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Review: What does the Harrods American Express charge card offer?

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This is our review of the Harrods American Express card.

The Harrods American Express card is a little-known product which is not freely available, a little like the Vitality American Express card.

The Harrods American Express card is only available to Gold, Black and Platinum members of the Harrods Rewards loyalty scheme.  You would need to spend £5,000 in the store in a calendar year to hit Gold status.

Harrods American Express card review

In the past, Harrods has occasionally emailed general UK members of Harrods Rewards, irrespective of status, with an invitation to apply.  Unless such an email pops into your inbox, you should assume that you cannot get the card.

You can see full details for the card on the Harrods site here.

What does the Harrods American Express card offer?

The Harrods American Express card comes in a metallic shade of brown (bronze?) as you can see above and below.  I’ve never seen one in the flesh so I don’t know how classy the real thing looks.

Here are the headline features:

  • The sign-up bonus is 5,000 Harrods Rewards points, worth £50, when you spend £3,000 within three months – it appears that you receive this irrespective of other American Express cards you hold
  • There is an annual fee of £195
  • It is a charge card, not a credit card – you must clear your balance each month

This is what you earn when you spend on the card:

  • One Harrods Rewards point (1p) per £1 spent
  • Two Harrods Rewards points (2p) per £1 spent in Harrods – for clarity, this is not including the Harrods Rewards points you’d earn from your Harrods spending regardless of the card you used
Harrods American Express card review

Does the Harrods American Express card have extra benefits?

Here are two additional benefits:

  • You receive a £25 quarterly statement credit when you spend in Harrods in-store restaurants

The restaurant benefit is, of course, worth having if you can use it.

The SLH benefit is, frankly, poor. You earn this status by staying just four nights with Small Luxury Hotels of the World and the benefits (mainly free breakfast) align with that.

The other benefits are more nebulous:

  • Exclusive Harrods Rewards bonus points promotions
  • Invitations to exclusive Harrods events

Are these events any good?  We don’t know.  It is worth mentioning that, about 10 years ago, I was gifted top-tier Harrods Black status for a couple of years.

This usually requires £10,000 of spend in a calendar year and was, at the time, the top tier. A Platinum tier, requiring £50,000 of annual spend, was recently added.

During that period, we were invited to a fair number of exclusive childrens events, often held in-store on a Sunday morning before the shop opened.  I was also once invited to a dinner in the wine store hosted by Qatar Airways, which is where I met the Qatar Airways UK country manager and where our good relationship with the airline sprung from.

However …. it is not clear how charge card holders fit into the pecking order for events.  The card is only for elite members of Harrods Rewards anyway, so holders would already be receiving some invitations.

Harrods American Express card review

Anything else worth knowing?

According to HfP reader reports, the Harrods American Express can be used in place of a standard Harrods Rewards card.

This means that, in theory, you could ask a cashier to swipe your Harrods American Express in order to credit your base points but then pay with a different card.

This feature is not confirmed anywhere on the card website.

Conclusion

The Harrods American Express card is an odd product – made even odder for still being a charge card and not a credit card.

There is, of course, going to be a lot of overlap between the Platinum and Centurion cardholder bases and those people who may be interested in a Harrods charge card.

Giving you 2% cashback on your Harrods spending (albeit in Harrods points) is not a bad reward. If you qualify to get the card then you are already Harrods Rewards Gold and spending £5,000+ in the store each year.

Of course, in terms of day to day rewards for non-Harrods spending, there are free American Express cards which can get you an equivalent 1% return on your spending (British Airways American Express, American Express Cashback Everyday, American Express Rewards Credit Card).  You don’t need to spend £195 in annual fees.  The three cards above also have more generous sign-up bonuses.

Perhaps the biggest benefit is having a novel card to show your friends (as I said, even I’ve never seen one in the flesh) at a far lower cost than American Express Platinum or Centurion.

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Category

General

Comments (39)

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

  • Lumma says:
    23 Feb23 February 04:02

    I’ve seen a couple of them. Just looks like a brown version of the classic style of American Express card. As you might expect from the card image.

    I’ve still got the Project Red Amex. I’ve never seen anyone else use one (worked in hospitality for twenty years).

    • Sina says:
      23 Feb23 February 04:27

      I used to have this car when I was gold with Harrods, got a few gift boxes from Harrods and some free spa/turkish bath but never got the time to use it.

    • Lumma says:
      23 Feb23 February 18:47

      I still have it as it often has interesting offers that don’t appear on my other cards. I do wonder if I ever try to reset the clock to get some sign up bonuses if I’d also need to get rid of it

  • David says:
    23 Feb23 February 06:32

    The color of… What an odd choice? Is Harrods palette brown? as I have not set foot in there in more than a decade.

    • OnTheRun says:
      23 Feb23 February 07:05

      I like the colour, it’s a nice shade of chocolate brown with gold accents. It’s distinctive and unexpected – by that I mean I would have expected the card to be green.

      Maybe the colour is a nod to the past in some way.

    • cats_are_best says:
      23 Feb23 February 07:45

      It’s not plain brown/bronze, there are lots of embedded tiny gold coloured flecks that catch the light, it actually looks ok.

