[WillPS]

A successful S75 probably didn’t help, but in any case it appears anecdotally that the only clients they kept hold of were those who paid interest. Sign of the times really – bought the book for a song and then find it’s a better option to bin most of it off.

[WillPS]

7000 Avios not received on 2nd day of the next month, as promised. Despite picking the reward on May 30th they’re not showing as applied on my account until June 1st.

They are now showing in ‘pending Avios’ tho, so I imagine they will be paid next month. I just hope the downgrade on Wednesday to the free/blue card doesn’t wipe them off somehow…

[WillPS]

rum wrote:

WillPS wrote:

There are benefits to having the account on its own. Higher ATM withdrawal limits, enhanced customer service… what you mean is ‘no benefit to me’.

I know a fair few people who have had Premier accounts and either have Blue Rewards (from the days it would earn a few quid a month) or no incentive package.

Lol, “enhanced customer service”?
Are we talking about the same company here? Do you even read what others are saying on these very forums here? The consensus seems to me that their customer service is non existent and no different to customer banging their heads on a brick wall.

Again, you’re reading something different to what’s written.

Enhanced means better than you’d otherwise get (without a Premier account). It doesn’t mean objectively great.

[WillPS]

NorthernLass wrote:

That’s interesting (though maybe not surprisingly given Barclays flakiness). The blurb that came out said you had to choose beforehand and if you didn’t you’d automatically get the voucher. Is there anything to indicate how long you have to make the decision?

Yes I thought so too. Annoyingly the Barclays Android app doesn’t allow screenshots, but there was nothing to suggest a time limit that I recall.

[WillPS]

I’ve just hit my £10k bonus on my Plus card. I’d changed my chosen to reward to 7k Avios as soon as the option became available. I presumed (as discussed on here) that this had to be set in advance and would apply immediately.

Turns out that’s not correct. In the same section of the app I now have a ‘Redeem’ button, where I am once again given the choice of 7k Avios or an upgrade voucher. Selecting the 7k Avios option I got a confirmation that the points would be applied on the second working day of next month.

Account now downgraded to the blue card (effective date June 7th so above should all still apply).

Will confirm it happens correctly or not as and when.

[WillPS]

Harrier25 wrote:

Rob Burgess wrote:

They are all closing. Do they have an old email for you?

Yep, but luckily paying off all their debts before packing their bags and sodding off back to France!🇫🇷

Very strange that they’d offer a (rewardless) credit card as the default option when the IHG agreement ends, if “sodding off back to France” is their gameplan.

[WillPS]

rum wrote:

WillPS wrote:

£12 is for Premier Avios, the account itself is free (so long as you meet the ongoing eligibility criteria). Even if you take the points instead of an upgrade voucher and then convert the whole lot to Nectar, it’s effectively £165 worth of Nectar points for £144. Not the kings ransom but worth keeping hold of for lack of anything better.

You can take Blue Rewards instead if you like, or have neither.

I know the £12 is for Premier Avios, but this is HfP and I don’t know anyone here who has Barclays Premier as standalone. There is no benefit to having it just on its own.

The pain you go through with Barclays CS is just not worth any time or £££ of mine so I have voted with my feet. I’ve kept the Barclaycard Avios card which has no fee and that works fine for me.

There are benefits to having the account on its own. Higher ATM withdrawal limits, enhanced customer service… what you mean is ‘no benefit to me’.

I know a fair few people who have had Premier accounts and either have Blue Rewards (from the days it would earn a few quid a month) or no incentive package.

[WillPS]

rum wrote:

In a similar position here, although I’m not entirely sure they deserve me to go back to the Plus…

I had it, earned sign up bonus and kept it for a month or two after that before downgrading. Since then, I’ve spent around 11-12K and my anniversary date is next week. Would have got my voucher by now had I stayed on the Plus. But in my opinion, it’s not a big enough reason to be paying £20 a month for it.

I’ll be moving my Barclays Premier account as well. Can’t justify keeping it at £12/month in this day and age.

£12 is for Premier Avios, the account itself is free (so long as you meet the ongoing eligibility criteria). Even if you take the points instead of an upgrade voucher and then convert the whole lot to Nectar, it’s effectively £165 worth of Nectar points for £144. Not the kings ransom but worth keeping hold of for lack of anything better.

You can take Blue Rewards instead if you like, or have neither.

[WillPS]

davefl wrote:

Marginally interesting news from Morrisons that they’re bringing back More points from today (probably because their sales fell off a cliff when they stopped it).

So opportunity arises to gain a little back when buying gift cards in store. Probably won’t get them awarded when paying with their own (discounted gift cards from PAW) but we’ll see

Unlike before, it’s only selected products which earn points, there’s no ’10 points per £’ as before. As far as I can see branded gift cards are not one of the selected products.

[WillPS]

I’ve no complaints about the customer service I’ve received from Natwest Group, even at the mere mortal level I’ve held with them (don’t meet their high premier requirements).

