How Much Did You Save in 2018 AmEx Small Shop Promotion?

Ash-Say on 01/12/2018 - 14:05
Last edited 01/12/2018 - 19:20 by 1 other user

Now that Amex small shop promotion has ended yesterday, I am wondering how much people was able to save.

I personally did 41 transactions across 9 cards and saved approx. $400 after deducting Opal Top up surcharges.

I did half of transactions for Opal Top Up. It will be great if you could also list your good and bad experiences.

Bad experiences

1) 20 King Street Sydney bluntly refused to top up Opal
2) 350 George did 2 top ups in the morning but then refused to do accept Amex in the afternoon. Apparently their owner had directed them to do so.

Good experiences
1) The lady at MLC Newsagency was very helpful and allowed to conduct all transactions in 1 go.
2) Fastway Park St was also very helpful and allowed 7 transactions in 1 go.

Poll Options expired

  • 124
    0 to $100
  • 24
    $100 to $200
  • 10
    $200 to $300
  • 11
    $300 to $400
  • 13
    $400 to $500
  • 20
    More than $500
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Comments

  • payton on 01/12/2018 - 14:22

    less stores were participating this year =(
    hope next year it won't dwindle even further

    Did we even have the one-day shop small this year? Usually a Saturday on the mid year

    • JIMB0 on 01/12/2018 - 15:06

      There were less stores on the map but many of them still had the in store signage, plus some that didn't were still eligible for the credit.

      • payton on 01/12/2018 - 15:09

        was in a hurry yesterday so bought from a pharmacy that was included last year (thinking it would be the same)
        This year I didn't get any Amex emails immediately after - so am worried :|

  • Samsungnote10 on 01/12/2018 - 14:42
    +1

    $340 for me, I didnt get through all my cards,

    admittedly, I bought some booze from smaller shops, of which were about $5-$10 per bottle more expesnive compared to dans etc
    so for me the savings werent quite the full cashback vakue

    still great value

  • Baysew on 01/12/2018 - 15:28

    Better than last year. Last year I registered my bank issued Amex but used my Amex issued card for the spending.

  • Gotchas on 01/12/2018 - 15:32
    +5

    Best experience - Chiro $60 visit, paid with 3 cards,

    Amex cash back -$30
    Health fund rebate - $60

    • knobbs on 01/12/2018 - 23:13

      What kind of plan are you on that gives 100% rebate on chiro oO?

      • sagrules on 02/12/2018 - 05:28

        Also interested

      • Gotchas on 02/12/2018 - 07:37

        Bupa corporate
        It’s actually 90% but for some services it’s pays most of it if not all

        • TheBooleanOne on 02/12/2018 - 08:30

          I'm on the same plan. Didn't realise you could do that though - will have to try it next time

  • [Deactivated] on 01/12/2018 - 15:37
    +2

    $0, not so many Amex shops in rural Australia

  • fishball on 01/12/2018 - 15:52
    +2

    Saved around 95 or so dollars, 2 cards x 5 taps.

    Good value of course but really a lot of effort if you don't live or work near areas with a lot of shop small stores.

    Bad experience:
    - Bay mini mart in North Sydney wanted a high surcharge saying it costs them so they'd rather not do it if they had a choice.

    Good experience:
    - Fastway North Sydney (no fees, quick taps)
    - Nextra chatswood westfield ($1 fee but they were quick)

    Spent the rest on various lunch things such as deliveroo, pubs etc, not a bad haul.

    • Ash-Say on 01/12/2018 - 16:12

      Didn't realise Deliveroo was part of promotion.

      • fishball on 01/12/2018 - 17:24
        +2

        Yeah some ozbargainers found out and updated the original thread. Only caught it coz i read it mid november again.

  • zonra on 01/12/2018 - 17:17

    Only $60 across 3 cards for me, $30 at newsagent buying lotto (total win: nil), $30 at local chemist (dearer than Chemist Warehouse but worked out cheaper with cashback)
    On a side note, some of the local foodcourt places were listed on Shopsmall but halfway through promotion they weren’t anymore. I wonder if Amex received complaints about them refusing Amex and delisted them.

  • timhn on 01/12/2018 - 17:24
    +1

    Got $280 back with mostly Opal top up, pharmacy purchases and food.

  • MathNerd on 01/12/2018 - 17:35
    +5

    How Much Did You Save in 2018 AmEx Small Shop Promotion?

    $1300 (or thereabouts).

    This was a combination of:

    • Food purchases from local restaurants/takeaways
    • Myki topup (I didn't do as well as last year, only managed to topup myki by $100 this year)
    • Paying our wedding's florist using split payments
    • Donating to RSPCA TAS and PBCF

    I absolutely love Shop Small every year.

