American Express charge cards offer no pre-spending limit and you must pay your full balance on each statement.

American Express is now offering a pay over time option to allow you to pay these charges over time on eligible $100 or higher charges. They also want to incentivize you by offering you free Membership Rewards points just for enrolling. There is no fee to enroll.

There is the 5,000 Membership Reward option for non-Platinum cards

There is also the 10,000 Membership Reward option for Platinum cards

I would recommend taking screen shots of both the enrollment page and the registration complete page and as always, your mileage may vary. The credit should appear in 6-8 weeks.

I certainly would recommend paying your balance in full each month even if you enroll in this promotion.

Thanks to texasman for the tip

I haven’t had a chance to recap the American Express Small Business Saturday promotion from this past year.

On November 26, 2011, American Express sponsored a Small Business Saturday promotion where you could earn a $25 statement credit for spending at least $25 at a small business. This year they had a list of all eligible small businesses on their Facebook page.

Registration was required ahead of time and was limited to a certain number of users.

We had participated in 2010 and were very prepared with all of our cards in advance. When the registration opened, we registered ourselves and all of our additional cardholders.

On November 26, we piled into the car with all of our additional cardholders and headed out to spend money at small businesses.

The loot

We ended up with:
2 – $25 gift certificates to a local Thai food restaurant
2 – $25 gift cards to a local wing restaurant (with $10 gift card bonus for gift card purchase)
1 – $100 gift card to a local computer shop (they were running a buy a $100 gift card for $50 promo)
1 – $25 gift certificate to a local steak restaurant
2 – $25 gift certificates to a top rated Mexican food restaurant
$50 worth of steaks and meat from a local butcher
2 – $25 gift certificates to a local salon
2 – $25 toys from a local toy store

Total spend: $383.25
Total statement credits: $375
Total value: $435

We were happy to support local businesses and will be participating again in 2012.

American Express is teaming up with Twitter to offer unique deals to your synced card. This is similar to the current promotion where you can sync your American Express card with your Foursquare account to get deals on check-ins.

Step 1: Go to https://sync.americanexpress.com/twitter

Step 2: Sign in with twitter and enter in your American Express card.

Step 3: You’re all synced up. Go to twitter to send out a tweet to activate the deals.

Step 4: Send out the follow tweets:
Tweet 1: #AmexHM #AmexGulfOil #AmexC21stores #AmexWholefoods #AmexDell #AmexSeamless10
Tweet 2: #AmexVirginAmer #AmexFedEx #AmexCheesecake #AmexMcDonalds #Amex1800flowers #AmexSportsAuth #AmexBestBuy

Step 5: Check your @connect on your Twitter account for the notifications. Example: thx for enrolling in #AmexVirginAmer offer. Spend w/ synced Card & receive credit. See terms: http://aexp.co/CNy

Step 6: Use your synced American Express at the merchants listed below and spend the appropriate amount to get an automatic statement credit.

@WholeFoods
Tweet #AmexWholefoods get 1-$20 credit w/single purchase in store of $75+ on synced AmexCard thru 4/30 QtyLtd See terms http://aexp.co/yN8
@BestBuy_Deals
Tweet #AmexBestBuy, get $10 back 1x w/single purchase of $100+ w/synced Amex Card! (QtyLtd, Exp 4/30) See terms http://aexp.co/XvN
@McDonalds,
Tweet #AmexMcDonalds, get $5 back 1x on next $5+ store pur w/synced Amex Card! QtyLtd, Exp 3/31. Terms http://aexp.co/W4b
@GulfOil,
Tweet #AmexGulfOil, get $5 back 1x on next $25+ store pur w/synced Amex Card! QtyLtd, Exp 4/30. Terms http://aexp.co/ZUZ
@VirginAmerica
Tweet #AmexVirginAmer for 10% back on main cabin tix w/synced Amex Card! (1x stmnt credit, QtyLtd, Exp 3/31) Terms: http://vgn.am/6018Rh2e
@Dell,
Tweet #AmexDell, get $100 back 1x on next $599+ online purch w/synced Amex Card! QtyLtd, Exp 4/30. Terms http://aexp.co/RGr
@Seamless
Tweet #AmexSeamless10, get $10 back 1x on next $25+ online purch w/synced Amex Card! (QtyLtd, Exp 3/20) See terms http://aexp.co/MAS
@HM
Tweet #AmexHM, get $10 back 1x on next $50+ pur in US stores w/synced Amex Card! Exp 4/30, See terms http://aexp.co/Ox1
@FedExDelivers
Tweet #AmexFedEx and get $5 back 1x on next $20+ in store purchases w/ synced Amex Card! (QtyLtd, Exp 5/31) See terms http://aexp.co/pOc
@Cheesecake
Tweet #AmexCheesecake, get $10 back 1x on next $50+ in store purchase w/synced Amex Card! (QtyLtd, Exp 4/30) See terms http://aexp.co/5Lp
@1800Flowers,
Tweet #Amex1800flowers, get $10 back 1x on next $50+ online pur w/synced Amex Card thru 4/30. Terms http://aexp.co/YMZ
@SportsAuthority
Tweet #AmexSportsAuth, get $15 back 1x on next $75+ in store purch w/synced Amex Card! (QtyLtd, Exp 4/30) See terms http://aexp.co/w9M
@century21stores
Tweet #AmexC21stores, get $10 back 1x on next $50+ online purch w/synced Amex Card! (Exp 4/30) See terms http://aexp.co/ye8