[WillPS]

It’s quite possible it varies by employer – it’s a Sodexo Reward Platform thing. Typically the cashback %s are the same or a bit lower than the Sodexo site itself offers on gift vouchers (which is a bit higher than PaW in my experience), but with the trade off that it can be used with no faff anywhere in store (purchasing lottery tickets or gift cards for example).

Sodexo’s voucher purchasing website/app is awful, doesn’t remember card details and vouchers take 2 mins to appear (on top of the 2 mins places like Asda need to then render you a voucher).

Perks at Work is better, despite not having an app, since you can store cards with them.

Comparing supermarkets with my rates offered now:

Aldi
Sodexo – not offered
Perks at Work – 3xWowpoints
Spree – not offered

Asda
Sodexo – 4%
Perks at Work – 3xWowpoints
Spree – 3%

Morrisons
Sodexo (evoucher) – 5% – only £5, £10, £50, £100 denominations available
Perks at Work (evoucher) – 3xWowpoints – any amount available
Perks at Work (gift card) – 5xWowpoints – any amount available
Spree – not offered

Tesco
Sodexo – 4%
Perks at Work – 4xWowpoints
Spree – not offered

Sainsburys
Sodexo – 5%
Perks at Work – 5xWowpoints
Spree – 4% – with 28 day lag for some reason

Waitrose/JL
Sodexo (evoucher) – 4.5%
Perks at Work (giftcard) – 4xWowpoints
Perks at Work (evoucher) – 2xWowpoints
Spree – not offered

Always check whether their Waitrose or John Lewis is offering the higher rate – normally it’s Waitrose which is higher even tho both vouchers have the same validity. Same goes for Homesense/TK Maxx – both vouchers are valid in both shops, yet Homesense always yields better for some reason on Perks at Work.

[WillPS]

Guernsey Globetrotter wrote:

WillPS wrote:

CarpalTravel wrote:

No harm in doing that at all. As long as you don’t lie when giving the details for an actual policy you take out, all is fine.

I can (and have) gotten car insurance quotes to see what a claim would do, or living at a different address, doesn’t leave a negative impact me for any future quotations. Why should it?

Because attempting a variety of ‘attempts at honesty’ is considered as a factor by many insurers. I used to work on the SaaS used by most of the insurance industry to highlight such anomalies btw.

Very interesting @WillPS – would it make a difference if you use a disposable email account and dummy name / address via a VPN or is the software too sophisticated to allow such an approach?

Probably a limit on what I should say here, but those particular details would not be visible inside the ‘point of quote’ applcation that we worked on, so safe to say those attempted mitigations would make no difference at all.

You can’t really gamify your home address and it’d be inadvisable to attempt it (you’re more likely to simply not be offered insurance if insurers can’t be certain what they are insuring!)

[WillPS]

CarpalTravel wrote:

No harm in doing that at all. As long as you don’t lie when giving the details for an actual policy you take out, all is fine.

I can (and have) gotten car insurance quotes to see what a claim would do, or living at a different address, doesn’t leave a negative impact me for any future quotations. Why should it?

Because attempting a variety of ‘attempts at honesty’ is considered as a factor by many insurers. I used to work on the SaaS used by most of the insurance industry to highlight such anomalies btw.

[WillPS]

Spree (topped up using a Curve backed Barclaycard) or Airtime Rewards at Wilko is my normal route.

I’ve never had trouble converting Asda gift cards to Amazon either, which can be done at a self checkout – just don’t do more than £250’s worth at a time or the tills freak out and some well meaning person starts checking if you know what a gift card is…

[WillPS]

Crafty wrote:

This is crazy. It was confirmed to me only yesterday that my complaint, now more than a year old, is still waiting to be assigned an investigator. I don’t see how it’s fair that complaints only made in recent weeks have been both investigated and resolved already.

I’ve asked how to open a complaint.

You’re waiting for the FOS. People who complained in the last few months are getting the correct response from Creation and haven’t needed the FOS.

[WillPS]

Nor me. Normally the third-ish working day of the month.

ISTR the reward payments from Blue Rewards being weirdly delayed sometimes for no obvious reason.

[WillPS]

Today’s the day then. 2500 pt bonus for the final year of my Premium Card landed yesterday. Called today to cancel, no fuss at all.

As a non-flying couple we’ve done very well off it but moving forward Nectar Amex (@1%) and Avios Barclaycard (@0.66% when converted to Nectar) will be a better deal for us, with the added bonus that we’re less compelled to use Tesco. Even at Tesco the effective cashback rate of 4% (on spend of exactly £2500 and expecting 200% valuation on Clubcard redemptions) can be beaten by egiftcards purchased from Sodexo/Perks at Work using Avios Barclaycard.