    • yoyo6 on 01/12/2018 - 17:40
      +1

      Wow math nerd, how many cards do you have? I was happy to do all 45 available to me for $450, mostly fruit and veg, chemist and myki and a few restaurants that split the bill.

      • MathNerd on 02/12/2018 - 08:36
        +1

        I've got 19 myself, partner has 4. Getting more soon :)

    • Ash-Say on 01/12/2018 - 18:00
      +2

      I must be some kind of record lol

    • EVA-01 on 01/12/2018 - 19:38

      Jesus that's a minimum of 260 cards!

      • fishball on 01/12/2018 - 19:45
        +3

        26* cards :P

        Still pretty intense

        • EVA-01 on 01/12/2018 - 20:04

          oh right sorry brain fart

  • capslock on 01/12/2018 - 17:53
    +3

    I wouldn't say I actually saved anything but I did get to try and buy food from new places I wouldn't have otherwise bought from if it wasn't for this promotion.

  • kerfuffle on 01/12/2018 - 18:07

    Saved $100. Half went on Opal top-ups.

    Nothing like having your $210 theatre package from Bell Shakespeare trigger the credit (I didn't know they were part of Shop Small)

    Bad experience: the lady at The Lucky Charm Westfield Sydney didn't listen to me and put $40 on one Amex rather than two Amexes …

  • CheapSticks on 01/12/2018 - 20:52

    how you guys have got so many cards???

    • kerfuffle on 01/12/2018 - 21:14
      +1

      Open a lot of supplementary cards.

      • sagrules on 02/12/2018 - 05:31

        Didnt realise supp also get cashback. Will know for next year.
        Only have 2 amex no supp cards

        • CheapSticks on 03/12/2018 - 10:48

          i c…thanks…didnt know that too :(

  • thatsthat on 02/12/2018 - 07:20

    I did a lot of buy 2 lunches like salads and put the 2nnd one in the fridge for lunch also a lot of restaurant eating that I often forgot or did not know now participate giving a 10$ surprise at the end.but yes to echo amother comment above I am often adding 2.50 to 5 to get over the 20 threshold of which I get about 1/2 value from this.

  • SnoozeAndLose on 02/12/2018 - 08:36
    +1

    Save $650 with 13 cards all with Opal top up.

    Best
    Allied Mart on pitt street, 2 cards limit each timeb went back different day no problem.

    Meadowbank the lady was nice put 4 card limit but still let me do 5 cards

    Worst
    Top Ryde lady fisrt said 1 per head but tyen after she saw i have mulitiple card she did even do one, then i wait for the manager to get at least one

  • andylch on 02/12/2018 - 12:09

    Best:
    City Mart, 614 George St. No surcharge, excellent service and able to do multiple cards.

  • ozb10 on 02/12/2018 - 13:32

    Total of $150 on 3 cards, still yet to chase up the credit for a pharmacy purchase which the invoice clearly matched the one on Shop Small Map, but no notification email or credit received after a week, and I did pay by inserting the card and not by paywave.

    I was glad I asked one restaurant (name and address matched on Shop Small Map) if they accept Amex before I order, I was told they don't, I left.

    Is there an easy way to report the merchants or chase up the credits?

    • fishball on 02/12/2018 - 16:59

      The live chat is pretty good if you don't wanna call them up. I had complaints and queries they sorted it out just fine.

  • grips on 02/12/2018 - 19:00

    Not a lot of usable shops in my area, but I got 50.- back for a new TV from SONY after the old one broke down.

    • kerfuffle on 02/12/2018 - 21:08

      That wasn’t part of Shop Small, that was a different offer where you get $50 back for spending $300 at Sony.

  • cnrmlj on 02/12/2018 - 19:35

    6 cards between my wife and I. Used each card about 4 times. Bought some meat from the same butcher 6 times over the month for just over $20 each time. On the last purchase one of the staff asked me if I wanted a loyalty card. Spent about $1200 at a mechanic and got $10 back too. Didn't feel right to split the payment over 6 cards with $200 each time. Good times.

  • dufflover on 02/12/2018 - 21:01

    I only got $20, 1 card. Normally I can get 4x places but in the last couple of years some cafes have just dropped off the list (they still take AMEX) and there's no other places I found worth $20 to begin with.

  • Starlight8 on 02/12/2018 - 21:18

    I got back $30 :)

    • Mecardo - dinner
    • Bourke Street Bakery
    • Made in Italy

    Bad experience

    • Met Centre Newsagency - they wouldnt let me use my Amex (they also had a sign no Opal top up for Amex)
  • min2 on 02/12/2018 - 22:07

    All in newsagents and Nightowl convenience stores in Brisbane to top up Go-Card (5x6 cards = $300). Mostly no problems and willing to do multiple transactions. Bad experience is with the two Nextra in Westfield Garden City upper and lower levels. They are listed as 2 separate entities both qualifying on the merchant map; however the same owner apparently submitted the transactions to Amex under the same trading name so half of my 6 transactions didn’t receive credit. Called Amex to complain and they took several days to do manual adjustments. Still waiting for the last $10 to come through :-) A very positive experience overall in Brisbane.

