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Amazon Music Unlimited 4-Month Trial via HSBC
A good deal is just out for HSBC Visa cardholders to enjoy some free music streaming. You can see the details on HSBC’s page here.
To be eligible, you need to:
- Have an HSBC Visa card
- Haven’t used Amazon Music Unlimited service before (trial or paid)
Just head to this page on Amazon Music, change your payment method to the Visa card and then sign up. You’ll receive a 30-day free trial first, and then promotional credit equal to the following three months’ fee will be applied to your subscription. Remember to cancel your subscription in time if you don’t want to pay.
First Direct and M&S bank are HSBC subsidiaries, so their Visa cards have a decent chance of being eligible too. If it’s been a while since you last used Amazon Music Unlimited, you may also find yourself lucky.
If you do not have any of these Visa cards, you can still enjoy a free trial of three months by signing up here. Note that it is also for new customers only.
Uber Eats on Airtime, Morrisons Offer Extended
For takeaway lovers, Uber Eats has just appeared on my Airtime account:
10% cashback on all purchases is a nice deal, although some people report a variant which is valid on the first purchase only.
On a relevant note, we talked about the impressive Morrisons offer last week. What I forgot to mention is that, it’s also stackable with Virgin credit cards, which had been offering 10% cashback until yesterday.
All my cashbacks / points have tracked:
Fortunately, the Virgin credit card offer has been extended for some to the beginning of April. Combined with Morrisons More, it means up to 20.5% cashback plus 8 points / £1.
Even if you aren’t a Virgin credit card holder, you can still take advantage of the Amex 10% cashback offer.
If you’d like to join Airtime, feel free to use my referral code NAYK9C9Y which awards you 50p right away and another £1 if you make a purchase on the first five days.
10% off and Virgin Points on Morrisons Groceries
A few offers just started circulating for grocery shopping in Morrisons – and even better, they would actually work as a nice discount for a great deal of other retailers too.
First up is American Express. Some of us have received a 10% cashback offer on the cards:
Others have received a variant of 7% instead. The minimum spend is £30 and the good thing is it’s valid every time until April 7.
For those who didn’t qualify for the offer or without an Amex, you can benefit equally through Airtime. They’ve got (almost) the same offer:
With some people receiving 10% and the others 7%. Remember that Airtime takes much longer to pay out though and it can only be redeemed against your mobile phone bills.
Even better, either of them can stack with the in-store offer on Virgin Shops Away, which should be another 6 or 8 points per £1 on your spend.
Last but not least, despite what the terms might say, you’ll earn cashback and bonus points on gift card purchase as well, or at least it’s how it worked previously. So even if you don’t shop at Morrisons, you may still want to stop by and grab a few Amazon, Uber, John Lewis (Waitrose) or One4all gift cards .
How to Pay Your Utility Bill with Amex
As a point collector, it is in my greatest interest to put as much spend through credit card (and of course, ideally an Amex) as possible. So today let’s have a look at utility bills.
In the UK, we are free to choose whichever Gas & Electricity provider we want, although in my case the building uses communal heating so I can only choose one for electricity. The biggest factor when choosing surely is price, however being able to collect some points along the way is definitely a bonus.
Some providers only accept Direct Debit, whereas others let you pay with a credit card. Even better, the following providers are happy to take American Express:
- Bulb
- EDF Energy
- Ecotricity
- Green
- Igloo Energy
- Octopus Energy
- Orbit
- Outfox the Market
- OVO
- Spark Energy
Speaking for myself, I’ve been on Octopus Energy for three months and the experience has been quite good so far. I chose Octopus as a result of friends’ recommendation, and they have a pretty solid 4.8 rating on TrustPilot.
Should you be interested as well, please consider signing up using my referral link and we will both earn a bonus credit of £50 once your switch in complete.
Once your account is set up, change your Direct Debit payment amount to just £1 per month, so that you can pay the rest manually with a credit card.
