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Does anyone know when the shop small offers tend to start and finish or if they have any news on what will be offered this year?
ThanksApparently it appears to have been withdrawn.
Apparently it appears to have been withdrawn.
Ah no way! That’s a real shame.
Finding it really hard at the moment to think of reasons to keep my Amex, especially with the cost increase.I know it’s a bit depressing really, I only know this as it has been mentioned a few times on the forum, I was too late to the party, so never used it personally. I’m paying the annual costs of three cards, so I appreciate it does mount up a bit.
Apparently it appears to have been withdrawn.
Ah no way! That’s a real shame.
Finding it really hard at the moment to think of reasons to keep my Amex, especially with the cost increase.It was a huge cost for Amex and was ultimately generating so many complaints that overall it created more ill will than goodwill so not a good use of the marketing budget.
As has been mentioned previously, many of the problems stem from the fact that with the changing structure of UK payments, Amex often no longer knows which merchants take Amex and many of those will no longer track anyway because they no longer have an active direct merchant account with Amex.
It was a huge cost for Amex and was ultimately generating so many complaints that overall it created more ill will than goodwill so not a good use of the marketing budget.
As per the majority of your posts @JDB, you are presenting fact here, not your personal opinion.
Please evidence your source for the cost and complaint levels stated in your post being ‘huge’ and ‘so many’, whilst disclosing the number of ‘ill will’ versus ‘goodwill’ complaints, or the difference between. This is all detail you must have sight of to make such statements.
@Points Hound – your comment appears to be Pharisaic rather than one born of any genuine interest, but just in case it is the latter, Amex has published figures in the past, you can also talk to them. In respect of ill will/complaints, again you can talk to Amex, look at FOS decisions, extrapolate what you will from Amex’s change of policy in pursuing missing SS credits and you could do worse than reading all the negative comments/moans on this site which also reference contacting Amex. I don’t usually read any other sites but out of interest I googled it this morning and struggled to find anything positive save marketing materials! If you were in charge of a European rewards/benefits budget of c.£650m would you spend it on SS in the face of this? It’s another customer killed benefit.
It’s another customer killed benefit.
What nonsense – it’s saving them money. Pure and simple.
It’s not nonsense at all.
People were splitting even relatively small expenses across numerous cards in order to maximise the offer for themselves at AMEXs expense.
There were people on here bragging about how they used multiple cards etc
Over over the years AMEX ratcheted it down to limiting the number of times you could get the offer.
Read the restrictions for last year for example
https://www.headforpoints.com/2023/12/01/start-today-american-express-shop-small/
In 2022 it was a max of £25 per card. In 2023 it went down to £15 per card.
I think you’ve just made my point for me…
Amex liked the offer when it encouraged business to sign up and pay their higher merchant fees, but when customers started to actually take up the offer they disliked it because it cost them money.
Your logic suggests that I shouldn’t use my Amex supplied Priority Pass because it will cost Amex money – or I shouldn’t walk down to Harvey Nichols to buy some overpriced tut in order to utilise that benefit…
I do accept that people who take out travel insurance, then co-incidentally have items stolen or damaged in their luggage every trip are defrauding the company, but when something like Shop Small is advertised as a benefit of your Amex card, using that benefit is not abusing the system. When people have multiple Amex cards, they are most likely paying for at least one of them, recouping some of that cost by using a strongly promoted benefit is just sensible.
I do agree though that when it dropped down to 15 quid it became a bit laughable and not worth the expense of promoting
@notrob – I don’t think the OP made your point for you, nor clearly did you understand my point. I didn’t think it was necessary to spell out that not running Shop Small will save Amex money but that’s not actually why they are stopping it.
I think your final phrase saying Shop Small “became a bit laughable and not worth the expense of promoting” covers why SS was no longer worthwhile, so they are spending money on other rewards/benefits although they might not be so visible as the cost of providing said benefits keeps rising.
While Shop Small was one of few universal benefits, it wasn’t used/appreciated as universally. Your analysis re merchant fees etc. is simply incorrect and not reflective of the way Amex has been charging for many years, nor indeed how card acceptance systems have changed.
@Points Hound – your comment appears to be Pharisaic rather than one born of any genuine interest, but just in case it is the latter, Amex has published figures in the past, you can also talk to them. In respect of ill will/complaints, again you can talk to Amex, look at FOS decisions, extrapolate what you will from Amex’s change of policy in pursuing missing SS credits and you could do worse than reading all the negative comments/moans on this site which also reference contacting Amex. I don’t usually read any other sites but out of interest I googled it this morning and struggled to find anything positive save marketing materials! If you were in charge of a European rewards/benefits budget of c.£650m would you spend it on SS in the face of this? It’s another customer killed benefit.
Thanks for clarifying @JDB.
“You could look this up”
“they sometimes publish info”
“you can speak to Amex if you want”
“from what I could see on Google and HFP”100% opinion 😂
Clarity, as opposed to trying to appear almighty. Good advice.
*If you were in charge of a European rewards/benefits budget of c.£650m would you spend it on SS in the face of this?* – this bears no relevance to my post nor point, and is cleverly placed distraction from the actual topic, however, no I would not.
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