ENDS SOON: Use your £50 of Harvey Nichols credit from Amex Platinum by 31st December

If you have an American Express Platinum card, one of the unsung but ‘free money’ benefits is that you will receive £100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols stores.

This offer is valid instore and online (click here) and includes selected store restaurants.

You get £50 to spend in the second half of the year, so you have just two weeks left. On 1st January, the offer resets and you can spend another £50.

If you apply for The Platinum Card today, you would receive both £50 credits within the space of a month as long as your card arrives promptly.

Amex signed a three year deal with Harvey Nichols, meaning that you are guaranteed to receive the credit until at least the end of 2024.

Your credit arrives in two £50 chunks. You will receive £50 back on your Harvey Nichols purchases between January and June, and £50 back between July and December.

The credit is only available on primary cards and not supplementary cards. Spending by a supplementary cardholder will not trigger the cashback on the primary card, according to the small print.

If you haven’t already used your current £50 credit, you need to do so by 31st December. You can’t carry unspent credit over from one half year to the next.

You must opt in to this benefit

This is NOT an automatic offer.

You must visit the American Express website or app, go to your Platinum account page, find the offer and click ‘Save to Card’.

Where can I use my Harvey Nichols credit?

Harvey Nichols currently has UK stores in London, Leeds, Bristol, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Manchester and Liverpool.

The Oxo Tower restaurant in London is also included in the deal as is Zelman Meats, Burger & Lobster and Madhu’s 2 Go in the Knightsbridge store. All Harvey Nichols-branded restaurants are included.

Note that “HN@HOME (OXO at home, Leeds at home and Edinburgh at home)” is excluded, as are purchases from the Oxo Tower restaurant’s website.

If you don’t live near a store, your best bet is probably a purchase of cosmetics or wine from the website. The cosmetics section is here and the ‘food and wine’ section is here.

There is also a ‘gifts’ section here which may be more relevant for a one-off purchase at around the £50 mark.

Sign up to Harvey Nichols rewards before you shop

Harvey Nichols has a loyalty scheme called Harvey Nichols Rewards. You would be silly not to sign up to this, because you will get extra savings and rewards which will make your £50 credit every six months go further.

The scheme is very similar to Harrods Rewards, with some extra upside. You can sign up on the Harvey Nichols website here.

How does Harvey Nichols Rewards work?

There are two ways you benefit.

Get cashback on your spending in Harvey Nichols

Whenever you make a purchase in Harvey Nichols, online or instore, Rewards members will receive a cashback credit.

This starts at 1%. It then steps up based on your annual spend:

• Spend £500 and receive 2% going forward
• Spend £2,000 and receive 3% going forward
• Spend £5,000 and receive 4% going forward
• Spend £10,000 and receive 5% going forward

Your higher level kicks in as soon as you reach the spending threshold, and continues for the rest of the current year and all of the following year.

You can see your current level of accumulated cashback in the Harvey Nichols app or on the website. It can be redeemed on your next purchase, either instore or online. As far as I can tell, there is no minimum level of cashback required before you can redeem.

You used to receive £1.50 of additional cashback credit for fully completing your profile after registration. I’m not sure if this is still happening.

Get additional discounts in selected categories

For small spenders, this is where you will benefit the most from Harvey Nichols Rewards.

As a member, you can select annual benefits from the following list. The number of benefits you select depends on your status – new members can just select one.

Once you have picked a benefit, it is fixed for the rest of the year.

Here are your options – remember that you are restricted to one choice as a base level member, but for most benefits you can use them as many times as you want during the year:

• 10% off own-label food, wine and hampers
• free drink in-store
• 4 x double points booster
• ‘Kids eat free’ (up to 12 years)
• birthday gift
• early access pass for sales and other events
• 10% off in selected bars and restaurants
• 10% off beauty treatments and grooming

The Harvey Nichols Rewards website shows other benefits but they are restricted to higher tier members of the programme. The ones I have listed above are open to all.

(Some of the restricted ones are very generous. A Level 5 members can pick a six-course meal for two at the Oxo Tower restaurant, for example.)

If you don’t live near a Harvey Nichols store and will be redeeming your £50 credits online, I assume that the ‘10% off own-label food and wine’ option will be most valuable. This will save you £5 on each £50 spend, whilst ‘double points’ will only get you an extra 50p back per £50.

Get 100,000 points with The Platinum Card

If this offer tips you over into deciding to get The Platinum Card, you can find our more in our review here.

Until 9th January, the card comes with a huge 100,000 Membership Rewards points bonus, which converts into 100,000 Avios amongst other things.

You receive 75,000 points when you spend £10,000 in your first six months, and a further 25,000 points if you keep the card for 15 months.

The £100 per year of Harvey Nichols credit sits alongside the £300 of restaurant credit (£150 for the UK, £150 to spend internationally, choose from 1600 restaurants) as a ‘free money’ benefit. Other benefits include travel insurance, 2 x Priority Pass airport lounge access cards (good for a family of four), Eurostar lounge access, the impressive Fine Hotels & Resorts hotel booking programme and full car rental insurance. You can find out more here.

Pro-rata fee refunds if you cancel will be available until at least 29th February 2024 and potentially later. Amex is planning to withdraw this feature but the exact date is not yet known. You are definitely OK to cancel until 29th February and receive a refund for any unused months.

If you apply now, you should have time to cash in your £50 of Harvey Nichols credit for July to December by 31st December. On 1st January, your credit resets and you can claim another £50 of free stuff.

You can apply for The Platinum Card here.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 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:

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.

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:

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.