Marriott 3-for-2 Offer in the Middle East and Africa
This is a very old offer that started in the SPG times long before the merger, and Marriott has been extending the offer since.
You can access the offer page here. It’s a partner offer with Mastercard, so in theory when you make the booking it has to be on a Mastercard.
There are three forms of rate type: 3-for-2 (Stay three nights and pay for 2), 4-for-3 and 6-for-4, which are equivalent to 33% off, 25% off and 33% off respectively.
To book, simply enter your stay details on the offer page, or search on Marriott’s homepage with promo code BOG. In the example below, the BOG rate is indeed the cheapest one across the board:
Note that however, this rate is non-changeable and non-refundable, which makes it very unattractive in the current climate. Still it’s worth knowing of though in case it becomes useful for your future trips.
Amex Cutting Tie with Shangri-La Golden Circle
Amex Platinum comes with substantial status benefits with certain hotel groups, which unfortunately has been shrinking over the last years. One more partner is biting the dust sadly.
As you can view on Amex’s page, the partnership is ending on April 1st. If you are an Amex Platinum cardholder and hasn’t linked your account yet, remember to do so by the end of March. Whether you have already linked your account or not, your Jade status should be valid until December 2021 at least, if not longer.
Shangri-la doesn’t have many properties in the UK or Europe, but if you ever visit Asia it offers decent choices, and Jade status comes with free breakfast and welcome amenity. Failing that, Jade offers 25% more value when you redeem points for dining, at the Shard London for example.
It’s a bigger disappointment than you think – Shangri-La Jade also enjoy reciprocal benefits with Taj Hotels and Singapore Airlines, which has been an indirect privilege for Amex Platinum cardholders.
Shop online to get the Amex Shop Small £5 credit
As we all know, Amex has launched the Shop Small campaign once again like in the summer and in previous years. It runs until 20th December and is a great way to save on your daily shopping.
But due to the current situation, it may be challenging for some to go outside and benefit from this offer. There is a workaround to this, although there’s no guarantee that it definitely works.
The thing is, some of the small shops have a website and support placing online orders. Depends on how the payment is processed, your purchase may trigger the £5 cashback offer as well.
Here is a list of such merchants, mentioned in the comments section of Headforpoints or reported by my friends:
- Silver UK – Jewellery seller
- Trouva – Clothing
- All Green – Gardening and environmental products
- Yard Sale Pizza – Pizza delivery
- Meat Me at Home – Butcher shop
- Reward Gateway – Employee benefits platform
As I mentioned earlier, these are past experiences and there’s no guarantee that your spend can still trigger the bonus, but you may wish to check it out by spending a small amount.
Jumeirah One double tier points & complimentary night enrolment offer
Jumeirah is a hotel group bases in the UAE. Maybe you haven’t heard of its name, but you must have seen their iconic “sailboat” hotel in Dubai: Burj Al Arab:
Jumeirah has three properties in London:
They also have a loyalty programme named Jumeirah One, which honestly isn’t super exciting. However, if you intend to book any Jumeirah hotels in the next month there’s a promotion worth noting:
- Booking dates: 1 November – 15 December
- Stay by: 30 September 2021
- All stays earn double tier points
You usually earn two tier points for each US dollar spent. With this offer you need an expense of $1,250 to reach Silver (5,000 points), which still isn’t cheap. However Silver tier comes with welcome amenity, free breakfast for two and 2pm late check-out.
Jumeirah One also has a long-running enrolment offer. New members earn a “complimentary one-night voucher” after the first eligible stay. It sounds very generous until you read the terms——
You must book a minimum three consecutive nights (or four nights at resort hotels) to use the voucher, at best flexible rate. So it’s not really a complimentary night, but more of a “Buy two get one free” discount voucher.
Anyway, the voucher may still save you some money if you stay at Jumeirah a fair bit. It’s valid for six months from the date of issue.