Foursquare and American Express have entered into a partnership that will see card users getting discounts at stores, restaurants, etc. via Foursquare.

WebProNews recently exchanged a few tweets with Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley, following an article we posted questioning how Foursquare will continue to compete with Facebook and its Places service. You can see that exchange here. In a nutshell, he explained that Foursquare has different use cases, and that we should talk after SXSW, implying that multiple announcements were coming.

Now, news of the American Express deal has come out via the Wall Street Journal. This may be the main thing Crowley was referring to as it should be a pretty big deal for Foursquare. The publication reports:

Under the arrangement, AmEx customers can register their cards in the Foursquare system to get access to special offers from merchants who are also Foursquare participants. Customers who shop at those merchants with an AmEx card will receive credits and electronic notification that they have redeemed the offer. Merchants who participate in the program would potentially see more sales.

The partners will pilot the service next week in Austin, Texas, at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival, a weeklong conference for technology start-ups. Sixty local merchants will honor the “spend $5, save $5” promotion.

The two companies will reportedly expand the program into various cities.

In addition, Foursquare mentions that Foursquare 3.0 is coming soon on the company’s SXSW page (as well as some parties, panels, and new badges). It will be interesting to see what comes with version 3.0 in terms of features that Facebook will have a hard time matching. I’m sure credit card partnerships aren’t out of the realm of possibility for the company whose valuation continues to increase.