      I’d say it’s intended to reflect the traditional use of bronze throughout the store, windows, doors, internal fittings etc.

      As a local kid back in the 60’s, I remember watching workmen refurbishing a lot of it.

      Also the game of seeing how far down the dark and spooky stairwell into the many basement levels I could get 🙂

  • OnTheRun says:
    23 Feb23 February 06:53

    What happens if someone spends £5000 one year at Harrods, applies for the card, and then doesn’t spend £5000 at Harrods the next (for example, they are of the country) – dines the cardmember just cease to qualify for the card?

    • OnTheRun says:
      23 Feb23 February 07:26

      *does the cardmember

    • Andrew J says:
      23 Feb23 February 07:32

      I think the requirement is just to be Gold tier or above to “apply” – ongoing status isn’t required. That said, few people are likely to want the card if they aren’t spending £5000+ a year in Harrods.

    • George K says:
      23 Feb23 February 08:14

      They won’t cancel your card, if that’s what you’re asking…

  • Andrew J says:
    23 Feb23 February 07:35

    I am planning to apply for this card as a replacement for my BAPP as I’m now stepping away from BA and Avios – so it’s good to know I will be eligible for the SUB, which from time to time they offer an enhanced version.

    • Cats are best says:
      23 Feb23 February 21:06

      Can confirm having another Amex won’t bar you from the bonus points, I had BAPP and Centurion when I got it – cancelled the BAPP (BAEC changes), though I rarely used it anyway.

      The bonus has been 5,000 for quite a while now, the ‘normal’ bonus used to be less, but I can’t see them reverting to it.

      If you’re HR Black it’s a no-brainer for Harrods spend, though I tend use it other places too, 1% to spend at Harrods is simpler than yet more Amex MR/Avios/VS miles, that I never get around to using.

  • Andrew. says:
    23 Feb23 February 09:10

    Harrods did exist before Mr Fayed acquired House of Fraser. How long has the Harrods Amex card been issued for?

    I remember having a GE Capital Finance issued Harrods card in the early 1990s. Their 10% statement credit days were the absolutely only pathway to getting a (non-educational) discount on Apple products.

    • Rob says:
      23 Feb23 February 09:14

      I remember the ‘free night at the Ritz’ offer being around.

      • JDB says:
        23 Feb23 February 10:04

        Some politicians discovered there was no such thing as a free night at the Ritz in Paris…

    • Andrew J says:
      23 Feb23 February 09:59

      Harrods Rewards replaced the storecard for CRM purposes, also offering the 10% discount weekends a few times throughout the year. Initially when the storecard closed, GE issued Harrods Mastercards, although from memory didn’t offer any additional points when spending at Harrods (or any points at all?). Then the Harrods Amex launched and indeed had the Paris Ritz free night as an annual threshold spend benefit – I was in my 20s at the time and the spend target seemed ludicrously high, although was maybe only £20k, so would seem a good deal now.

      @George K – the £25 restaurant benefit – is that applied to your bill when paying or as a statement credit like Plat dining credit?

      • Mike says:
        23 Feb23 February 10:28

        Applied to bill when dining.

        • George K says:
          23 Feb23 February 12:55

          It is as Mike says – you have to give your Harrods Rewards card when asking for the bill, and it recognises you as an Amex cardholder and shaves £25 off. Theoretically you can pay with any card at that point. A limitation of this process is that you technically can’t choose when to spend the credit. The first time you end up in a Harrods restaurant during each quarter and happen to rack up more than £25 in spend, will be the time that the quarterly credit is deducted.

      • Andrew J says:
        23 Feb23 February 13:14

        Thanks. I guess if you really don’t want to use the credit on a particular occasion you can just say you don’t have a rewards card.

  • JDB says:
    23 Feb23 February 10:12

    We hardly shop at Harrods these days as it’s not what it used to be. My wife does still buy a couple of Sensai products that are exclusive to Harrods in the UK and currently earn 14 Avios/£1 although theoretically beauty should earn half that. It tracks and pays consistently inside a week plus never had a clawback. That ought to stack with any Harrods rewards??

    It’s interesting to note, in the context of BA changes, how much one needs to spend in store to reach upper tiers.

    • Andrew J says:
      23 Feb23 February 10:28

      For those who prefer Selfridges – they have just launched a loyalty recognition programme – an evolution of their Unlocked – which now moves you up tiers based on spend, although doesn’t earn points to spend as such.

  • Bagoly says:
    23 Feb23 February 10:15

    ” credit card holders” => “charge card holders” ?

  • Mcrpanda says:
    23 Feb23 February 10:41

    To my knowledge, the “CLUB 02 status” upgrade invitation is merely a URL without any verification process to confirm that you actually possess a Harrod Amex card.

    • TJ says:
      23 Feb23 February 11:32

      Correct. I successfully used the link last week to upgrade to Club 02 status despite not holding a Harrods card.

    • JDB says:
      23 Feb23 February 11:44

      Given the nature of SLH hotels, personal contact is going to get you a whole lot further than any sort of club affiliation. SLH is already struggling with demanding HH members.

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

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