Get £5 back on a £10 purchase via American Express ‘Shop Small’

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Shop Small is back! If you have an American Express credit or charge card (unless it is a Lloyds Avios one), you can make big savings on your Christmas shopping from tomorrow (Saturday) until 16th December with ‘Shop Small’.

American Express is the major UK sponsor of a scheme called ‘Shop Small’, designed to encourage you to shop in local independent stores instead of major chains.

Starting on Saturday and running until 16th December, you will receive £5 cashback on EVERY transaction you make for £10 or more at a participating ‘Shop Small’ business.

American Express Amex Shop Small

There are very few rules apart from the fact that you can only get one £5 cashback per shop per card. You can, of course, register multiple American Express cards if you have more than one.

It is a simple process:

You MUST register your credit or charge card before making a ‘Shop Small’ purchase

You can register British Airways, Harrods, Costco, Starwood, Gold, Platinum, Platinum Cashback, Amex Rewards and Green American Express cards by going to the American Express website, logging in and looking under ‘My Offers’ on the statement page.

Note that Corporate and pre-paid Amex cards do not qualify. Lloyds Avios Rewards cards are also now blocked.

You can register supplementary cards (an additional card held by your partner on the same account) as long as it has a different card number to your main card and has its own separate Amex log-in.

Find participating small shops

The main Shop Small site is amexshopsmall.co.uk which contains a link to an interactive map where you can find participating shops in your area. You will also often see a Shop Small sticker in a shop window.

Beware that this map, in previous years, has not been accurate. Often in a good way (some shops not featured give the credit) and often in a bad way (shops on the map are closed or don’t even accept Amex). Your best option is to use your Amex whenever you can during the Shop Small period and see what hits.

It is worth noting that it is not just sellers of ‘things’ who are taking part. You will find cafes and even the occasional pub taking part!

Make a qualifying purchase of £10 or more

You can make one purchase per registered card per shop that is taking part in ‘Shop Small’.

You should receive an email or phone notification soon after making your purchase, although you shouldn’t panic if you don’t.

A £5 credit for every £10 purchase will be added onto your credit card statement within a few days.

For clarity …. this promotion is fully funded by American Express as part of its campaign to encourage more small shops to accept the card. It is not funded by the shop so you shouldn’t feel guilty about taking part.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 2021 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit or charge card, here are our November 2021 recommendations based on the current sign-up bonus.

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the top current deals:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers.

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and a long list of travel benefits Read our full review

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending:

Barclaycard Select Cashback Credit Card

1% cashback and no annual fee Read our full review

Category

American Express Gold card, American Express Platinum card, British Airways American Express, Marriott Bonvoy American Express

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Mike says:

1 Dec1 December 08:06

OT (but Amex related) and sorry if it’s appeared elsewhere before.
I’ve had a tough time with the BP app for two reasons with their spend 30, get £10 credit promotion.

1) the app failed to authorise the pump at the first station for whatever reason. By this time I was causing a tailback onto the roundabout and slowing traffic down on a major road. I then cancelled and left site but received an email saying I had redeemed the offer (which will probably be reversed).
2) I did get the app to work later on, but noticed something in the terms that the pump would cut off 50p below the limit. For this reason I went with £31 and got £30.46 worth of fuel (well £29.4x worth of fuel given BPs inflated prices). I can imagine lots of people clicking on £30 and then having their payout initially authorised and then reverses.

I’m figuring on having to chase for this tenner!
- Shoestring says:
  
  1 Dec1 December 08:10
  
  Good tip on the £31. Some people are saying put in any old figure over £30 – eg £50 – and just cut it off yourself when you go £30.01.
  - Geoff says:
    
    1 Dec1 December 13:36
    
    Yes, now I have read the app terms more closely it says that the pump may cut off at 50p, or as much as the cost per litre, before the nominated amount which caught me out. Hopefully be able to do another top up before the end of the year. Nowhere else, where you can pre-select an amount, have I seen the pump cut off below the sleeted figure.
- Mr Dee says:
  
  1 Dec1 December 08:18
  
  This offer is a load of rubbish
  - Sussex bantam says:
    
    1 Dec1 December 08:32
    
    The offers good- it’s the app that’s rubbish !
    - RussellH says:
      
      1 Dec1 December 11:48
      
      Yes, if they just did it like the other offers – use the card in the normal way – it would eliminate all the hassle and those of us without android or ios gadgets could take part too
    - Rich says:
      
      1 Dec1 December 11:52
      
      But the offer’s there to encourage you to use the app, not because BP are feeling generous!
    - Sussex bantam says:
      
      1 Dec1 December 12:35
      
      It’s not encouraging me to use the app though – quite the reverse !
  - Brian W says:
    
    1 Dec1 December 17:56
    
    Worked fine for me. Asked for £32 of fuel in the app and stoped at £30.28. Got the Amex email straight away. The app lets you load all your cards in so easy to switch to the next one for next full up.
- Travel Strong says:
  
  1 Dec1 December 10:26
  
  I quite enjoyed my BPme experience, it was very slick and the pumps were super quick to fill up to £30.49 (I also selected £31 based on the warnings on the app)
  
  Make sure you use stations on the map with the app logo next to them.
  
