Amex Small Business Offer: Double Rewards at Small Businesses through Year’s End on All Cards

The Offer

Direct Link 

• Enroll all of your personal or business Amex cards to get double rewards at small businesses for the remainder of 2016

Double rewards is not earned on bonus categories or any other bonus offer on the card.

As far as I know, the only way to enroll in this offer is using the direct link above.

Our Verdict

(I’m putting the fine print at the end this time since it’s so long.)

The offer itself it quite nice. For example, you can get 2x SPG points per dollar at small businesses, and if you have the other double SPG offer, you’ll end up with 3x per dollar. The 1.5% Schwab card will earn 3% at small businesses. Everyday Preferred will get 2.5 MR at small businesses.

The big limitation of course, is that most of us do the large majority of our spend at large businesses, not small ones.

Overall, I’d say it’s a nice offer had it come any other time of the year. But coming now as a Small Business season offer, it’s likely that this is all Amex has planned to replace the old Small Business Saturday offers, which used to be much better.

Disappointment.

The Fine Print

Frequently Asked Questions

Once you enroll the primary card, all authorized-user cards will automatically get the double rewards.

You will not earn 2X rewards (i) on any bonus you may already receive with your Card, including any additional points/miles/cash back that you may already receive when you spend on certain types of purchases or at certain merchants or (ii) on any other bonus/rewards you may earn with a different promotion or offer from American Express. This offer applies to the first $250,000 in purchases for each eligible Card Account issued to a business and the first $100,000 in purchases for each eligible Card Account issued for personal use, starting from the time you complete enrollment through 12/31/16.

You must enroll your eligible American Express Card at amex.co/shopsmalloffer to start earning 2X Rewards on purchases at qualifying small businesses through 12/31/16. If you have more than one eligible Card, you must separately enroll each Card. The following explains how eligible enrolled Cards earn 2X Rewards during the offer period:

• Blue Cash Rewards Offer: Earn an additional 1% cash back per dollar of purchases using an enrolled Blue Cash Everyday® Card or Blue Cash Preferred® Card at qualifying small businesses. You will receive cash back only in the form of Blue Cash Reward Dollars which can be redeemed for statement credits.
• Blue Sky Points Offer: Earn one additional Blue Sky point per dollar of purchases using an enrolled Blue Sky from American Express® or Blue Sky Preferred from American Express® at qualifying small businesses.
• Delta Miles Offer: Earn one additional mile per dollar of purchases using an enrolled Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card, Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card, Delta Reserve® Credit Card from American Express, Delta SkyMiles® Options, Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card, Delta SkyMiles® Business Credit Card, Gold Delta SkyMiles® Business Credit Card, Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Business Credit Card or Delta Reserve for Business Credit Card at qualifying small businesses.
• HHonors Points Offer: Earn three additional Hilton HHonors Bonus Points per dollar of purchases using an enrolled Hilton HHonors™ Card from American Express or Hilton HHonors™ Surpass® Card from American Express at qualifying small businesses.
• Lowe’s Business Rewards Points Offer: Earn one additional Lowe’s Business Rewards point per dollar of purchases using an enrolled Lowe’s Business Rewards Card from American Express at qualifying small businesses.
• Membership Rewards Points Offer: Earn one additional Membership Rewards Point per dollar of purchases using one of the following enrolled Cards at qualifying small businesses: Centurion® Card from American Express , The Platinum Card® from American Express, Premier Rewards Gold Card from American Express, Traditional Gold Card from American Express, Senior Gold Card from American Express, Gold Card from American Express, American Express® Green Card, American Express® Traditional Green Card, Senior Member Card from American Express, Zync® from American Express, Blue from American Express®, Amex EveryDay® Card, Amex EveryDay® Preferred Card, The American Express® Gold Card for Ameriprise Financial, The Platinum Card® from American Express for Ameriprise Financial, Platinum Card® from American Express for Charles Schwab, Fidelity American Express Green, Fidelity American Express Gold, Fidelity American Express Platinum, Centurion® Card from American Express for Goldman Sachs Clients , The Platinum Card® from American Express for Goldman Sachs, The Mercedes-Benz Credit Card from American Express, Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Mercedes-Benz, Morgan Stanley Credit Card from American Express, Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Morgan Stanley, Business Centurion® Card from American Express, Business Platinum Card®, The Business Gold Rewards Card, Business Green Rewards Card, Business Management Account®, The Business Membership Rewards Card from American Express®, Blue for Business® Credit Card or Business Platinum Credit Card. Enrollment in the offer and the Membership Rewards Program is required. For Amex EveryDay® Card products, when we calculate the extra points available as a bonus to Amex EveryDay® Card Members, points awarded under this offer will not be included. Terms and Conditions for the Membership Rewards® program apply. Visit membershiprewards.com/terms or call 1-800-AXP EARN (297-3276) for more information. The value of Membership Rewards points varies according to how you choose to use them. To learn more, go to www.membershiprewards.com/pointsinfo.
• Plenti Point Offer: Earn one additional Plenti Point per dollar of purchases using an enrolled Plenti® Credit Card from Amex at qualifying small businesses.
• SimplyCash Cash Back Offer: Earn an additional 1% cash back per dollar of purchases using an enrolled SimplyCash® Business Credit Card or SimplyCash® Plus Business Credit Card at qualifying small businesses. You will receive cash back in the form of a statement credit.
• Schwab Cash Back Offer: Earn an additional 1.5% cash back per dollar of purchases using an enrolled Charles Schwab Investor Credit Card™ from American Express at qualifying small businesses. Cash back will be automatically deposited into your eligible Schwab brokerage account.
• Starpoints Offer: Earn one additional Starpoint per dollar of purchases using an enrolled Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express or Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card at qualifying small businesses.

Qualifying small merchant locations appear on the Shop Small® Map (including the searchable directory), available at shopsmallnow.americanexpress.com. 

What you earn with this offer will be posted to your account within 10-12 weeks after the end of the offer period; and may be reversed if a qualifying purchase is returned or cancelled.

Ineligible American Express Cards

The following American Express Cards are not eligible for this 2X Rewards Offer: Prepaid Cards, Corporate Cards, Cards issued by other financial institutions, Blue Cash®, Blue Cash InStore, Blue for Students®, Cash Rebate Card, American Express® Platinum Cash Rebate Card, Clear from American Express®, One from American Express, Optima products, Blue Cash® for Business, Business Cash Rebate Card, Business Gold Card, Business Green Card, Business Purchase Account®, Executive Business Card, Platinum Business FreedomPass® Credit Card, Platinum Business Premium Cash Rebate Card, The Plum Card®.

Hat tip to S.