‘Shop Small’.

American Express is the major UK sponsor of a scheme called ‘Shop Small’, designed to encourage you to shop in local independent stores instead of major chains.

Starting on Saturday and running until 16th December, you will receive £5 cashback on EVERY transaction you make for £10 or more at a participating ‘Shop Small’ business.

American Express Amex Shop Small

There are very few rules apart from the fact that you can only get one £5 cashback per shop per card. You can, of course, register multiple American Express cards if you have more than one.

It is a simple process:

You MUST register your credit or charge card before making a ‘Shop Small’ purchase

You can register British Airways, Harrods, Costco, Starwood, Gold, Platinum, Platinum Cashback, Amex Rewards and Green American Express cards by going to the American Express website, logging in and looking under ‘My Offers’ on the statement page.

Note that Corporate and pre-paid Amex cards do not qualify.  Lloyds Avios Rewards cards are also now blocked.

You can register supplementary cards (an additional card held by your partner on the same account) as long as it has a different card number to your main card and has its own separate Amex log-in.

Find participating small shops

The main Shop Small site is amexshopsmall.co.uk which contains a link to an interactive map where you can find participating shops in your area.  You will also often see a Shop Small sticker in a shop window.

Beware that this map, in previous years, has not been accurate. Often in a good way (some shops not featured give the credit) and often in a bad way (shops on the map are closed or don’t even accept Amex).  Your best option is to use your Amex whenever you can during the Shop Small period and see what hits.

It is worth noting that it is not just sellers of ‘things’ who are taking part. You will find cafes and even the occasional pub taking part!

Make a qualifying purchase of £10 or more

You can make one purchase per registered card per shop that is taking part in ‘Shop Small’.

You should receive an email or phone notification soon after making your purchase, although you shouldn’t panic if you don’t.

A £5 credit for every £10 purchase will be added onto your credit card statement within a few days.

For clarity …. this promotion is fully funded by American Express as part of its campaign to encourage more small shops to accept the card.  It is not funded by the shop so you shouldn’t feel guilty about taking part.

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Category

American Express Gold card, American Express Platinum card, British Airways American Express, Marriott Bonvoy American Express

Comments (243)

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

  • Nick says:
    1 Dec1 December 10:06

    Amex have put in new wording about gaming the offer etc

    So what is official policy? If I have a restaurant bill for £30, can I split between 3 Amex cards. What about supplementary cards ? Do those holders need to be physically present?

    • Shoestring says:
      1 Dec1 December 10:12

      I don’t think gaming the offer applies to splitting the bill.

      [G. Fraud/Gaming/Glitches
      American Express reserves the right to suspend or cancel the offer if any fraud or gaming by users, technical failure or any other factors outside our control impairs the integrity or proper functioning of the offer which may result in any loss or damage to American Express. We will try to give you reasonable notice of any such incident and take reasonable steps to ensure you are not unfairly impacted if the incident is due to something we have done or failed to do.
      American Express reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual suspected of fraud, gaming the offer or any breach of the Offer Terms. ]

  • Definitas says:
    1 Dec1 December 10:19

    This is a dreadful promotion. In our area a significant number of the retailers shown on the list don’t even take Amex, including a local pub, a hairdresser and one listed shop closed down two years ago. It is a farce! How on earth to Amex compile the list? Sticking pins in an outdated copy of Thompson’s Local?

    • Kai says:
      1 Dec1 December 10:33

      I assume they used to and their card machines still can, but at some point they decided not to take Amex anymore and they didn’t really have to inform Amex. There are a couple of occasions where I tapped my Amex card and the waiter or waitress panicked to cancel the transaction!

      • Lumma says:
        1 Dec1 December 15:41

        Yeah, I used to work at a restaurant where AMEX worked on the machines but the owner instructed us to say we did accept it cause he didn’t want to pay the extra fees.

        Worst part was we even had an AMEX shop small sticker in the window as they’re a nightmare to remove!

    • Nigel the pensioner says:
      1 Dec1 December 16:58

      In fairness to Amex (and they are very good to me) the acceptance of Amex is pretty city centric…….and amazingly not just London. Shock Horror!!

  • Waribai says:
    1 Dec1 December 11:30

    That’s amazing….Which pub is that? The Manufactured Spend Arms?

  • Tp says:
    1 Dec1 December 11:46

    Is anyone aware of any small chains of stores that are included? I think One Stop convenience stores were included in the past but not now.

    • Alan says:
      1 Dec1 December 11:55

      Margiotta stores are – they might just be Edinburgh though!

      • Liz says:
        1 Dec1 December 15:57

        I’ve never heard of this shop. We will be in Edinburgh on the 12th so might give this a go.

        • Alan says:
          1 Dec1 December 17:05

          There’s at least 3-4 of them, local convenience stores but do booze and ready meals, etc so quite easy to hit the £10 🙂

        • Genghis says:
          1 Dec1 December 17:10

          I tend to stay clear of booze (wine) from the corner shop type places as it’s significantly overpriced and lacks quality. Prob ok for white lightening / frosty jack for you scots 🙂

        • Shoestring says:
          1 Dec1 December 17:12

          Git the Buckies in, Alan! 🙂

          • Alan says:
            1 Dec1 December 17:15

            LOL they’re in Edinburgh not Glasgow so we’ll be having none of that 😀

        • Shoestring says:
          1 Dec1 December 17:15

          Here’s tae us, whae’s like us? Damn few, and they’re a’ deid!

        • Stu N says:
          1 Dec1 December 22:13

          Vino in Edinburgh worked last year and they are definitely not Bucky merchants.

