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Last month American Express released a great new Amex Offer. Called Shop Small, it offers $5 back when spending $10 at a wide range of small businesses. Even better, it can be used up to 10 times during the promotion period for total savings of up to $50.
Shortly after the offer was released, data points came in of some somewhat surprising businesses that triggered the statement credit, including the gift card selling websites eGifter and MyGiftCardsPlus.
Another gift card merchant that triggered the $5 statement credits was the Fluz app. As a result, many people signed up for the app for the first time because you could buy many gift card brands (like Walmart and Starbucks) in $10 denominations, as well as other brands like Amazon in $15 denominations.
One of the great features of Fluz is that you earn cashback on each gift card you purchase, so you earn that cashback in addition to the $5 statement credit from the Amex Offer.
Another nice feature with Fluz is that when signing up via a referral link, you receive three vouchers that can be used to earn up to 35% bonus cashback on more than a dozen different gift card brands. Those vouchers are limited to $3.50 bonus cashback and so they’re not hugely rewarding, but if you use all three then that’s effectively a $10.50 signup bonus. You then receive another of those vouchers for every friend or family member that you refer after they make their first purchase.
Something important to note with the Fluz vouchers is that they expire after 60 days. We published the post about Fluz purchases triggering the Amex Offer on July 8, so if you signed up for Fluz back then, you only have 10 days or so to redeem those vouchers. I’m sure there are several people who bought ten $10-$15 gift cards to max out the Shop Small Amex Offer, but who also still have vouchers sitting there as they bought non-voucher brands like Amazon and Walmart.
As a recap, here are the gift card brands you can redeem your vouchers for, along with their bonus cashback rates.
- Starbucks – 35%
- Spotify – 35%
- CVS – 35%
- Chipotle – 35%
- Gubhub – 35%
- Seamless – 35%
- Taco Bell – 35%
- Burger King – 35%
- Jamba Juice – 35%
- The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf – 35%
- Peet’s Coffee & Tea – 35%
- Domino’s – 25%
- Papa John’s – 25%
- Uber Eats – 20%
- DoorDash – 20%
- Hulu – 15%
- Netflix – 12%
- Dunkin’ Donuts – 12%
Note that the bonus cashback is in addition to the standard cashback rate. For example, Starbucks is one of the voucher stores and Fluz is offering 2% cashback as their standard rate. Buying a $10 Starbucks gift card will therefore earn you the following when using a voucher:
- $0.20 standard cashback
- $3.50 bonus cashback from the voucher
- $5 cashback from American Express if paying with a card with the Shop Small Amex Offer loaded
- Total cashback = $8.70 on a $10 purchase
Seeing as Starbucks earns the maximum 35% bonus cashback, you only need to buy a $10 gift card to max out the bonus. For brands offering a lower bonus cashback percentage, you need to buy a higher value gift card if you want to get the full $3.50 bonus. For example, with Fluz offering 20% bonus cashback for Uber Eats, you need to buy a $17.50 gift card to get the full $3.50 bonus available.
Check out our original post for a little more information about how the Amex Offer was working with Fluz. For a more detailed explanation as to how Fluz works, check out this guide I wrote on GC Galore.
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Actually the magic number is $17.48, not $17.50
$17.48 x 20% = $3.496 which rounds up to $3.50
:):):)
Stephen and others,
I am having a similar issue to John. When Stephen posted a blog about Fluz around three weeks ago, I signed up and got the 3 vouchers. I signed up using my AMEX Hilton Surpass to take advantage of the AMEX offer. I tested it by buying a $10 CVS gift card, and AMEX credited me the $5, so it seemed everything work out. Today, I went to purchase more gift cards to use my two remaining vouchers, and Fluz is only allowing me to use Paypal as a payment option. The option to use a credit card is grayed out, even though my Hilton Surpass is still listed in my account. I even verified the card again, and Fluz still won’t let me use it. Any suggestions? I was hoping to use it to finish off the small business AMEX offer. Thanks!
If you’ve verified the card, it should – in theory – be fine. Seeing as it’s not, I’d reach out to Fluz in the app as they seem to be pretty good about resolving issues quickly.
I reached out to Fluz to let them know about the issues people have been having with Amex cards. They asked for you to email ask@fluz.app to get this resolved on your account.
Thanks, Stephen.
Fluz now thinks that Amex credit cards are “prepaid cards” and therefore gives me an error when trying to use it.
Strange. Are you using one you already saved or trying to enter card number manually?
Maybe they changed something on the back end recently. I saw in an email last week from them that purchases should now code as office supply and even had pics of CIC and USBiz$ cards on the announcement
It is a new card that I am trying to enter manually. Yeah who knows what changed. I decided to use my expiring vouchers by checking out with PayPal but not taking my Amex aspire card is bizarre.
Are you using the 4 digit security code on the front or the 3 digit on the back. Was curious so just added my new Amex BBP with 4 digit code and added just fine
I am using the 4 digit code on the front. I did just add my BBP as a test and it went through fine. So who knows what bizarre issue on fluz’s end leads it to believe that the aspire card is a prepaid card! Thanks for your help in trying to figure this out but I will move on and find a different use for my small business offer.
I reached out to Fluz to let them know about the issues people have been having with Amex cards. They asked for you to email ask@fluz.app to get this resolved on your account.
I don’t think your math works out…
Which math was incorrect?