Saving Money with American Express OPEN

UPDATE: These discounts are no longer available.

One of the great perks of the Amex Business cards is that you have access to the OPEN Savings Benefits. This allows you to get discounts at certain merchants just by paying with certain credit card (i.e., The Business Platinum® Card from American Express OPEN, Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express, and The Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN). Ultimately you can get a 5% discount or 2 Membership Reward points on eligible purchases with OPEN Savings partners. With the discount, you are really getting a statement credit after you pay the merchant.

Benefits by Partner:

• Hertz: Get a 5% discount OR 2 additional Membership Rewards^® points
  • Applicable only at Hertz corporate-owned U.S. locations, excluding Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands locations; Excludes Hertz on Demand. You can check a list of participating locations on the Open Savings site directly.

• FedEx Express and FedEx Ground: 5% discount OR 2 additional Membership Rewards^® points up to $20,000 spend a year per calendar year.
  • The $20,000 spend maximum is per card account but combines both FedEx Ground and FedEx Express services. The savings includes the following services: FedEx Priority Overnight, FedEx Standard Overnight, FedEx 2Day, FedEx 2Day A.M., FedEx Express Saver, FedEx First Overnight Freight, FedEx 1Day Freight, FedEx 2Day Freight, FedEx 3Day Freight, FedEx International Priority, FedEx International Economy, FedEx International Priority Freight, FedEx International Economy Freight, FedEx Ground, FedEx International Ground, FedEx Home Delivery.

• FedEx Freight: 5% discount OR 2 additional Membership Rewards^® points up to $20,000 spend a calendar year.
  • Eligible shipments must be made in one of the following ways: pickup and delivery in either the U.S. or Puerto Rico, or pickup in the U.S. or Puerto Rico with delivery to Canada or Mexico.

• HP Home and Home Office Store: 5% discount OR 2 additional Membership Rewards^® points up to $30,000 spend a calendar year.
  • OPEN Savings benefit applies only to the Home & Home Office Store at shopping.hp.com. Purchases made on other parts of the HP website including the “Small and Medium Business” section are not eligible. All products purchased under the “For Home” section at store.hp.com are eligible for the OPEN Savings benefit.

• FedEx Office: 5% discount OR 2 additional Membership Rewards^® points up to $20,000 spend a calendar year.

• 1-800-FLOWERS.com: Get a 5% discount OR 2 additional Membership Rewards^® points.
  • Purchase must be made online directly through 1-800-FLOWERS.com.

• Barnes & Nobles: Get a 5% discount OR 2 additional Membership Rewards^® points
  • Applicable only on online purchases made at BN.com; Excludes purchases made in Barnes & Nobles stores.

This discount and bonus point option is only available for those that have a Business Card from American Express OPEN and enrolled in the Membership Rewards program. If your card is NOT eligible to receive points, you’ll only be able to receive the discount, not the point option.

To change your savings option, you will need to Choose Your Benefit at this American Express site here. You can only select Discounts or Membership Reward points as an overall option, you cannot select per individual merchant. Changes typically take effect within 72 hours. You can change your benefit setting once per calendar month.

So which option should you select – Discount vs. Points? Overall, this is going to depend on how you personally value your Membership Reward points.

• If you only use your Membership Reward points with the “Pay with Points” option (thus getting 1 point per $), then you absolutely will want to select the discount option.
• If you typically transfer your Membership Reward points to partner loyalty programs and get 2.5 cents per dollar, you’ll even out, so I’d suggest opting for the discount as cash is king! If you get less then 2.5 cents per point, then go for the discount option as well.
• If you are able to get more than 2.5 cents per point for your Membership Reward points, then select the points option.

Remember, you’ll still get your normal points by just using the card.