Samsung Pay gift cards also triggering small business credit

Stephen has previously reported about how gift card purchases through cash back app Fluz and through eGifter have been triggering Amex small business purchase credits. That has been an especially good deal through Fluz given that it is possible to get a decent discount on some gift cards (as much as $3.50 discount on $10) and then stack that with $5 back from Amex when buying a couple of cards. However, if you’re not interested in Fluz, another option has emerged: reports indicated that gift cards purchased through Samsung Pay are also triggering the small business credits.

The Deal

• Gift card purchases through Samsung Pay have been trigger Amex small business credits for those who have synced up the offer
• Beware that Amex has been clawback-happy over the past couple of years, so proceed with caution.

Quick Thoughts

Keep in mind that Amex has been pretty clawback-happy for the past couple of years. The extent of their clawback ridiculousness has only expanded over time, with clawbacks in some cases coming half a year after members closed a card. I would therefore be somewhat more hesitant to buy gift cards via Samsung Pay as it’s a stretch to have expected that Samsung Pay would code as a small business.

Fluz was a surprise, but given its relative obscurity, it really isn’t that surprising that they code as a small business. eGifter would have been more questionable in my opinion, but given that they are advertising the fact that purchases through them qualify for the credit, I’d be surprised if those purchases got clawed back (and therefore expect Fluz to also be safe).

Samsung Pay is less certain given the fact that Samsung is far from anybody’s definition of a small business. There is also the risk that Amex eventually decides that buying a Starbucks or Best Buy gift card constitutes a cash equivalent. I think that’s a ridiculous interpretation — I invite Amex to see how many of their employees will accept their paycheck in the form of Best Buy gift cards rather than cash and see how equivalent they find those gift cards to be — but is it worth the hassle of arguing it after the fact to hope to save sixty bucks? DoC thinks the risk of clawback is low here. He certainly may be right – after all, we’re talking about a pretty small amount of money. But I’d probably err toward the side of Fluz or eGifter if they carried the gift cards I wanted. One benefit at Samsung Pay is that they sell some gift cards you may want in flat $10 denominations.

One of my biggest frustrations with Amex at this point is that there is no way to turn an Amex Offer off. Should a cardholder be penalized because they used their credit card to make a purchase via Samsung Pay and they got a credit they didn’t expect to receive? I’d argue no — but last year they clawed back the 10% Dell Amex Offer on some people who stacked it with the $100 Business Platinum credit — which is exactly the sort of scenario where the customer has no ability to control Amex’s computer system and how it applies Amex Offers and statement credits.

I digress: the moral of the story is that you can probably trigger small business credits via Samsung Pay. It wouldn’t be my top pick. Any of these gift card options could get clawed back, but if I’m laying odds I’d expect these are at least somewhat more likely to be troublesome, so I’d rather at least have gotten a discount on the gift card in the first place.

H/T: Doctor of Credit

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