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

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• Matt B says:

  3 Apr3 April 05:06

  Amex – Shop Small. That would be a hugely beneficial change – for all parties!

  • Andrew says:

    3 Apr3 April 05:19

    I disagree. The general public don’t chase points, they want discounts.

    • John says:

      3 Apr3 April 05:45

      1% off becoming 3% off wouldn’t make me go out of my way

      • Louie says:

        3 Apr3 April 07:39

        Absolutely agree. I’m certainly not going to bother checking whether a business is participating in Shop Small or direct spend there if all I am getting is 1.5 extra airmiles / $ (remember the MR exchange rate is 2:1). Whereas I did when I could get up to 50% of spend back. Nice to get the extra points obviously but I can’t see it putting extra business the way of the trader which is presumably the point of Shop Small.

        One thing not so far mentioned is that only spend by the primary cardholder will qualify for the extra points, so all of you with multiple additional cardholders will miss out on gaining anything at all from spend on those cards (if this change is implemented in the UK obviously).

        There are plenty of differences between the offers in the two countries anyway. We have cards which offer multiple MR points either for all spending or for specific types of spending (supermarkets and petrol stations) plus an annual Amex Travel credit > card fee on the two cards in my household. Minus points are 18 months between ANY cards for sign up bonuses and referrers only get points if the new cardholder qualifies for a bonus.

        • The Savage Squirrel says:

          3 Apr3 April 07:53

          But surely that’s the whole point! Amex aren’t too interested in you turning up once per year to spend £10.01; and to be honest the business owner isn’t that bothered about a single £10 transaction either, so Amex is making a loss, and the business sees little benefit to accepting Amex’s high transaction charges the rest of the time – and most certainly not to advertising that they accept Amex. The whole point is to get rid of the people only in it for the £5 freebie once per year. If 95% of people think like you do and don’t return, but only 5% of shop-small £10-hunters are nudged into being weekly customers for that business then Amex and the shop both win compared to now. You lose, but Amex doesn’t care as it was just handing out free £5s to you for no behaviour-changing benefit for itself.

          Our small business accepts Amex (payment by Amex is much better than no payment, for example if someone’s other card is declined!) but carefully don’t advertise that fact in any way as we’d rather take payment by any other means due to lower transaction costs; if shop-small was year round and it drove customers to us then that might change … to Amex’s benefit.

        • Louie says:

          3 Apr3 April 08:12

          I thought the whole point was to get you in the shop in the first place so that the shopkeeper can impress you with his wares / food / service or whatever so that you then return.

          If, as I think and others are saying, the extra points won’t incentivise me to visit a particular store then there’s no point Amex giving me any extra points at all.

      • Alex W says:

        3 Apr3 April 07:49

        Agreed. 30 pence off a £10 shop is not going to make the slightest difference on where I decide to shop.

        • Peter K says:

          3 Apr3 April 08:50

          Agreed. Changing it 3 points per £ at smaller shops will just mean I benefit more at places I would already visit. No gain for Amex or the shop.
          Shop small meant that if I was away from home during that period I would search out smaller shops that accepted Amex. That behaviour would stop and the smaller shop would lose out.

        • RussellH says:

          3 Apr3 April 10:36

          Agreed. An increase from 1 pt to 3 pts is not going to make a massive difference.

          And I totally agree with Peter K too. Last Sept we spent a few days miles away from home during shop small, we must have made a dozen researched purchases based on shop small during that time.
          Only one disappointed – they had subtley changed the business name and dropped Amex – but it was still a good meal!

  • Brighton Belle says:

    3 Apr3 April 08:28

    If they change Small Shop it’ll be 2 cards cancelled. The offers on them have been so dire the last 6 months it’s only Small Shop that justifies the fees.

    • Polly says:

      4 Apr4 April 09:39

      It definitely incentivises us to buy up many restaurant vouchers, stamps etc. We make sure to eat out each week too when it’s on. And we keep going to those restaurants afterwards. Gives a chance to try places we might not normally go eat at.

  • Anthony Edwards says:

    3 Apr3 April 22:20

    If this happens I think it’s really smart. They’re probably targeting people like me with this – My small, local, independent coffee shop takes Amex but I only use Amex to pay during shop small – as I know they have to pay more in fees if I do and (I think?) wait longer to get their money. I know this costs me 4 Avios a day but to be honest I’d rather they were successful so use curve fronted Virgin at non shop small times. This promotion will make me think about changing my long term behaviour which is probably the idea – and much more valuable than people coming in once and spending £10 exactly.

    • Louie says:

      4 Apr4 April 00:22

      Doesn’t benefit the shopkeeper in any way though. They get precisely no extra business from you yet have to pay more in fees.

• Gavin T says:

  3 Apr3 April 05:18

  I missed out on a few Shop Small credits when it ran last summer, as it’s now for “cardholder present” transactions only but at least two bars I went to had implemented online ordering only.

  • Alex W says:

    3 Apr3 April 07:50

    Might be worth asking Amex for credit via chat if you haven’t already?