          Useful intel re not using contactless, used my card in a few places in the ‘weege today and nothing triggered. It was all stuff I was buying anyway but hoped to get some payback for a trip to soapdodger land. 😉

  • BS says:
    1 Dec1 December 12:10

    Anyone also got a 10% off at Morrisons? I’m guessing this can be used for gift cards…

    • Alan says:
      1 Dec1 December 12:13

      Yep x2

    • Mark2 says:
      1 Dec1 December 12:18

      Yes but no Morrisons More points (only 5 per £ now anyway)

    • Thomas Howard says:
      1 Dec1 December 12:35

      I’ve had my first £15 through on £150 of John Lewis vouchers. Have since put through £1400 of amazon vouchers that haven’t yet credited. Earnt Morrison and More points.

      Could be tempted to get £3k of apple and buy a new MacBook.

      • Mark2 says:
        1 Dec1 December 13:17

        Just checked ticket and am glad to say that I was wrong.

      • Mr Dee says:
        1 Dec1 December 13:53

        ask a student to get another 10% off a MacBook…

        • Genghis says:
          1 Dec1 December 13:56

          And beats headphones (ebayable for £170 or so).

        • tom1 says:
          1 Dec1 December 16:11

          is that still on?

        • Genghis says:
          1 Dec1 December 16:34

          Maybe not. Was when I bought mine last year.

        • Thomas Howard says:
          1 Dec1 December 18:45

          Does anyone know whether HMRC accept Visa or Mastercard giftcards? Do they use debit card BINs?

        • The Urbanite says:
          1 Dec1 December 21:44

          HMRC and gift cards – that ship has well and truly sailed.

        • Mr Dee says:
          2 Dec2 December 06:08

          HMRC and gift cards as in the Visa ones, can’t see why it would be blocked but after the activation fee its not worth it in any situation IMO

      • TGLoyalty says:
        1 Dec1 December 17:32

        Be careful iTunes vouchers aren’t the same as apple store credit, if genuine apple ones are now available then all fine.

      • BS says:
        1 Dec1 December 17:32

        Do they sell apple store (as opposed to itunes) gift cards?

        • Thomas Howard says:
          1 Dec1 December 19:00

          I noticed this on my trip to Morrison earlier and decided not to buy. I might have to purchase via John Lewis and forfeit the student discount, or use the Visa / Mastercard giftcards and lose part of the discount.

          Also starting to wonder if I’m on the cusp of triggering an audit. I noticed the self service checkout requiring assistance for 2nr £50 JL vouchers, earlier in the week I put through £1000 of Amazon with no bother. They might have realised the flaw in the system and started for looking for ways to crack down.

        • Mr Dee says:
          1 Dec1 December 19:53

          Morrison’s blocked the gift card purchases ages ago, most stores need auth after 1 gift card

          • Alan says:
            1 Dec1 December 20:10

            Bought 8x £25 Netflix and 2x £100 Amazon today without any issues at all – self-scan checkout

        • Mr Dee says:
          2 Dec2 December 06:09

          Must be store dependant or they have changed it (likely) used to be able to put 40 through at a time

        • d4ve says:
          3 Dec3 December 18:14

          Most multiples go through fine but you can only get one Jl £50 at a time

    • Brian W says:
      1 Dec1 December 17:47

      Yes worked for me.

  • Gin and Tonic Please says:
    1 Dec1 December 12:22

    I’d love to know what data feed Amex use to populate the map. There are a bunch of places near me that haven’t taken Amex in 2+years, but are on the map. And then another bunch that definitely take Amex (including my favourite local pub), were on the map last year but aren’t this time.

    • Mr Dee says:
      1 Dec1 December 12:27

      map is never accurate, best to phone up and check if they accept amex before wasting a journey

      • Gin and Tonic Please says:
        1 Dec1 December 12:30

        It’s more about the (small) places I know that take Amex but aren’t listed. Gonna do some purchases tomorrow anyway to test them.

    • Geoff says:
      1 Dec1 December 13:26

      … and a bunch of places near us which have been closed down for some time. Same last year.

    • RussellH says:
      1 Dec1 December 14:39

      Shock, horror, but the little local bar that we normally go to only in summer and did not take Amex is now not only on the map, but had a shop smalll sticker filling the tiny window in the door. Quite content to let us split the bill across to cards. Hopefully we shall be back soon, as long as I remember to put the supplementary cards in my wallet for the occasion!

  • Michelle says:
    1 Dec1 December 12:42

    Has anyone else had a nightmare of a time trying to get the offer loaded to their SPG card? We’ve been calling up everyday since Wednesday and always told it will be added at midnight yet never does. Today been told it’s a technical error and nothing they can do except escalate to their complaints department who are closed – not exactly helpful for our planned shopping this weekend? Anyone know any back door routes that may work? Thanks

    • kk says:
      1 Dec1 December 12:49

      ask using chat or phone to submit the request to the Back Office. Some cards have this problem.

    • Michelle says:
      1 Dec1 December 14:08

      Thanks, tried both this and KK’s comment but unfortunately no joy. Hopefully it’ll get sorted by Tuesday or otherwise we’ll look to cancel it ASAP. Cheers, I hope you’re all making the most of it this weekend!

    • Mark2 says:
      1 Dec1 December 16:01

      Just activated two new SPG cards and the Shop Small offer was available on both in a matter of minutes.

    • HeathrowFlyer says:
      1 Dec1 December 22:21

      Remove from your online services account.

      ‘Re-activate’ the card and create a new online service account.

      Offer should appear there.

  • vlcnc says:
    1 Dec1 December 13:10

    Can you double dip with this? As in if you split a bill with your additional cardholder – so using different cards but same account?

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