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My thoughts on the new Amex / Foursquare deals for February

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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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Comments (92)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Raffles says:
    27 Jan27 January 07:33

    PS. Here is the policy of Harrods and House of Fraser on gift cards.

    The House of Fraser website confirms that:
    a) you can top-up a gift card instead of buying a new one every time and
    b) gift cards can be used online

    This could be handy for someone who can do a day-trip to a store to stock up on gift cards but wants to order online from home at some point in the future.

    The Harrods website says that gift cards can be used on the website but only at the Knightsbridge store – so presumably NOT at Heathrow etc. Not sure if that means you can’t buy them at Heathrow either.

    It is NOT clear if HOF or harrods.com online purchases count for this promo. In the past, some online retailers did work OK (eg Tesco) and some did not.

    • Paulr says:
      27 Jan27 January 11:26

      Hi. Quick question – do supplementary lloyds cards have different card numbers. The bmi Amex doesn’t but ‘regular’ Amex cards do. Just trying to work out if we really need to get up to 10 cards in out house! Cheers

  • KimJ says:
    27 Jan27 January 08:04

    Morning Raffles. Just curious … i took up the offer on Gaps during the last promo (spend £10 and get £10 back). Do you think we’re still allow to get the new deal on Gaps (spend £50 and get £25 back) … same retailer but different offers? Thanks. Kim

  • Koshka says:
    27 Jan27 January 08:24

    Does anyone know whether Harrods is likely to work with the T5 store at LHR? I know that some airport outlets are excluded from other deals. I’ve got a flight on the 2nd which will be the only time I can get to Harrods whilst the promotion is on. Thanks

    • Raffles says:
      27 Jan27 January 09:34

      Let’s wait and see what the rules say when you register for the offer. Could go either way. However, the email sent by Amex did say “a £25 statement credit on one transaction of £50 or more at Harrods in Knightsbridge, London, valid from 1 – 28 February 2013”

  • Ray H says:
    27 Jan27 January 08:24

    Does the Pizza Hut offer work with Pizza Hut Delivery?

    • Raffles says:
      27 Jan27 January 09:35

      Don’t know. It could depend on if the charge was processed in-store or centrally. If you rang a Pizza Hut ‘real’ store to order then presumably it would as it would go through on the usual credit card equipment.

  • Adey says:
    27 Jan27 January 08:29

    Morning All,

    Thanks for the info, looking forward to cashing in on them.

    I managed six cards at Harvey Nichols. Went to the Oxo Tower for lunch afterwards and forgot I could use the vouchers!

    Anyway just wanted to mention that I checked in to Harvey Nichols the night before we visited from home; over 60 miles away. So I don’t think FourSquare are checking geo-location data at check in time, at least for these offers.

    Enjoy,
    Adey

  • Findli says:
    27 Jan27 January 08:33

    Dear raffles,
    I think I am doing something wrong. I have 4square app on myniphone. I presume I can only download one app.
    When I register another card do I need to have a separate app on another device. .
    Do I register my card at the retailer site or on the app?
    Many thanks
    Findli

    • Sandgrounder says:
      27 Jan27 January 08:48

      You can log out from the app if you go into ‘Settings’. You will need a new foursquare account for each card with a new email address to go with it. Sign in to each account to load the cards one at a time. It’s a bit of faff but well worth it for the rewards!

      • Raffles says:
        27 Jan27 January 09:36

        And keep a written note of a) the password, b) log-in, c) card linked to that FS account, d) which deals you have synced it for, e) which deals you have actually used. It will make your life a lot easier, especially in 3 months time when they launch new deals and you’ve totally forgotten all the log-ins you set up for all your different Amex cards!

        • cmcbugg says:
          27 Jan27 January 10:06

          I also set my first name on foursquare to something related to the card it was synced to eg BenBA, BenGold or BenMBNA. Made it a lot easier to remember which credit card to use after I logged into a specific 4S account.

      • Findli says:
        27 Jan27 January 17:13

        Brilliant !!!
        Many thanks

  • mikeact says:
    27 Jan27 January 10:36

    Just a quick one, but when you say…..”On Saturday, the following deals were announced”…..where did the announcement come from ?

    • Paulradcliffe says:
      27 Jan27 January 11:19

      Amex have been sending out emails. Unclear if this is to people who are foursquare sync’d or general.

      • Raffles says:
        27 Jan27 January 11:45

        No, it is not to FS synced people. I have 6 registered FS cards but only got emails to my BA cards.

    • Raffles says:
      27 Jan27 January 11:43

      Emailed to BA Amex cardholders

      • Trevor says:
        27 Jan27 January 13:36

        That would explain why I didn’t get the email. I was getting worried as I never seem to get any emails about the specials you post, even though I opt in for all comms. Heck, I still get paper statements on my Platinum card even though opted in for paperless, so definitely feel there are some errors there. Never seem to get transfer bonuses either or Amex Travel bonuses 🙁

        Thanks to you though, I still keep informed. Thanks for another heads-up!

        • Raffles says:
          27 Jan27 January 13:57

          You have definitely opted in FOR EACH CARD? On the website, after logging in, you need to go to ‘Profile and Preferences’ and then ‘Marketing Preferences’. After you’ve done it for the first card, you need to click ‘View Another Card’ and then do the same process again, for all your cards.

          • Trevor says:
            27 Jan27 January 20:47

            Every marketing option has “yes” selected, and comms is set to email, yet I get nothing. As I said, I still get paper statements too, regardless of that setting. At least I have you to thank for keeping me in the loop though, and to be honest, not too bothered right now as about to cancel the card – have my 50k + 25k bonus MR and the cost is just not worth it to me. And to be honest, I have consistently received bad service too, so pretty unimpressed. We won’t be pushing all our cards through the latest Foursquare deals anyway as less lucrative than before, and since my wife’s referred Plat is about to arrive, mine can go!

  • Col A-B (@mkcol) says:
    27 Jan27 January 11:27

    Hmmmm – I didn’t get the email referred to, however I’m not precious! I’ll happily use & share this info for everyone to benefit.
    Thanks again for the heads up 😀

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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