Harvey Nichols – Ideas

[RG]

So, I’m running out of ideas on the Harvey Nichols credit. What do other people use it for? I find a lot of stuff at HN quite over priced compared to the rest of the high street (whisky especially), no surprises there!

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

Suncreams? Good suncreams.

[davidl]

The wine is very good

[Fester]

Bought a couple of bottles of rum last time. Wine the time before that.

[marshy11]

We generally buy perfume/aftershave and gift it for Christmas/birthdays. They have the most beautiful gift boxes.

[NorthernLass]

As above, plus I often use the regular £50 off £250 for Jo Malone products which also come in nice boxes and make nice presents.

[SteveJ]

Beauty products that you would be buying (probably cheaper elsewhere) anyway

[Supergers49]

I was recently very fortunate. I bought a Johnnie Walker Blue Ghost and Rare Port Dundas when they were running a 15% off promo. It brought the unit price to £250 (which is probably the normal RRP elsewhere). The £50 Credit stacked with the Spend £200/Get £50 Statement Credit. Plus it also triggered slugs of Avios and Nectar from the BA eStore and Nectar Connect. Based on a 1p per Avios valuation that brought the net price down to c.£150.

This is how I generally try and use my 6 monthly HN credit. Buy whisky/wine and combine it with another Amex Statement, a HN promo, Nectar Connect (alas no longer) and BA eStore.

[Andrew J]

You can use it in the restaurants including concessions such as Burger & Lobster.

[BBbetter]

This thread explains why this benefit is pointless for a platinum card. It makes sense for a Centurion cardholder who can shop there for a few thousands easily. But if HN is really hoping plat cardholders will come back for more, someone needs to tell them.

[NorthernLass]

One day I will remember in advance that there’s a HN in Manchester and use the offer in-store! (If that’s allowed, probably better check in case Amex doesn’t know about this).

[Rob]

BBbetter wrote:

This thread explains why this benefit is pointless for a platinum card. It makes sense for a Centurion cardholder who can shop there for a few thousands easily. But if HN is really hoping plat cardholders will come back for more, someone needs to tell them.

Ok ….. we’re not talking Loro Piana here (in fact HN doesn’t sell the real top menswear brands). It is substantially below Selfridges and Harrods and actually about on par with your average Plat cardholder.

I suspect very few Plat cardholders, possibly except you, are drinking £5 wine, wearing Boots own brand aftershave and buying their polo shirts at Primark.

[Andrew J]

Rob Burgess wrote:

BBbetter wrote:

This thread explains why this benefit is pointless for a platinum card. It makes sense for a Centurion cardholder who can shop there for a few thousands easily. But if HN is really hoping plat cardholders will come back for more, someone needs to tell them.

Ok ….. we’re not talking Loro Piana here (in fact HN doesn’t sell the real top menswear brands). It is substantially below Selfridges and Harrods and actually about on par with your average Plat cardholder.

I suspect very few Plat cardholders, possibly except you, are drinking £5 wine, wearing Boots own brand aftershave and buying their polo shirts at Primark.

Agreed, HN is not particularly high end (anymore) and in fact there was a piece in the Telegraph yesterday saying just that. HN is a good choice for Amex as it does at least have some stores around the country. The range of things you can buy for £50 is quite wide. And of course some of that £50 will be paid by HN who need to acquire customers.

[jj]

It’s primarily a clothing shop for goodness sake! What else would you buy there? My wife never has trouble finding something suitable, and clothing isn’t overpriced compared with other outlets of similar quality.

As Rob says, if you’re in the target demographic for Platinum, you can afford to buy clothes there.

[jumpersforgoalposts]

The last 2 times We’ve used it, we went to the OXO tower for dinner, and the HN restaurant in Knightsbridge for afternoon tea. Appreciate that you need to be in London (or other places where you can go into a HN store) but we found spending the £50 on an ‘experience’ better value than buying stuff we wouldn’t otherwise need/want.

[Gavin454]

Some of the alcohol is overpriced, but some of it not too bad. Last time bought a couple of bottles of Japanese sake for £52. Had a quick look at the food section (seemed super expensive), and clothing which also seemed bad value.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

NorthernLass wrote:

One day I will remember in advance that there’s a HN in Manchester and use the offer in-store! (If that’s allowed, probably better check in case Amex doesn’t know about this).

