Update: Apparently due to high demand, anyone who signs up for Ritual from 2nd April onwards will not receive the £1 meal deal. You can still get the free £10 credit though.

It’s been a while since I’ve last posted, but this is a pretty good offer: if you download Ritual, a food collection app, you can get up to five free meals.

The restaurant choices on the app (at least for Canary Wharf) are pretty varied – there’s large chains like Nando’s and Wagamama, smaller chains such as Chop’d and Crush, and Yum Bun and Pastaio in Giant Robot. There’s also a few coffee shops, but you’ll get your money’s worth with the larger meals!

To sign up, click this link and download the app. It appears that you get £5 off your first meal, so feel free to add £4 of extra stuff to your initial order (drinks, sides, etc.), then you can use your second £5 credit over your next few orders [you’ll need to put your credit card details in at this point], making them free.

You can only order one £1 meal per day, and each of the meals is pre-selected (e.g. 1/4 chicken at Nando’s with two sides of your choice). I’d advise getting your order in early (11:30am), as there’s been pretty big demand due to the offer: if they get too busy, they may run out of the promotional item, or simply stop taking orders.

Additionally, if you get your colleagues to go to the same restaurant, you can offer ‘pickup’, which gets you a few more points (50p worth) for bringing back food from the same restaurant for your floor.

Disclosure: if you sign up using my link, I get 1,000 points, equal to £1 of free credit, but you also receive £10 in free credit too. If you don’t use a promo code, I believe you won’t receive the free credit, so it’s in your interest to use a referral.

Shop Small is back for another year, starting today and running until 21st December. Like last year, you get £5 back when you spend £10, but unlike last time, there’s no limit on the number of retailers you can go to.

There’s a variety of shops, food stalls and pubs on the list, so I’d highly recommend you take a look, and make sure to register your card before you head out.

How it works

1. You need to register online with your card(s) before you shop.
2. Check out the list of eligible locations by popping in your postcode on the Amex Shop Small site. The map isn’t very good, so I’ve made one for the City of London.
3. Spend £10 in store on your registered Amex.
4. You’ll get an email confirming your purchase shortly (this will take longer if you’re using ExpressPay contactless).

Tips to get the best value

• You can use this offer in conjunction with any other offer, so long as the spend on your Amex is over the £10 threshold – e.g. Taste Card, Vouchers, etc.
  
• Cards on the same account (supplementary cards) are eligible for the promotion in their own right, excluding MBNA, because they have the same account number.
• The discount probably won’t work if you try to use it in different branches of the same shop. To stay safe, use it only in one of the locations.
• If you have multiple Amex cards (including cards issued by Barclaycard, Lloyds, TSB and MBNA – mostly frequent flyer rewards cards), each of these are treated separately. Make sure you register each one!
• If you don’t see the credit in a week or two, or the merchant doesn’t take Amex, get in touch with customer services: call the number on the back of your card, or send an email using secure messaging: they were pretty good in getting the credit added manually last time. This also applies ifthe retailer doesn’t accept Amex.

I’m writing this from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where I’m currently on holiday with my family over the Lunar New Year period. Whilst here, I needed to get some local currency out – the Malaysian Ringgit – to pay for some bills (I’d use the credit card, but they don’t seem to have as wide an acceptance here!)

At the cashpoint, I was offered the choice in Pounds Sterling rather than Malaysian Ringgit – around £213.00 for RM1,000.00. Because I was using my Metro Bank Debit Card, I knew that being charged in the local currency would be the best option: fortunately it was possible to opt out. On getting back, I found out that my card had been charged £205.79: £7 less than if I’d opted to pay in pounds.

This isn’t restricted to cash machines, however: it can also be found at credit card terminals in shops – so, if you’re ever asked whether you’d like to pay in pounds abroad, you should always decline if you’re using one of the recommended cards.