With most business owners looking to cut costs, I’m often surprised at how some forget one of the easiest ways to save – the OPEN Savings® program.  A built-in benefit of using your American Express Business Card, OPEN Savings allows you to save 3-10 percent on a broad range of business essentials through such partners as FedEx and Courtyard by Marriott®.  These savings are on top of any other discounts offered by these companies and are automatically credited to your monthly billing statement.

Still, we recognize that there is always room to innovate, and so we continue to look for ways to evolve and expand the program to further meet business owner’s needs.

• First, we’ve expanded the program to include new partners OfficeMax, HP Direct, and Firedog – leaders in the office supply, computers and IT services space.  These are expense categories our Cardmembers have asked about for years.  A complete list of partners and benefits can be found at open.com/opensavings.  And look for more partners to be added in the future.

• We heard from Cardmembers that they’d love to save more as they spend more.  This made perfect sense to us.  So we’re working with partners to develop tiered savings, like the one we just launched with Hertz^*.  Spend between $500 and $2,500 a year, and you save 5 percent.  Spend over $2,500 a year and save 10 percent.

• We’re also working to make the benefits more obvious.  We realize that how the program works could be made more clear:  It’s as easy as using your American Express Business Card when making a purchase with an OPEN Savings partner. OPEN Savings is simple, automatic, and combinable.  There’s no enrollment required.  Savings appear automatically on your statement.  And savings are on top of your other discounts with those vendors.  As Dana Flynn of Laughing Lotus, said, “I see the little plus signs at the top of my statement: 5 percent off FedEx, so much off this or that… I get these discounts via OPEN Savings, and I don't have to lift a finger.”

In the five years since the program launched, OPEN Savings has helped Cardmembers save more than $425 million. But we want to help you save even more. You can help us do that by sharing your suggestions for new partners or benefits below.  You can also e-mail your ideas to me at maryann @ openforum.com.

Learn more about OPEN Savings opportunities at open.com/opensavings.

*Valid only at Hertz corporate-owned U.S. locations.