That store is in fact my nearest food shop and is best avoided tbh. The clientele is very much of the ostentatious Class A substance seller variety. And the menswear on sale reflects that demographic. The food section, once decent, has long ago diminished in size and appeal.

[RG]

Thanks everyone for the ideas! Some good ones I hadn’t thought of (Sake especially! and sun cream! and Oxo tower – I figured it wouldn’t be valid in there)

The clothes in HN are awful. I’m certainly on the lower end of the expected demographic of the Plat card, but equally I don’t think anyone here is dropping £750 on a Balenciaga t-shirt. In my local HN, I see a lot of browsers, not a lot of people at the tills or with bags.

For me, the £50 HN credit is the worst bit about the Plat card, I’d much prefer a £50 amex travel benefit every 6 months, which would 100% get used every time without even thinking about it.

[TGLoyalty]

For me it’s not the prices of the items in HN but just how ridiculous they look.

[JDB]

Isn’t the answer that if Plat holders were given £100 to spend at a retailer of their choice, incredibly few would choose to spend it at Harvey Nichols. It’s clear from this thread and many previous comments that people are forcing themselves to find a way not to waste the £50 x 2 and generally not spending more unless stacking with a spend related offer.

I don’t have a Plat card but my wife does. I think that she, as a highly paid professional, would be their target market but having spent the £50 and rather more in H2 last year and H1 this year I doubt she will bother with the current one as the purchases have been disappointing. She says it’s just not the shop it was and is grotesquely overpriced and being comfortably off doesn’t alter that. She sees the supposed ‘benefit’ as a burden.

[jj]

“incredibly few would choose to spend it at Harvey Nichols”

You’re probably right, but it’s probably also true that very many people would buy a product that HN sells from an alternative outlet. If so, the discount is real.

My wife is very likely to buy something from, amongst others, Rag & Bone or Alice and Olivia in a six month period, as the fit, style and fabric quality are generally exceptional. Sales excepted, the price of those clothes is identical across all retailers, so the discount works well for her – she just switches allegiance from another outlet.

Of course TGLoyalty would think she looks ridiculous. Personally, I think she looks great, and I suspect that matters far more to her than the random opinion of a random dude on the internet.

[Tiger]

JDB wrote:

She sees the supposed ‘benefit’ as a burden.

It’s indeed a burden. I too struggle to find something to order, which isn’t overpriced.

I might be in minority but I would have been very happy with John Lewis credits. I fondly remember how happy Tigress was when I told her about the free John Lewis credit Amex offered during the first lockdown. She went all in with the credits we received on both our Platinum cards.

[sloth]

Seems a few people have been on the sauce this evening…. Maybe knocking back their HN procured alcohol…

[stevenhp1987]

Rob Burgess wrote:

BBbetter wrote:

This thread explains why this benefit is pointless for a platinum card. It makes sense for a Centurion cardholder who can shop there for a few thousands easily. But if HN is really hoping plat cardholders will come back for more, someone needs to tell them.

Ok ….. we’re not talking Loro Piana here (in fact HN doesn’t sell the real top menswear brands). It is substantially below Selfridges and Harrods and actually about on par with your average Plat cardholder.

I suspect very few Plat cardholders, possibly except you, are drinking £5 wine, wearing Boots own brand aftershave and buying their polo shirts at Primark.

While £5 wine is generally awful (unless you’re in, say, France or Italy)… Boots own brand is pretty good, if not better than the main brands for some products, and there are many levels of quality between HN and Primark!

Primark clothes are not designed to be worn too many times. Their target audience is people who want to change their wardrobe with the latest fashion and have it cost a couple of quid (that and poor people with little choice).

HN targets those who buy clothes to last and can afford the initial outlay. There are plenty of cheaper alternatives, in the same market, as HN.

I, personally, find HN to be very overpriced and the fashion… Outdated? I wouldn’t shop there if it wasn’t for the Platinum offer. Even then it was for alcohol.

Surely the average hfp goes abroad frequently where better quality and cheaper clothing can be found?

[AndrewF]

I tend to use the credit for Aesop shaving serum. It’s one of very, very few that doesn’t make my face go red raw. Given it’s the same price as via Aesop themselves, the fact I can get two bottles – out of the three I buy each year – for free through HN makes this a good benefit for me. A genuine saving.