Here is a youtube video about how to sync if the instructions above weren’t clear enough

Hat Tip to Slickdeals

Enjoy!

As I wrote about here, the American Express Small Business Saturday promotion is returning on November 26th. You must register your American Express card ahead of time – the American Express Small Business Saturday registration page is now open and is limited in the amount of registrants. I would recommend to do it quickly.

The promotion is easy – spend $25 at a small business and receive a $25 statement credit. I did this last year at a local chicken wing place and it worked effortlessly.

Last year, American Express held a Small Business Saturday promotion where you could receive a $25 statement credit by spending at least $25 at a local business on a particular day. The terms were a bit vague, but they defined a small business as non-chain and we were able to find a local chicken wing restaurant that qualified. Registration was required.

They ended up extending the promotion for a whole month and the credit ended up working on every single American Express card and that chicken wing restaurant sure did appreciate all of our business!

American Express is bringing the promotion back on November 26th though no registration link is open yet. You can follow like their Facebook page as well.

I will post the registration link as soon as it comes live. It’s an easy way to support local businesses and get free $25 from American Express!

thanks to Dan’s Deals for the tip

For those of you who don’t pore over your American Express statement each month – there are some changes coming to some of the Delta American Express cards.

Starting January 1, 2012, Options, Classic, and Gold Delta American Express cards will no longer be eligible for the Mileage boost.

The mileage boost for the Delta American Express Gold card was 10,000 for a $25,000 annual spend.

You should reconsider whether a $95 annual fee for the Gold card is worth it anymore.

The Platinum and Reserve Delta American Express cards are unaffected.

Flyertalk discussion is here.

Having been a seller on Ebay for the past 11 years, online payment companies have come and gone. In the past I’ve used Ebay’s Billpoint, Yahoo Paydirect, Paypal, and Google Payments.

In the beginning of Paypal, they used to offer a sign up referral bonus with $5 for joining which helped to get a lot of people to start using their services.

American Express is jumping into the payment foray. Serve is American Express’s version of Paypal. You can pay for things online, you can use an app to send money to someone standing next to you, and you can receive money just as easily.

Signing up for Serve is free and they’re offering $10 for doing it. Simply go here and sign up for your account.

Then go here and answer one trivia question to be credited $10.

Enjoy!

American Express and Delta have just announced a new benefit for Delta Skymiles Gold, Platinum, and Reserve cardholders. Starting September 1, 2011, cardholders will be given Zone 2 priority boarding along with up to 9 of their travel companions on the same reservation.

They will also be given a 20% discount on any in-flight food, beverage, or entertainment.

For non-elites, a Delta American Express card with a free checked bag for you and your travel companions plus priority boarding seems to make the decision an easy one.

I have an update on the American Express Rewards Premier offer. Apparently this offer was targeted for Columbia University graduates. Their offer was for 50,000 Membership Reward points after $500 spend in 3 months and no annual fee for 2 years.

My wife had applied and was approved through the link and so she called and asked American Express what signup bonus she received. The informed her that they only gave her 10,000 Membership Rewards points and no annual fee for 1 year.

Due to this – and after reading Frugal Travel Guy’s post – we asked them about bonus offer #5985- 75,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $1,000 in the first three months and no fee for the first year.

After some initial “I don’t see this offer” etc, they ended up granting us that offer since we had not received any real sign up bonus.

If you applied for the link above, you may want to try and call them to confirm what offer you were given and try to bargain a little – as always, YMMV.

Open Small Business by American Express is offering to simply your international wire transfers.

Receive 15,000 Membership Rewards points when you activate your FX International Payments account.

Receive an additional 15,000 Membership Rewards points when you make 3 FX transaction within 90 days of account opening.

OPEN cardmembers have no transaction fees on international wire transfers for the first six months.

Your business must apply for this service which requires review and approval by American Express.