New American Express cashback deals launched – and Shop Small changes?

American Express has launched a new batch of cashback deals, with a couple of new hotel deals among them.

As usual, you may see all, some or none of these offers on your American Express account. You need to look at the ‘Offers’ section on your online statement pages or the Amex app for every card you hold.

Some offers will also be available for supplementary cardholders, as long as the card is registered with Amex. Other offers will only be for the primary cardholder.

This is what we seem to have that are new and relevant to HfP readers:

Gett

The taxi app is offering 15% cashback on all rides until 30th June.

Financial Times

Instead of the old offer which offered a fixed £25 discount, the FT is now offering 25% cashback on a transaction of any size. This is valid on transactions taken out by 20th June.

If you already pay for the FT, you may want to see if there is a way of adjusting your subscription (can you get a pro-rata refund on an annual sub and then take out a new one?) so that a payment is made during this period.

Red Carnation Hotels

You may not have heard of Red Carnation, but it owns a number of smart boutique hotels in expensive parts of London. It also owns Ashford Castle in Ireland (below) which you may have seen on the recent BBC2 series with Giles Coren, but this is NOT taking part in the offer.

You receive £75 cashback on a £350+ spend by 30th September.

Red Carnation Hotels is no longer a Virgin Atlantic points earning partner.

You can take a look at their full portfolio here.

Hand Picked Hotels

I have no experience of this UK chain, but you can get £50 cashback on a £400 stay by 30th June.

There are a lot of other offers out there too. My wife has 58 on her Preferred Rewards Gold card, which is more than double what I have on my Platinum card. Not bad going given that the shops are shut ….

Meanwhile ….. is Shop Small changing?

A reader posted an interesting titbit from Amex Australia in our comments section yesterday.

In Australia, Amex Shop Small is changing into a ‘year round’ event. Instead of getting A$5 cashback on each qualifying A$10 purchase for a short period, cardholders will receive an extra 3 points per A$1 spent for the next year. There is a cap of 40,000 bonus points between now and the end of March 2022.

There is no guarantee that we will see the same in the UK, but this is how the wind is blowing.

If I owned a small shop, I might find this new offer more attractive. Instead of getting ‘once a year’ visits during the Shop Small promo period, a shop may attract new regular customers who know they will get additional rewards on every purchase, every day.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – March 2023 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Successfully apply for either of the Barclaycard Avios credit cards by 2nd April 2023 and you will be entered into a free draw to win ONE MILLION AVIOS! Full details are on the application forms here (free) and here (paid). This competition is exclusive to Head for Points readers. T&C apply.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

Until 30th March 2023, the sign up bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to 120,000 Membership Rewards points – click here. The bonus on American Express Business Gold is increased to 60,000 Membership Rewards points – click here. T&C apply, see the application forms for details.

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.