My thoughts on the new Amex / Foursquare deals for February

I must admit, I was a little surprised when – like many of you – I was emailed on Saturday with details of the new Amex / Foursquare promotions that will run in February.  Did they learn nothing when we cleaned out Harvey Nichols before Christmas?!

I wrote last week about the Shell deal (£15 off £50 spend) which runs until mid April.

On Saturday, the following deals were announced.  They all run from 1-28 February, and it seems that you will not be able to register until the 1st.

• Harrods – Spend £50, Get £25
• House of Fraser – Spend £50, Get £25
• GAP – Spend £50, Get £25
• Banana Republic – Spend £50, Get £25
• Carphone Warehouse – Spend £25, Get £10

The two other current offers continue:

• Starbucks – Spend £10, Get £5 (to 13 February)
• Pizza Hut – Spend £30, Get £15 (to 6 March)

To learn how to sign up for these deals, if you haven’t done this before, see this article from last year.

Remember that you don’t need a smartphone to do this.  I downloaded the Foursquare app to my (wi-fi) ipad and was able to ‘check in’ to relevant London stores from the comfort of my house!  If you are too far away to check-in, take your wi-fi ipad to a wi-fi enable coffee shop near Harrods etc and check in from there.

Remember that the key to exploiting these deals is to buy gift cards for exactly £50.  You can then combine them for a larger purchase, and you will have 12-18 months (depending on store) to use them.  Remember that you can even use gift cards in sales, so you may get an effective double discount!

Remember that you can register EVERY MBNA, Lloyds and Amex-issued Amex card you have.  Even supplementary cards count separately, as long as the account number is different to the main card.  You will need a new Foursquare account for each card, and don’t forget to register and sync each card with each store.

We have six qualifying Amex cards – 2 x BA Amex, 1 Lloyds Amex with a supplementary and 1 Platinum Amex with a supplementary card.  That means £150 of free stuff from Harrods and £150 of free stuff from House of Fraser.  (I’m not into GAP or Banana Republic, although I could buy some £50 gift cards to use as birthday gifts.)

The £25 credit goes back to your statement quickly – within a couple of days for an Amex-issued Amex and a bit longer for an MBNA or Lloyds card.

Since these deals run to the end of February – and since Amex has also promised that Debenhams and Fenwick / Bentalls will be launching deals later on – it may be worth getting some extra supplementary cards ordered.  It is also another good reason to get the SPG Amex before the 20,000 point bonus expires on 1st February.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

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