    • knobbs on 02/12/2018 - 22:22

      I did the exact same thing at garden city but they only offered $10 credit and 2000 points on 9 cards…

      • min2 on 08/12/2018 - 08:23

        Finally got all my credits from Nextra. With Amex, just keep calling them every couple of days until they do it. If you may have ‘wasted’ 9 cards potentially and can be bothered with chasing it, it is worthwhile:-). I also suggested to Amex to delist one of them in the future from their merchant map.

  • tweety96 on 02/12/2018 - 22:10
    -3

    The guy @ Fastway told me he had to serve this guy who had 210 cards in one hit, took him 1.5 hours to process it all. Unbelievable!!!

    • MathNerd on 02/12/2018 - 23:30
      +1

      210 cards in one hit

      That's really hard to believe.

    • Ash-Say on 03/12/2018 - 07:31
      +3

      Was he doing on behalf of whole suburb?

    • tyvod on 03/12/2018 - 18:08

      for real?

  • Bills22 on 02/12/2018 - 22:18

    I saved around $200 altogether. Big half went to Opal.

  • serpserpserp on 02/12/2018 - 22:40

    Only saved a few bucks getting my coffee from my local. But a bag of top shelf coffee beans an a large coffee. for $10 after cash back is OK by me. Used a couple of cards on this.

  • therooftop on 03/12/2018 - 00:03

    $20 - $10 with the barber and $10 with the chiro

  • polstralian on 03/12/2018 - 01:31

    How did you end up with 9 cards???

  • budgetman on 03/12/2018 - 06:02

    11 cards, used all but 2 on 1 card.
    King pharmacy actually knew about shop small and offered to put through all of my shopping…$160, then did $20 transactions over 8 cards.
    Most shops I went to had no idea how shop small works.
    I had 1 redemption left that I could use at our favorite restaurant so i called them to put through a $20 transaction for use at a later date….awesome.
    I started with 8 cards, then applied for 3 more using the sup card 3000 points and was able to register these 1 day before the promo capped out.
    Had 2 more cards arrive 3 days latter and couldnt register them.
    I think i did well though👍🏽

  • SydneySwan on 03/12/2018 - 07:24

    11 cards - 55 credits. One surcharge of 50c so $549.50 profit.

  • danger163 on 03/12/2018 - 09:27
    +1

    $0, I forgot about this!

  • SlickMick on 03/12/2018 - 09:36
    +1

    $0. I thought I'd treat it like Woolies & Coles rewards, and not look to buy just to save, but just see how much I get back without trying.

    Apparently more effort than that is required :(

  • idonotknowwhy on 03/12/2018 - 10:36
    +1

    Didn't put in any effort at all this year, but was pleasantly surprised to get the shopsmall email a few times, got $40 back.

    • MathNerd on 03/12/2018 - 10:39

      Username checks out.

  • theguyrules on 03/12/2018 - 10:50

    $10 back on a 6 pack of beer.

  • fozzie on 03/12/2018 - 13:11

    Only $70 here across 2 cards. I managed to top up some opal, so happy with that.

  • stoodamire on 03/12/2018 - 15:55

    $100 across two cards.

    Thirsty Bird
    Bar Luca x2
    Manoosh (the EFPTOS terminal didn't accept my AMEX, got $10 credited to me when i called AMEX about it.)
    Burgers by Kingston x2
    Nieo's Grill x2
    Mr Crackles
    South Beach Seafood.

  • scrone on 03/12/2018 - 17:01
    +2

    I managed to save only $50 but required zero effort as it was all things I would have bought anyway.

    Buy round at random bar
    Email advising of discount
    Me: sweet

  • [Deactivated] on 03/12/2018 - 17:19

    I got $40 and was happy with that, after reading how you're saving more by having more cards, I need to start signing up for more cards before next year!

  • picklewizard on 03/12/2018 - 22:05
    -1

    I love OzBargain logic…

    Convinced by promotion to spend money otherwise unlikely to be spent… "I saved money"

    • payton on 07/12/2018 - 19:00
      +1

      if its 'money you would have spent anyway in the next 12 months' then "I saved money"

  • blueyez on 04/12/2018 - 16:30

    $0 - cancelled my Amex but itching to get another. Cmon 18 months.

  • mmd on 05/12/2018 - 01:33

    Paid for brunch at this nice cafe and got the discount email not long after.

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