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One of the most popular travel hacks (that has little to do with travel but a lot to do with “free money“) is back again for another year. American Express cardholders can now register their card(s) for the Shop Small promotion.
The promotion will run from 1-16 December, 2018. In principle, it is pretty simple – spend more than £10 at a participating merchant and receive a £5 statement credit. You can only receive one £5 credit per merchant.
The tricky part can be determining which merchants are participating. But if you click on this map, you’ll be taken to the Shop Small website where merchants are placed on an interactive map.
The fun element of the promotion is determining which pubs are participating, and organising a pub crawl with a few mates… such that American Express pays for a substantial part of your holiday festivities.
You can register with ANY American Express card – click here to do so – although there are far fewer of these in circulation with the demise of the MBNA airline dual Amex/Visa. Even supplementary cards can participate if they register separately.
This IS one of my favourite promotions as, despite best intentions, it can be too easy to do all of one’s shopping at the large chains. But at least once a year we are reminded to support smaller, independent merchants in the run-up to the holidays…
What’s your record for the amount of £5 statement credits received? Are you going to participate this year as well?
Are Lloyds Amex cards included as in previous years?
They should be, but you can always try to register and let us know. 😉
People were saying on HFP that unfortunately they are not.
No idea to be honest. I thought Amex had pulled all of its third party cards anyhow, but assumed there might still be a few stragglers that would be allowed to continue with this promo.
From the Shop Small T&Cs:
“Offer excludes Lloyds Bank, Corporate and Pre-Paid Cards.”
Thanks for clearing that up.
I’m glad that you enjoy it, Craig.
This is of no value to a small proportion of card holders like me.
I do not have a chance to shop locally in the week as I’m away at work (and do not have time to get out of the office). At the weekend I simply do a supermarket shop. This might be supplemented by online purchases during the week.
To be fair, I did not expect there to be any establishments near where I live that would be listed on the map, as I live in a rural village in Kent. However, the local pub is listed, as is the village store in the next village along.
I’m pretty surprised at just how many places near me in the Lakes District are part of the promotion, although only one deli near me actually promotes it actively and most of the others aren’t aware that it exists.
I have been able to take advantage of this in the past few years when I renewed my professional annual membership with the Australian Certified Practising Accountants (CPA). I did not know that it was eligible until one year I paid for the membership with my BA Amex card and lo and behold (!) I received an email that I would get back £5 🙂 – better than nothing.
I had 2 on the list that refused to even accept Amex last year.
Called customer services to let them know and they credited me with the fivers as a goodwill gesture.