Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Last chance to get your February Foursquare cashback

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

With Head for Points having been out of action for the last two days, this has been my first chance to give you a final warning not to miss out on the current batch of Amex and Foursquare offers.

My article outlining the February deals is here.

My later article explaining how I went about buying up £300 of Harrods and House of Fraser gift vouchers is here.

To summarise, the following deals will close tomorrow:

  • 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

Even if there is nothing you need you now, you can buy gift cards to use over the coming months.

It is worth noting that – with the last two Foursquare promotions that ran – you were unable to load the deal onto your Amex card on the last day of the promotion.  Transactions done on the last day still paid out, though.

If you were planning to buy some last minute vouchers on the 28th, you should therefore play it safe and load the offer onto your Foursquare account today.

This is how it works, if you are totally new to this:

Download the Foursquare app onto your ipad, iphone, Android device or whatever you carry!  (A wi-fi only ipad or ipod touch will also work OK)

Sign up. Make a careful note of the email address you use.  Ignore all the screens about linking your Facebook etc accounts.

Sync your MBNA, Lloyds or Amex-issued Amex card with the Foursquare account by going to this website.  You must use the same email address as in 1.

Go back to Foursquare and search for House of Fraser, Harrods, Gap etc. You need to click ‘Check In’ and you will see a special offer flick up. Click ‘Load to Card’ and the offer is set up directly with Amex.

Repeat for each Amex card you have, with a new Foursquare account. It would be sensible to make a note of which Amex card and email address links to each account.

(You can actually carry out steps 1-3 on a desktop PC as well. What you cannot do is Step 4, as the ‘Check In’ box is not active.)

There is nothing to show in the shop when you make your purchases. The shop will never even know you are taking part in the promotion. 3-4 days after making the relevant shop purchase, a credit will hit your Amex account.


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:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

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.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

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:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

1% cashback uncapped* on all your business spending (T&C apply) Read our full review

Comments (14)

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

  • James G says:

    I’ve made good use of this deal in via Shell and House of Fraser for my two Amex cards, but alas none of these Specials show up on the Windows Phone version of the Foursquare App. The iPhone app, which is what I’ve been using via my wife’s phone, works perfectly. Because of that though I’ve missed on some of the other deals (Harrods, Banana Republic) since she’s never in London, which is a shame.

  • Whirlwind2000 says:

    I made a dash to Harrods in my lunch break and sync’ed my 3 AMEX to get £150 of vouchers for £75. As they’re valid for 24 months, this is now my Summer 2013 sunglasses fund, massive discount even on Duty Free.

  • Will says:

    I did £650 across 13 cards in harrods on Saturday with my partner, no hint of the police being called;)
    Also managed to hit HofF and carphone warehouse on 13 cards and I’m 8/13 through shell. Incredible offer.

  • Ramsey says:

    How long are the Shell and Starbucks promotions still on for?

    • Rob says:

      Starbucks has already finished. Shell runs to April 18th. Pizza Hut runs to 6th March.

  • Rascalus says:

    Please could someone let me know if there is a link to facilitate download of the Foursquare application to a laptop. I know that it was essentially designed for ‘on the move’ use so surely there must be a programme for people that still carry around a laptop as opposed to a smartphone or tablet?

    • Rob says:

      There is PC software you can get which lets you download and run Apple iPad and iPhone apps on your PC. Not sure what they are called, but they do exist. That might be your solution.

  • porky73 says:

    Does anyone know if Harrods gift cards can be used in their concessions? i.e. if say D&G, Phase 8, etc.

  • Don says:

    Thanks for the prompt. Amex x4 at HoF and Harrods today. The chap in front of me at the Harrod’s food hall deli till, whilst I was queuing to pay for a sandwich, was buying multiple £50 cards too – another H4P subscriber perhaps? 🙂

  • John says:

    I was wondering if anybody knows who to contact about Foursquare Specials not tracking. I’ve successfully used my Virgin AMEX card as Shell and HOF, However my transactions on my LLoyds TSB Airmiles DUO AMEX haven’t tracked and my statement has arived with no mention of them. I rung the LLoydsTSB helpline but as they aren’t the ones running the promotion, they couldn’t help. Where do I go from here please?

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.