EXCLUSIVE: American Express Shop Small to return in June, tweaked

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

• Jane says:

  12 Apr12 April 03:38

  A garbage ‘offer’ now

• SydneySwan says:

  12 Apr12 April 04:08

  ”PS. This news means that the UK will not be following the new Australian model for ‘Shop Small’, which involves a year-round bonus of extra Membership Rewards points for purchases at small retailers.”

  Maybe not yet!

• Genghis says:

  12 Apr12 April 05:34

  “ There is no limit to how much CB you can receive”

  It has been limited to £50 back per card for the last two promos IIRC, last summer and winter.

  • Crafty says:

    12 Apr12 April 06:25

    It says £25 per card in the article.

    • Genghis says:

      12 Apr12 April 06:33

      When talking about the “winter version”

• Martin says:

  12 Apr12 April 06:29

  I wish they’d allow izettle terminals this time as that’s what 70% of small shops i go to use

  • Doug M says:

    12 Apr12 April 07:03

    I don’t bother with it at all. Without being aware of the various methods/types of payment system I know that I have about a one in three chance of it working.

    • Andrew says:

      12 Apr12 April 07:15

      Totally agree. I can’t be bothered with SS anymore. But good to see it’s back for those who can make it work.

    • Harry T says:

      12 Apr12 April 07:25

      I only use it on local businesses that I would support anyway, where I know Shop Small has worked in the past.

      • mark2 says:

        12 Apr12 April 08:36

        Having worked in the last iteration does not mean that it works now IME!

    • Claire says:

      12 Apr12 April 08:12

      That sounds about right. I have been to places listed on shop small that dont even take Amex, also transactions do not track and need to be chased.

      • john says:

        12 Apr12 April 13:16

        They work out eligibility on places that have actually processed an amex transaction within a specific window. So it may be that after that time, the shop has changed payment provider, or it could be that the shop claims not to take amex, but their tills would actually process it if you don’t ask and just pay..

  • Andrew says:

    12 Apr12 April 08:15

    I’ve definitely had iZettle transactions recognised for ShopSmall.

  • Hotelier says:

    12 Apr12 April 10:22

    Few retailers that worked last summer and before that where not longer working in winter to my surprise.
    Also last shop small when tried to claim to Amex that some retailers listed where no longer shop small or even taking Amex, they said it was only as reference and even if mistakes were there, no manual credit would be added, even with receipts.

• Tim W. says:

  12 Apr12 April 07:17

  What a shame that they couldn’t get the apostrophe the correct way round in the logo!

  • Mike says:

    12 Apr12 April 07:30

    That is what I thought – you would have thought AMEX had proof readers

    • C says:

      12 Apr12 April 07:50

      Autocorrect. And no one dares correct the machine.

      • Wally1976 says:

        12 Apr12 April 08:17

        Surely autocorrect wouldn’t ‘correct’ an apostrophe by turning it upside down!? Is it a ‘feature’ of the font they’ve used or something?

        • Andrew says:

          12 Apr12 April 08:24

          The autocorrect is treating it as a quotation mark rather than an apostrophe.

• Polly says:

  12 Apr12 April 07:36

  Will definitely use it to buy restaurant vouchers, stamps from small newsagents, even our dentist let me run all our cards through as credit for the next expensive (one of many) visit…etc as Tesco says.. every little helps. It’s a decent effort by Amex to continue to show willing.

  Plus, liking these increased bonus offers atm!

  • Jonathan says:

    12 Apr12 April 07:46

    Careful if you’re putting multiple £15 transactions through at the dentist. Think Genghis got in a bit of bother over split payments & I’ve certainly heard of other people being banned for “gaming”. It’s pretty obvious to even a simple algorithm what is normal behaviour (£15/day in a cafe/pub/restaurant) & what’s not (10 x £15 at the dentist where you normally spend £150 twice a year).

    • Genghis says:

      12 Apr12 April 07:54

      My payments weren’t split. They were just lots of £10 transactions.

