Thanksgiving is one of my all-time favorite holidays each year. I cannot put my finger on it but I just really enjoy the holiday! To put that on the same weekend as great races, great shopping deals (Black Friday), and Amex’s Small Business Saturday just makes it all the better!
Small Business Saturday
The details are coming out now about the Small Business Saturday for this year, which will take place on November 29. For those who are not sure what it is, Small Business Saturday is Amex’s way to encourage shopping at small businesses all over America on the kick-off weekend of the holiday shopping season. Not only do they do it to try to help the small business promote their business, but it is also a way to encourage more small businesses to accept American Express cards (small businesses many times will not accept American Express cards). So, it is really a triangle of benefactors as American Express benefits from the fees received, the small business benefits because more consumers shop at their stores, and the consumer benefits because they receive a credit on their purchase!
Registration for this year’s event will begin on November 16. While it is technically open until the big day, there are a limited number of slots so make sure you sign-up your cards right away when the registration opens!
Up To $30 In Credits
This year, American Express is trying to encourage people to use their cards more by giving a $10 credit on purchases and allowing cardholders to receive that a $10 credit up to three times per card. That means that you can use a single American Express card to make three separate purchases of $10 each and receive a $10 credit for each purchase! If you have the time and the patience, this can be an extremely beneficial credit as you can earn that credit on each of the American Express cards you own!
One of the great things about this wonderful Saturday is that all American Express cards work, including those that are additional cards for authorized users, and the Bluebird and Serve cards! For someone who has 4 American Express cards plus a Bluebird, you can receive a total of $150 in credits if you hit the limit on each card. Yes, you will need to have 15 separate transactions, but with the proper amount of patience, you can really maximize this.
Maximizing The Day
My favorite thing to do is to use my American Express cards to purchase gift cards from my local Fleet Feet running store. Doing this will give me a lot of gift cards to either give as gifts or to use on one big purchase later on down the road (like for some new running shoes). Between my wife and I, we have a total of 12 eligible cards (authorized users, primary cards, etc). This means that we could maximize this for up to $360 in credits! That is not bad at all!
Action Point
So, with two months until that day arrives, you have plenty of time to start getting additional cards as an authorized user. Get your whole family involved and really spread the Small Business love around. To get an additional card for a new cardholder, you can simply request it online or call the number on the back of your card to have the new card sent to your family member.
What is your favorite small business to visit on this Amex holiday?
HT: Mommy Points
I think you mean HT: Frequent Miler–that is where Mommy Points and actually quite a few of the bloggers got this information–though unattributed.
Sorry, I had given to the HT to where I had seen it first.