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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.

  • LondonLHR says:
    29 Jan29 January 11:02

    Hi

    Has anyone had the House of Fraser special appear in Foursquare? Any House of Fraser I find doesn’t have the special shown

  • Daniel (PZE) says:
    29 Jan29 January 13:59

    House of Fraser on Victoria Street (Westminster – AKA Army and Navy) has an excellent wines and spirits department so I think I’ll be shopping for some decent single malts at £25 discount….

    My daughter’s school is at least 5 minutes from Harrods so that all sounds a bit much effort 🙂

  • Mark says:
    31 Jan31 January 21:49

    I am just wondering how as thinking of signing up with Foursquare, how much personal information they ask for. Reading their TERMS & CONDITIONS.

    How easy is it i.e. to sign up for 3 accounts at the same time to use 3 credit cards for the offer? As they say they require truthful info about name, d.o.b. etc.

    I am wondering how you credit card details are linked to the accounts when loading an offer to a credit card and what credit card info they require.

    Thanks for feedback!

    • Raffles says:
      1 Feb1 February 06:34

      Make up a date of birth, so they don’t match across FS accounts. Use your real name if you want, or if you’ve got a middle name then do some Middle Name Surname instead of First Name Surname. That’s about the only info they want.

      If you’re on gmail, remember that you can get ‘different’ email addresses by adding in full stops, eg raffles@, r.affles@, ra.ffles@ all get to the same inbox but are seen as different by FS.

      They are not hugely sophisticated at FS – they don’t, for example, seem to use IP tracking to see if people log in from the same computer to different accounts.

      Amex does not share ANY of your personal card information, by the way. It is in the T&C’s when you sync your card.

  • RB says:
    1 Feb1 February 12:51

    Does anyone know if buying a giftcard online say, with HoF, would work?

    • Raffles says:
      1 Feb1 February 14:46

      Might do, might not. Tesco Foursquare deal worked online, Harvey Nichols did not. No way of knowing unless someone tries.

  • Simon says:
    1 Feb1 February 17:50

    What sort of things are in Harrods food hall? Is it very overpriced compared to everywhere else?

    I’ve never been to Harrods but assume everything is really expensive so I’m wondering if effectivly 50% just brings things back to normal prices.

    • Raffles says:
      1 Feb1 February 18:47

      Reverse of a normal supermarket, 90 per cent fresh produce and very little dry stuff (3 or 4 different breakfast cereals max). Pricier than Waitrose but not twice as much, like for like.

      There is a Harrods premium on some stuff – designer stuff is often £5 more than Selfridges, say £85 instead of £80 for a tie. But 80 per cent is a normal department store, with a normally prices book shop, HMV concession, sportswear shop etc etc. Cosmetics etc are same price as Debenhams or Boots.

      • Simon says:
        2 Feb2 February 06:03

        Thanks, not sure the food hall is for me then, I could only make one trip with my 3 cards and £150 worth of fresh stuff will go off before I’d be able to eat it. I’ll check out their online site and see what they have, I assume Harrods gift cards can’t be used at the Harrods HMV.

        • Raffles says:
          2 Feb2 February 06:37

          You can use Harrods Gift Cards anywhere in the store, even concessions.

          However, I had a message to say that the DVD / CD concession was taken out late last year. It could be, as I haven’t been into that bit for a while.

          • Simon says:
            2 Feb2 February 16:07

            The message you got appears to be correct, I just rang them and they said HMV was no longer there, I asked if there was anywhere else that sold DVD / CD’s in the store now and was told no.

  • Edinburghbound says:
    2 Feb2 February 12:49

    Does anyone know if there is still an Apple concession in Harrods?

    • Raffles says:
      2 Feb2 February 13:28

      Yes, in the new technology room. Got my ipad 3 there.

      • nickykelvin says:
        7 Feb7 February 17:49

        Hi Raffles,

        Will the foursquare offer work in this concession?

        • Raffles says:
          7 Feb7 February 18:06

          Yes, because – like all Harrods concessions – it goes through the till as Harrods. The technology room is actually run by Dixons / Currys, unbelievably!

  • cardiffmatch says:
    3 Feb3 February 10:57

    Thanks Raffles – we had a v successful trip to our local HoF yesterday, armed with our current cards. By sheer coincidence we are in the middle of a card “turnaround” so new ones are in the post which I will be playing with when I return to London in the week!

    Just a thought – could you maybe introduce a “Foursquare” category or tag for your blog, to save time in searching for previous posts on this topic? I have to refer back to the instructions and lists fairly frequently in order to make sure I’m doing things right…

  • Russell Evans says:
    3 Feb3 February 18:10

    Tried to make two purchases today in HOF for 2 x £50 gift cards one main cardholder and second my OH supplementary card on same BAPP account (different card numbers though). Both cards sync’d to separate Foursquare accounts but only got a notification via the Foursquare app on the main cardholder that the credit was applied. Anyone got experience of this working/not. Hoping the 2 x £25 credits will post!

    • Trevor says:
      3 Feb3 February 18:55

      I’ve used Lloyds duo primary and supp cards together and separately, never got a Foursquare confirmation, and once neither transaction credited (see reply below). My Amex Plat normally gets a Foursquare confirmation, but not always, and I think even less frequently with MBNA. I wouldn’t worry about the confirmations – hold the worry for if the refund doesn’t post, which normally it does. So far, out of 63 transactions, 5 didn’t post, 4 were at the same restaurant and 2 of those were credited promptly after a chase.

      Of course not getting £5 on one £5 purchase at a reasonably priced shop is less worrying that missing £25 out of £50 at a pricey place. Let’s hope all goes smoothly tomorrow when I visit HoF and Harrod’s armed with 5 cards!

    • Alan says:
      3 Feb3 February 21:44

      Normally I find it only shows a notification (and even then not always) if you’re logged in to an a/c on your phone at the time of purchase. Sometimes afterwards you can go into the notification tray and refresh it. However in all the transactions to date (around 50 or so of which only 20 or so showed a notification) I’ve only had one not track – I raised a manual query and it posted (twice :D) a week later. You should be fine 🙂

      • Mark Brackenridge says:
        5 Feb5 February 14:37

        Alan, I have had one of my HoF purchases not track, can I ask who you raised the query with, was it Amex of Foursquare? Thanks, Mark

        • Alan says:
          5 Feb5 February 14:41

          Hi Mark it was the sync team, there’s a contact form on the Amex Sync website from where you register your card.

        • Trevor says:
          5 Feb5 February 14:52

          Hi Mark, it’s definitely Amex you need to ultimately contact, but it depends on what card you use too. I’ve not seen the link on the sync site that Alan refers to, but when I had a purchase not track with my Amex Plat, I contacted Amex directly and they sorted it out quickly. With my LTSB and MBNA cards I was advised by them to email registeredcardsupport@aexp.com and give card and transaction details.

          How long have you waited for the transaction to track/refund though? Since it often takes 2-3 days for a normal transaction to post, it does take another day or 2 for a refund to post with an Amex issued card, and much longer with LTSB. Note that the T&C state that while it should track within days, it could take 2 billing periods to be added to your statement!

          • Mark says:
            5 Feb5 February 20:38

            Cheers Alan & Trevor, have filled in the form, will see what they say.

          • Mark says:
            5 Feb5 February 22:29

            Hi Trevor, my partner & I both bought gift cards on the 1st of Feb, me using my BAPP her using a supplementary on my BAPP. The credit has posted for transaction but not mine!

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