    • Jamie says:

      3 Apr3 April 12:47

      From last summer? Get a life

• Tarmohamed says:

  3 Apr3 April 05:28

  If they can get the shop small map correct… I’ve seen shop small stickers in the store including the social distancing ones but when you get to the till the card machine doesn’t accept Amex.

• Mr(s) Entitled says:

  3 Apr3 April 06:39

  Let the record show that Amazing Hotels is co-hosted by both a male and female. Her name is Monica Galetti.

  • Number9 says:

    3 Apr3 April 07:48

    Giles Coren Is appalling presenter he annoys the life out of me. But I can still watch the hotels with subtitles mute button on , and don’t have to hear him.

  • TokyoFan says:

    3 Apr3 April 07:53

    Hear, hear!
    And she’s wonderful.

  • N says:

    3 Apr3 April 08:38

    Monica is excellent.

    Giles is crap.

  • KevinW says:

    7 Apr7 April 09:13

    👍

• Paul465 says:

  3 Apr3 April 07:46

  There’s an offer in my Nectar App if you use your Nectar Amex to make a purchase between 01/04-23/05/21 you get a 500 Nectar bonus. Doesn’t look like you have to opt in either.

• NvT1115 says:

  3 Apr3 April 08:00

  Can highly recommend Handpicked hotels – we had our wedding at Chilston Park in Kent and have stayed at some of their other venues in the UK. I would recommend Nutfield Priory if you want to be fairly near Gatwick but not at Gatwick. The chain also owns L’Horizon on St Brelades Bay Jersey which is arguably the best spot on the island as well as The Grand in St Helier

  • Chris Heyes says:

    3 Apr3 April 09:32

    NvT1115 The Grand at St Helier Wow brings back memory’s long while since stopped there was excellent highly recommend it if its not changed much
    Their was another one we stopped in as well just as good.
    can’t quite remember which was oposite the jetty
    I’m sure someone on here will know ?

    • NvT1115 says:

      3 Apr3 April 09:49

      Hi Chris – think The Grand is nearest the jetty, opposite The Jardins de la Mer. We visited L’Horizon in St Brelades last January and had planned to return with our daughters later in the year but alas along came Covid

• Aliks says:

  3 Apr3 April 08:01

  I dont think Amex helpdesk will give you credits for ShopSmall any more. They did in the early days, but now, if the payment goes through an aggregator like iZettle, it won’t match up to the name of the shop and thats the end of the matter.

  I used to search out small butchers, fishmongers etc and clock up £300+ purchases, but lately its hardly worth the effort.

  • Pid says:

    3 Apr3 April 08:24

    Disagree. They credited some of mine the last two times when an aggregator was used and these shop was advertised on the map.

  • Martin says:

    3 Apr3 April 08:27

    The T&C’s no longer specifically exclude iZettle – they did in 2019, IIRC.

  • lumma says:

    3 Apr3 April 09:00

    They no longer give you the credit if you find out that the store doesn’t actually take AMEX.

    My local pub, despite using AMEX in it for the last decade and it having Shop Small and “We say yes to American Express” stickers in the window, told me when I came to pay that they don’t accept it any more. Contacted AMEX and they said that there’s nothing that can be done apart from removing them from the map (they didn’t even ask me where I was so they could do this).

    • Chris Heyes says:

      3 Apr3 April 09:39

      lumma a few shops (in reality a lot) say they don’t take Amex when they do.
      Try making a substantial purchase then waking out when they say they don’t take Amex.
      The amount of times I’ve been called back beggars belief
      My motto is you don’t take Amex you don’t want my custom

      • Freddy says:

        3 Apr3 April 10:03

        Wow your a die hard amex fan from the sounds of it

        • David says:

          3 Apr3 April 10:34

          I would never refuse to shop somewhere who didn’t accept amex, that would be me demanding that merchant’s bear the higher fees (which they’d pass on to all their customers, not just me) so I could have earn higher rewards than I would on my John Lewis MasterCard – spectacularly entitled.

          However I would be put off shopping with a merchant who were happy to advertise their acceptance of amex (which presumably they do because it gains them a small number of extra customers) but not actually accept it – as I’d see that as them being less than honest.

  • NFH says:

    3 Apr3 April 09:39

    If a merchant doesn’t process the transaction via the merchant code that identifies it as eligible for Shop Small, for example if it instead uses iZettle, then Amex will manually give you the £5 credit because the merchant’s use of a different merchant code was outside your knowledge and control.

    • Christopher says:

      3 Apr3 April 11:24

      A few years ago maybe, but Amex have recently become very ‘tight’ on giving out ad-hoc shop small credits.

      • Pid says:

        3 Apr3 April 16:43

        As NFH has said I have never had a problem last year when a merchant has used iZettle. A quick chat and it is fixed.

• Anna says:

  3 Apr3 April 09:02

  It would be excellent if the Hilton/Marriott/IHG offers reappeared, especially as I imagine they were hardly used last year!

  • Harry T says:

    3 Apr3 April 10:13

    Agreed! I’m hopeful it’ll happen this month to encourage bookings for May onwards.

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