notquiteaff

It doesn't seem to be useful to me personally.

So perhaps if you patronize a small business on "small business Saturday", pull out a Visa or Mastercard. Or, if you think you don't get the value (perks?) anymore to justify holding an Amex card, stop using it altogether and/or cancel it.

mikesyr18

I don't care that much either way. I use AMEX for the increased protections.

I'm just excited to see an new CEO finally come in. Hopefully he won't sit on his hands like Chenault has for the last few years, while networks who charge less and share more money with banks catch up or surpass the rewards AMEX offers to their customers.

I think it's a little stupid that AMEX started out by giving some nice perks during small business Saturday, and then slowly made the perks less valuable every year, until now, this year, we finally have none. What advantage is there to small business Saturday now? Cardholders won't have a reason to use their AMEX at a small business, and small businesses won't change their mindset on accepting AMEX if they haven't already.

notquiteaff

Maybe they simply achieved their goal of greater penetration of the small business market and have less of an incentive to throw additional money at this initiative?

Or maybe they discovered that the program, as run in the past, didn't meet their goals, so they cut back the budget for "free money for card holders" and made it a low-budget marketing event only.

tmiw

I actually saw a Small Business Saturday ad on TV recently. I don't remember any audio though (restaurant or wherever I saw it muted the TV, perhaps?). I imagine something like that isn't too inexpensive for AmEx to do.

Personally, I'm okay with more MR/SPG points, assuming that's what ends up happening this year. Statement credits tend to have requirements that can be harder to meet.

halamadrid

This year I had an Amex offer in my Personal Platinum that gave me 1000 points for spending $20 at a small business for Shop Small. It posted as "Shop Small MR Offer." I believe the expiration for that offer was 11/05/17.

mikesyr18

It's odd that you received a small business offer that expired well before the official small business Saturday.

GUWonder

This is what my Amex website page shows when I'm logged in today:

mia

sdsearch

And thus (if something doesn't change between now and then), I'm not going to use Amex at any small businesses that day. If I shop at small businesses that day, I'll make a point of using a different card.

beltway

I received this as well, but recall the end date being ~10/31. Points haven't posted; T&C say it may take 90 days.

UPDATE: I see that the points posted in the last day or two. ^

MaxVO

That would be silly. We should be grateful for the hundreds $ in past SBS freebies we collected. I'm certainly disappointed that this particular stream of freebies has come to an end. But any sense of entitlement or resentment would be grossly inappropriate.

sdsearch

It's not silly to me, because it's less work. I would have to actually plan to use an Amex to use an Amex. See, only a fraction of the cards in my wallet are Amex cards. Amex Everyday I only use for groceries, but i only buy groceries at chain stores (Trader Joes, Ralphs [Kroger], and Whole Foods [Amazon ]), none of which are small businesses. SPG Amex I only use for marriott stays. Hilton Amex I only use for Hilton stays. This month I'm using my US Bank LATAM Visa (because of a targeted promo) for restaurants, and so I'm not going to shift to Amex just because it's Small Business Saturday yet no bonus from Amex.

So I'd have to consciously decide to use an Amex rather than something else on Saturday, and it just seems pointless. It's just like any other day, from a card usage perspective, for me. Why should I reach for a different card this coming Saturday than last Saturday?

MaxVO

If that was your sentiment (and not spite), I can get behind it as well. SBS was a great extended promo. It has run its course and ended. Cardboard displays don't really count for much. So the day requires no special consideration at all. Actually, I wouldn't recommend any unnecessary shopping during the whole "month of consumption" due to the stress and waste it generates.

sdsearch

Yes, I didn't mean spite, I meant without a promo, Amex can't make me pull out their card (if I wasn't going to use it anyway). It's only the promo that made me use Amex cards on previous Small Business Saturdays. In fact, for several years it was also Small Business Saturday which was the only activity on my Blue card (keeping it from being cancelled due to inactivity, and that inactivity being due to the "crippled" version of Membership Rewards that it had), but that has since been converted to an Everyday card which I use more than half the days of the month .

zorbachs

From all I've heard, there doesn't seem to be any deals or extra MR points this year for small business saturday. Last year I got 2x points on almost all my dining/bar/local shops spending. I guess this year Amex doesn't care to give anything at all. Oh well.