      • Mr(s) Entitled says:

        12 Apr12 April 09:22

        You paid per tooth?

    • Polly says:

      12 Apr12 April 09:45

      Am very aware, no worries. But applied to 4 dental accounts, wasn’t really much, but a nice little bonus. Only thing we split normally are the restaurant bills. Totally acceptable. But yes Tnx for the warning, and we must be cautious.
      But the limit this time is different, so less playing with fivers possible.

• Mike says:

  12 Apr12 April 07:48

  Do we think there will be another Government “Eat Out to Help Out” event this year – to coincide with indoor venues reopening perhaps

  • Harry T says:

    12 Apr12 April 08:02

    I don’t think so. It was very expensive and spread the virus, unfortunately. More to the point, there is good reason to think that consumers have plenty of savings and pent up demand (see article in today’s FT). I don’t think people will need encouraging to spend money this summer.

    • Claire says:

      12 Apr12 April 08:16

      I don’t think that it spread the virus in the way that it is to blame for a rise in cases, since plenty of other countries experienced an increase in cases who did not do eat out to help out, however it has subsequently got so much negativity attached to it I agree that it wont be repeated and I agree that people wont need to be encouraged out this summer 🙂

      • Polly says:

        12 Apr12 April 09:37

        Yes, it was seen as a subsidy to the better off, who could already afford to eat out! Not very PC, methinks…so we will be spending our own cash this time.
        Still spending our Dec SS restaurant vouchers atm. Weekly takeaways. Currently subsidised by Uber eats £15 off the odd order…

        Were due to eat out at our local today, but it’s snowing here in Surrey so that’s not going to happen. Feel sorry for the big restaurant openings today.

  • will says:

    12 Apr12 April 09:51

    With the money they’ve flushed all all sorts of nonsense, I’d like to think they’ll try and do something to kick start the revenue of industries they’ve spent a fortune ensuring are still liquid enough to open their doors post restrictions.

    • Rob says:

      12 Apr12 April 10:04

      It’s a waste of money. For better or worse, it is the people who eat out the most who have cleaned up over the last year.

      • Lady London says:

        12 Apr12 April 12:36

        Brilliant comnent Rob. Does, luckily for them,
        mean a lot of people that read HfP are in the “done well” category.

        Eat Out to Help Out cheered lots of us up at the time and must have helped a few because inflation went down to an incredibly low figure while it was on.

        • Polly says:

          12 Apr12 April 23:42

          Agree, we loved planning where we were going to eat, esp nice combined with SS at the time. Def cheered us up…haven’t seen my family in 20 mths, so looking forward finally to a flight when we don’t have to pay exorbitant testing costs.

  • Dace says:

    13 Apr13 April 10:13

    I cannot see it, but that was a glorious promotion for me. There is a very good restaurant near me where they typically about 40pp (excluding drinks.)

    However, on Tuesday, they do a 50% off night, which then doubled with the Eat Out Scheme and they also take Amex; so for me, a meal I would normally be happy to pay £40pp for ended up at £5pp. Ended up doing that three times during the run.

• The real John says:

  12 Apr12 April 07:49

  The only shop I’ve found that has anything I want to buy is a takeaway – but their items are all priced at £6-£7 (which I wouldn’t normally pay).

  So with the £10 offer I had to spend £13.50 and pay £8.50, for 2 people. With the new offer I will have to spend ~£18 and pay ~£13, which means 1 meal goes into the microwave to keep warm for later and we still have to get another half meal each.

  • J says:

    12 Apr12 April 08:14

    Or spend £13.50, round up to £15, and end up paying £10 for 2. I’m yet to find somewhere that isn’t happy for you to pay more! Some even give the difference back in cash.

    • Pete M says:

      12 Apr12 April 11:11

      I had the oddest experience in a little soap shop in Oxford Market in December last year related to this. Asked the assistant to round up my purchase to £10, the owner stepped in and said “no”. I was rather surprised – she said she appreciated the gesture, but didn’t need the charity. Once I explained it was to get my £5 back from Amex she was happy to put it through…!

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