Foursquare began, and succeeded, by basically offering digital merit badges to users for multiple check-ins at local places and offering a nice little competitive game with little other benefit than bragging rights.
Still, it caught on pretty hard. The site has exceeded 10 million users, and eventually expanded to offer discounts and incentives for frequent visitors of venues that became mayor or even sometimes just checked in. (For an eight-month period, for instance, I never had to buy dessert at my local Carrabba’s.) The trend of incentives for Foursquare users isn’t set to abate, with a new American Express/Foursquare partnership detailed on Foursquare’s official blog today.
One of the great benefits of using Foursquare is the “oh, hey, a discount!” factor. Personally, I feel like companies that insist on bringing ink and paper into transactions when they offer a discount through your smartphone or online are completely defeating the point, and the Foursquare/AmEx incentive doesn’t require any preplanning, printing or coupon clipping- all you have to do is sync up your AmEx account with Foursquare:
Today, we’re happy to announce that the partnership is going national. Across the whole country, at select merchants, you can now check-in with foursquare, pay with your American Express card, and get big savings on your monthly statement.
It’s simple to use:
- link your AmEx and foursquare accounts (you can do it here);
- check-in at a participating store and tap ‘load to card’ on the Special; and,
- pay with your AmEx card.
Alas, AmEx isn’t as ubiquitous as Visa or Mastercard, so not all users can take advantage of this discount. Still, it’s safe to say many will, and the partnership is just another place Foursquare is digging in its heels against competitors like Facebook Places. Will you be privy to this new incentive? Does it make you more likely to use Foursquare?
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