American express has a one a year campaign where they will reimburse you $25 if you register your amex card online and spend more than 25 at a participating small business. Just to reiterate, here are the two rules
1) register your (amex) card online at http://shopsmall.com
2) buy a minimum of $25 worth of stuff from an amex approved small business. Want to find one? Check out their online small business finder.
Just so you know that this isn’t “too good to believe” you can see that I did it last year and got a bunch of free gear from sparkfun.
So here is why this is hacky enough to go up on my blog. The small businesses don’t have to be local to you. They just need to be on the map. I’ve looked for a bunch of my favorite small open source hardware / reprap stores and have a small list. The most difficult part is that you need to know the store’s physical address, and their name according to amex. I’m sure that I have missed some just because they might have their cc account under a different name than their actual store name.
Here’s my list:
pololu
makerbot
inventables
artisans asylumn
matterhackers
protoparadigm
robotshop
hobby fever
DIY Drones (3d robotics)
you do it electronics
NOT eligible – post with the zip code and address if you can find that they are actually there. I would LOVE that.
shapeways
sparkfun :(
ponoko
adafruit
emsl
printrbot
It’s not too late to register, and I haven’t picked out my list yet. PLEASE post your thoughts for any hacker friendly small businesses that accept amex, or even better – check them out on the map and post back here
4. Qualifying small business locations are those identified on the Shop Small® Map, available at ShopSmall.com . In addition, small business locations that accept American Express through Square also qualify and can be found on the Square Directory at https://squareup.com/directory/?cmpId=amex . Small business locations that do not appear on the Shop Small® Map or that do not accept American Express through Square will not qualify for the $25 statement credit offer. Please note that business location information provided on the Shop Small® Map and Square Directory may contain inaccuracies or errors, including as a result of information provided by third parties. Transactions with political campaigns or political action committees are not eligible, regardless of whether they appear on the Shop Small® Map or in the Square Directory. 5. If American Express does not receive information that identifies a transaction as having occurred in-store at a qualifying small business location, the transaction will not qualify for the statement credit. For example, the following transactions will not be eligible for the credit: transactions made using an electronic wallet or any other transaction made through a third party; and transactions not made directly with the merchant.