(EXPIRED) Amex Shop Small offer may be coming for $10 back on $10 up to 5 times [enrollment required, not widely available yet]

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GC Galore reports on an Amex Connect activation link for Amex Shop Small that looks like Amex intends to offer a credit of $10 when you spend $10 or more at Shop Small businesses. The activation link terms say that the activation link is only valid for those Amex cards not issued by Amex and that cardholders of Amex-issued cards should check their Amex Offers to sync. We haven’t yet seen this appear as an Amex Offer, but hopefully we will soon.

The Deal

• Amex is offering a $10 statement credit when you spend $10 or more up to 5 times at Shop Small businesses. Note that this offer is currently only available on Amex cards not issued by American Express via Amex Connect.
• Direct link to this offer on Amex Connect

Key Terms

• Expires December 31, 2021.
• Limit of 5 statements credits (total of $50 back) per Card Member.
• A “qualifying purchase” means a purchase made at a business location on the Shop Small Map in the US or US territories available, at americanexpress.com/networkshopsmall, or the Online Directory, available at americanexpress.com/shopsmallonline, with your enrolled Card or with Pay with Points linked to an enrolled Card on or before 12/31/2021 in accordance with these terms. (Note that while the terms state that Shop Small businesses need to be on the map, this is not always true in practice)
• The following do NOT count as a qualifying purchase: fees or interest charges, cash advances, purchases of traveler’s checks, purchases or reloading of prepaid Cards, purchases of any cash equivalents or purchases made in foreign currencies.

Quick Thoughts

This could be a great deal for some easy freebies via small businesses that also shows them some support. I’ve used these offers in the past for restaurant spend, new running shoes at a small sporting goods store (obviously $10 didn’t cover the purchase — back in the day you could get this type of offer on all of your Amex cards instead of just one), and plenty of other things.

The Amex Connect website can sometimes be used to sync Amex Offers even when they don’t show up in your “offers” section. In this case, it says that the Connect site is good for Amex cards not issued by Amex. Elan Financial issues a number of Amex cards for smaller banks and both Wells Fargo and Fidelity had Amex cards for years. If you have one of those types of Amex cards, you should be able to sync it. Doctor of Credit speculated that maybe you could sync to a Bluebird or Serve, but that didn’t work for Bluebird or Serve cards in my household.

Still, I imagine that they will eventually roll this out to all cardholders rather than having it only for third-party Amex cards, so be on the lookout for an opportunity to sync this up via Amex Offers.

Remember that while Amex produces a Shop Small map and says that purchases must be at businesses included on the map, there are many merchants that likely qualify that do not show up on the map. While the map is a reasonable indication that a particular business should qualify, it has not been all-inclusive.