The only place we’ll lose out will be Tesco filling stations, which I’ll probably just not use as much going forwards (still got a Clubcard Pay+ card to activate 1pt per litre when we do tho). Costco and even Sainsburys have been far cheaper recently

Thanks for the memories Clubcard.

[WillPS]

When Tesco Bank screwed the pooch on their application of Cash Advance fees for Curve usage, I was multiple times told that I would have been sent a letter (I wasn’t). I challenged them to find a copy of this letter with my name and address on, and they were unable to do so; with nonsense like ‘we don’t keep copies of all correspondence’ (they do). The FOS pushed them on this and they conceded eventually that no letter had been sent.

[WillPS]

Blackpool is Lancashire is it not? It’s one of my favourite hotels in any case (easily pleased I guess). Premium rooms and all sorts there; upgrades aplenty potentially.

[WillPS]

aq.1988 wrote:

Reney wrote:

aq.1988 wrote:

WillPS wrote:

Bee wrote:

Does one still need to ensure that appropriate £4600 goes through the account monthly after getting the 100k avios?

It was £3300 a month through the account, not £4600.

Mysteriously tho this requirement to avoid the fee has disappeared from the website and literature. Barclays had second thoughts about allowing all and sundry to get to Premier (again)?

I’ll be honest, not even sure what benefits I’m getting from the Premier account, save for being able to turn on Avios Rewards for the additional £12pm.

As per the original terms, I would qualify for free next year, but wonder if they are hoping many who do not qualify, just end up paying the £20pm going forward. Undecided about whether to keep Avios rewards after hitting my 12 monthly payments, as getting 1500 avios for £12pm is decent value, but don’t really need any more UG vouchers (but wouldn’t swap it for just 7k avios as that seems too low).

Can I ask what do you mean you qualify for free next year? I don’t recall any reference to the premium account being free the second year? I might have misunderstood.

The requirements to qualify for free Premier banking was either £75k salary (which meant at least £40k paid in over 12 months), or at least £100k invested/saved with Barlcays. If you didn’t meet either, you were to be charged £20pm, but they wouldn’t check your eligibility until you had the account for at least 12 months.

Not quite.

£100k invested or £75k salary were (and still are) the criteria for eligibility at the point of application

£3300 per month or £40k per year paid in were the criteria for avoiding the £20/month fee (waived for 1 year after successful application). It’s this element which has seemingly vanished from public view.

[WillPS]

flamboyanthoover wrote:

WillPS wrote:

Bee wrote:

Does one still need to ensure that appropriate £4600 goes through the account monthly after getting the 100k avios?

It was £3300 a month through the account, not £4600.

Mysteriously tho this requirement to avoid the fee has disappeared from the website and literature. Barclays had second thoughts about allowing all and sundry to get to Premier (again)?

I joined Barclays Premier and earn significantly less than 75k….just transferred in crossing my fingers they wouldn’t ‘vet’ me and it worked. Never been asked to confirm my income…

They seem to blowing hot and cold over whether they require it or not. At one stage it looked like it was going to be dropped and replaced by a fee which kicks in after a year. Now all mention of a fee if you don’t meet a certain threshold is gone.

[WillPS]

aq.1988 wrote:

WillPS wrote:

Bee wrote:

Does one still need to ensure that appropriate £4600 goes through the account monthly after getting the 100k avios?

It was £3300 a month through the account, not £4600.

Mysteriously tho this requirement to avoid the fee has disappeared from the website and literature. Barclays had second thoughts about allowing all and sundry to get to Premier (again)?

I’ll be honest, not even sure what benefits I’m getting from the Premier account, save for being able to turn on Avios Rewards for the additional £12pm.

As per the original terms, I would qualify for free next year, but wonder if they are hoping many who do not qualify, just end up paying the £20pm going forward. Undecided about whether to keep Avios rewards after hitting my 12 monthly payments, as getting 1500 avios for £12pm is decent value, but don’t really need any more UG vouchers (but wouldn’t swap it for just 7k avios as that seems too low).

£50ish worth of Nectar points is better than an upgrade voucher you probably won’t use.

[WillPS]

Bee wrote:

Does one still need to ensure that appropriate £4600 goes through the account monthly after getting the 100k avios?

It was £3300 a month through the account, not £4600.

Mysteriously tho this requirement to avoid the fee has disappeared from the website and literature. Barclays had second thoughts about allowing all and sundry to get to Premier (again)?

[WillPS]

LordLucan wrote:

I was referring to the value in retaining the bank account not the Credit Card??

The bank account is a prerequisite for Premier Avios Rewards.

£12/month for 1500 Avios, plus a bonus of either an upgrade voucher or 7000 Avios every 12 months.

£13.75/month worth of Nectar it works out as, so I’ll keep mine going for the first year then decide. Feels like a lot of hoopla for a £1.75/month benefit is my gut.

Obviously if Avios are worth something to you without being converted to Nectar then the maths is different.

[WillPS]

I miss the Costco credit card 🙁