AMEX is offering 2X points at small businesses through the end of 2016, after you enroll your card. Best of all, the offer applies to SPG AMEX cards, as well as AMEX Membership Rewards cards such as the AMEX Platinum, AMEX Business Platinum, AMEX Premier Rewards Gold card, AMEX EveryDay Preferred card, etc. Here are the details, followed by my analysis.
- Enroll your eligible American Express card at amex.co/shopsmalloffer
- Earn 2X points at qualifying small business through 12/31/16 with your enrolled card.
- To qualify for 2X, the small business must be on the Shop Small Map, at shopsmallnow.com
- Purchases with political campaigns or political action committees as well as purchases at gas or service stations do not qualify, regardless of whether they appear on the Shop Small Map.
- You won't earn 2X on category bonuses; so for example, for small independent grocery stores, your AMEX EveryDay Preferred will earn a maximum of 5.5X, not 9X, if using the card for 30 or more transactions per billing cycle). Additionally, For Amex EveryDay® Card products, when AMEX calculates the extra points available as a bonus to Amex EveryDay Card Members, points awarded under this offer will not be included.
- The 2X is on the first $250,000 in purchases for each eligible AMEX Business card, and on the first $100,000 in spend for each eligible personal AMEX
- Bonus points from this promotion will be posted to your account within 10-12 weeks after the end of the offer period
- Certain cards are excluded from the 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.
Analysis
Is it coincidence, or is AMEX coming out with a variety of new perks and promotions because of the 100K Chase Sapphire Reserve? While I think it's the latter, I'm not complaining. I have a $5000 charge that I need to put on my AMEX Business Platinum, for example, which would earn 1.5 points per dollar; with the extra point, it will be 2.5 points per dollar.
I'm especially happy that the SPG AMEX, which I usually only use for an occasional otherwise unbonused charge, will earn 2X Starpoints per dollar. That will be my go-to card for small businesses from now until the end of the year, although it's true that the bulk of our shopping spend is at 5X, via Amazon, Whole Foods, and restaurants that we bought gift certificates for with the Chase Freedom during Q3, when restaurants were a 5X category.
I always recommend building a critical mass of miles and points across several different programs, to hedge against devaluations and give yourself more options for award redemptions. We have a good number of Chase Ultimate Rewards points and AMEX Membership Rewards points, but few Starpoints, so this promotion comes in handy for us. On the other hand, for clients with 1 million SPG Starpoints but no other miles and points, I'd recommend building up Membership Rewards points and also Chase Ultimate Rewards points, via the Chase Sapphire Reserve, since Membership Rewards points and Ultimate Rewards points transfer instantly to several programs, whereas Starpoint transfers can take longer.
How do you plan to maximize this new AMEX 2X promotion?
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HT: Reddit
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