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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.

  • cardiffmatch says:

    The only problem I’ve had is that none of the credits on my BAPP card (the main card on the account) have ever gone through normally – I’ve always had to phone up to have them added manually. This is despite the ones on the supplementary card tracking just fine. It’s odd as the shop small promotion tracked fine on both cards, even when paying in the same restaurant at the same time.

    The good news is that Amex have always been happy to do it manually. They’ve looked at their system and confirmed that the card is synced to my Foursquare so we can’t work out what the problem has been.

    • Trevor says:

      Strange… My “other” promotions have always gone through, and 5 shop small transactions didn’t – 2 of those were primary and supp cards on a Lloyds account, but had same result with an Amex Plat and MBNA – all used together at a restaurant. That accounts for 4, and one other also on Lloyds card at a shop. I’ve had the MBNA and Plat credits applied, but strangely I have emailed Amex twice regarding the other missing Lloyds card transactions and they’ve never even responded!

  • Koshka says:

    I had all kinds of fun trying to get this to work on Friday night. Not sure whether it’s the app, my phone’s GPS or more likely my own incompetence. I stood in the Carphone Warehouse nearest to Oxford Street station and it seemed to be convinced that I was in a store further up the road. I therefore decided not to chance it (similar issue with Gap). I then thought I’d correctly loaded the House of Fraser deal but after failing to get a confirmation I checked and it appears that I might have loaded it to a different store (Victoria Street) even though I was standing outside the shop and thought that I had double checked. Managed to get a couple of sale bargains anyway so I won’t be that upset but hopefully MBNA will add the credit. Everything worked perfectly at the Starbucks in Stratford Westfield the day before (although annoyingly the LHR T5 Starbucks isn’t set up to accept the Starbucks card).

    • Raffles says:

      You can check-in anywhere, anytime. I don’t even have a smartphone! I do it on my ipad at home, often days before I visit the shop. And it all still track fine!

  • bjaockx says:

    I have a platinum card with an additional card to separate expenses, can I use both to £100 of HOF vouchers for £50?

    They:

    – have different card numbers,
    – are both for me (my name / my name a.c.)
    – but are showing as the same amex account when I log into amex.
    – both seem to have synced with different foursquare accounts

    Thank you in advance

  • bjaockx says:

    thanks for the clarification! I assumed that since it synced it would work but worth double checking!

  • Trevor says:

    Nice tip. Has anyone checked into and had success with HoF in Oxford street? I find it doesn’t show the special offer, so while it may track by checking into any HoF and still shopping there, I am a bit wary…

    • Koshka says:

      I had problems but as Raffles has mentioned you can try to regsiter before leaving home. In my case it was an unplanned trip so I had to do it from the phone and may have accidentally loaded the card for the wrong store. I’ve emailed MBNA to see whether they will apply the credit retrospectively. For anyone with kids there are some clothes bargains to be had in the POP store up on the 5th floor e.g. £8 for trousers that genuinely go for nearer £30 at other times.

    • Raffles says:

      Victoria shows it OK

      • Trevor says:

        Yup, I might browse Oxford St as it’s supposed to be their flagship store, but buy voucher sin Victoria to be sure. There are 3 tips on the Oxford St branch listing stating that the Amex check-in special isn’t working there! Any chance you think that vouchers would be accepted at the Forex bureau? A few extra points with Amex is on ething, but 50% free forex is quite another!!!

        • Trevor says:

          Mmm, just put my mind at rest and called HoF Victoria. Was transferred to the Bureau de Change and told gift vouchers are not accepted 🙁

    • Rich says:

      You don’t actually need to check in to the particular store you are visiting. In fact, for almost all of my offers, I’ve checked in at a different store to where I’ve actually made the purchase and 100% have tracked through (over 30 transactions)

      • RB says:

        But RIch I suspect the offer was also available at those stores that you checked into – right? I’d be delighted to be proven wrong as I’d much prefer to go to Oxford Street rather than trapse over to Victoria but I can’t help but feel that Oxford Street was deliberately excluded.

      • Trevor says:

        Like RB, and having seen the tips on Foursquare regarding HoF Oxford St, I am wondering if the offer is specifically not valid there, it does say “participating stores”. Glad you’ve had such tracking success. So far I’ve had 60/65 and 3 refunds have been awarded subsequently.

        I missioned all the way to Victoria yesterday and I’d rather that than miss the refund, certainly because the Oxford St store is way better.

        Bare in mind whoever is interested in technology shopping – I was advised at Oxford that all tech had moved to Victoria, yet the tech section in Victoria is all but closed down!

  • millwall says:

    Today is the first time Ive used foursquare, I bought a £50 gift card in HOF today. I first checked in, unlocked and loaded offer and was definitley the correct store (Victoria) so just waiting a few days for the notification of the £25. But should there be any indication in my foursquare account that I have unlocked and loaded offer to card?

    When I look at my account now it is saying I have not unlocked this special.

    • Mark says:

      HI Millwall, if you try & load your card again it your Foursquare account should show already loaded.

  • rykk says:

    Hi Mark, thanks for reply, still saying offer is not unlocked on app, when I try and go to load on card again like you said its telling me to check in, and its also saying I am checked in! PC site is saying the offer is ‘unlocked every check in’

    Be interesting to know if anyone else had this happen, maybe Im being stupid.

    Tomorrow will be doing it with Lloyds amex so will compare what happens!

  • Rich says:

    Hi Raffles – further to your “PS. I am happy to answer questions about Harrods stock for non-locals” comment.. I’m looking to buy a fridge freezer soon, any idea if they sell them/how big of a range they have??

    • Raffles says:

      Annoyingly, I have just come back from Harrods where I did 3 cards. However, I will pop back tomorrow to do the rest and will take a look. They certainly have big kitchen equipment.

    • Raffles says:

      Harrods has 4 fridge freezers, Miele and Siemens, cheapest £1,600 that I saw. The appliances departments seems to have been cut down aggressively during the recent refurbishments.

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