American Express Small Business Saturday 2013 – $10 Bonus, not $25

American Express Small Business Saturday 2013 – $10 Bonus, not $25

via My Money Blog:

American Express has confirmed that they will bring back Small Business Saturday (SBS) on November 30th in 2013. The significant change this year is that now it is a $10 statement credit instead of the $25 from previous years.

Register any eligible American Express Card to get a one-time $10 statement credit when you spend $10 or more on 11/30/13 in a single, in-store transaction at a qualifying small business that appears on the Small Business Saturday Map. Supply is limited, so come back on Nov 24 to register.

Other important terms and tips:

• Registration opens at 12:00 A.M. MST (“Mountain Standard Time”) on November 24, 2013. The number of registrations is limited. I would plan on enrolling some time during the first day to be safe.


• Qualifying small business locations appear on the Small Business Saturday® Map, available beginning on November 21, 2013 at ShopSmall.com. The map isn’t perfect, so use your common sense.


• If you don’t have anything specific in mind, even gift cards to a local non-chain restaurant, grocer, hardware store, or clothing boutique count.


• In previous years, additional authorized user cards have been eligible for their own $10 credit. (Authorized user cards with AmEx get their own unique card number.) I see nothing that changes that in this year’s rules. Many American Express cards offer additional cards for free to authorized users like your spouse, partner, or older children.


• Corporate Cards and all prepaid Card products (other than American Express Serve®) are not eligible.

Small Business Saturday remains a very creative way for American Express to tell the public that they’ve greatly increased acceptance of their cards at small businesses, which has always been their relative weak spot due to their slightly higher fees for the merchant. (It also makes small business that aren’t accepting AmEx to think twice…)

I’ve already mentioned that the only annual fee card I voluntarily pay for is the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express which has an annual fee of $65 (first year is free). My wife gets her own card as an authorized user with no additional annual fee. I also have several other AmEx cards where I haven’t paid an annual fee. So each of my Amex cards will get $10 this year which helps offset the annual fee.

You can also get the same perks from no annual fee AmEx’s like the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express with 3% back at supermarkets (now first $6,000 a year) all year round.

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