  However my only BP station was 10p a litre more than everything else in the area, reducing the saving to more like £8 🙂
Waribai says:

1 Dec1 December 08:19

Heading to Bicester tomorrow. Does anyone know if purchasing the Bicester Village vouchers gets a £5 credit? The outlet centre management company (retail value management) is on the map….
- JJ says:
  
  1 Dec1 December 09:15
  
  Don’t know if buying vouchers will get the credit but before shopping don’t forget to take your Amex to the visitor centre where you will get a VIP card with vouchers for additional 10% discounts at many of the outlets. Enjoy the crowds!
  - RussellH says:
    
    1 Dec1 December 11:50
    
    And take your BAEC card or your Miles+More Card with your receipts back to the management office and get Avios or M+M miles too.
    - JJ says:
      
      1 Dec1 December 14:12
      
      Thanks Russell, I didn’t know that. That’s what I like so much about this site, you can give out a tip and get one back in return!
- Tom H says:
  
  1 Dec1 December 10:58
  
  Very interested to know that as well!
- Waribai says:
  
  1 Dec1 December 11:28
  
  Good tip….Yes, I am expecting the crowds…If it gets too much we might give up though!
- kk says:
  
  2 Dec2 December 00:52
  
  Westfield mall used to be listed and purchasing their gift cards (to be used inside any shop in their complex) used to work. Since then (2 years ago) AmEx appropriately took away their registration as a small shop, but it did work at the time. Hope that’s not a completely useless datapoint.
Go says:

1 Dec1 December 08:36

Lots of shops don’t appear on the map but when you do a search on the business name they appear as participating
- Shoestring says:
  
  1 Dec1 December 08:50
  
  Got the map running sweet on Chrome (was useless on Opera).
  
  The good news is: I’m up to 2 pubs & the newly-found second one is really good. Best one in town IMHO & they run live footy as well (even the 3pm Saturday matches, naughty lol)! Hope they’ve got payments by Amex sorted since last year 🙂
  - Shoestring says:
    
    1 Dec1 December 10:09
    
    & the bad news is they still don’t take Amex, despite being on the map (phoned). Managed to get 3x £5 anyway on phone LY by saying I wouldn’t have gone there if I’d known it wasn’t taking Amex ie the map was wrong – won’t try that this year, too much hassle.
    
    Poor pickings otherwise. Some top butchers still on the list, so that’s Xmas/ NY joints covered.
    - Shoestring says:
      
      1 Dec1 December 15:44
      
      First 3 pints in the bag + success email 🙂
Tom1 says:

1 Dec1 December 08:39

So…. Anyone missing any Iberia Avios?
- Yuff says:
  
  1 Dec1 December 08:52
  
  Yes, see the OT thread
  29k from mine and 90k from the wife’s account….
  - Idrive says:
    
    1 Dec1 December 13:27
    
    Where is is the OT thread?
- Thomas Howard says:
  
  1 Dec1 December 10:47
  
  Nope, transferred mine to BAEC and they’ve not disappeared (yet).
Chris says:

1 Dec1 December 08:59

Can you buy gift cards with this offer?
- Mark2 says:
  
  1 Dec1 December 09:02
  
  Of yes!
- Polly says:
  
  1 Dec1 December 09:24
  
  And all your stamps for the year from local newsagent! And COOK gift cards to use later on their half price food….yummy.
  - Sussex bantam says:
    
    1 Dec1 December 11:19
    
    Cooks seem to be independent stores. Just popped into my local one in haslemere and they don’t take Amex. 🙁
    - Polly says:
      
      1 Dec1 December 14:52
      
      Luckily ours does 15 miles north of you…on the river Wey! Maybe take a drive there..
    - Sussex bantam says:
      
      1 Dec1 December 23:18
      
      Is that Godalming Polly ?
    - Polly says:
      
      2 Dec2 December 07:12
      
      Bit further north starts with W! River Wey in name… Cobham Woking exit on A3 North ….
    - Sussex bantam says:
      
      2 Dec2 December 07:21
      
      Thanks !!
  - johnny_c-l says:
    
    1 Dec1 December 14:50
    
    I’m feeling a bit gun-shy this year with stamps, last year I was sold some counterfeit stamps which to much embarrassment I found out about when friends and family had to collect their Christmas cards and pay a surcharge to Royal Mail.
    - Polly says:
      
      1 Dec1 December 14:53
      
      Wow, never heard of counterfeit stamps. Better luck this year.
Paul says:

1 Dec1 December 09:28

Anyone know of a ‘shop’ where I could top up my Oyster?
- AJ says:
  
  1 Dec1 December 09:33
  
  Paul, check out my map: https://shopsmallcrawl.com – has them all listed on there 😉 enjoy & good luck!
AJ says:

1 Dec1 December 09:40

Anyone done a qualifying purchase yet and triggered the email? I remember last year it was a bumpy start to the promotion..
- Biffin says:
  
  1 Dec1 December 10:34
  
  I received a qualifying success email for Shop Small at 2346 last night (30 November), ie before the promotion started. I assume it was from one of the pubs I was in – didn’t realise they were in Shop Small. Would’ve split the transaction over multiple cards if I’d known, but wouldn’t have expected it to work on 30 November anyway.
Kipto says:

1 Dec1 December 10:01

Just for clarity, can you claim the shop small discount twice on the same account ie with a supplementary card ?
- Alan says:
  
  1 Dec1 December 10:02
  
  Yes
- Nigel the pensioner says:
  
  1 Dec1 December 16:50
  
  But dont forget to register each card individually! 😌