Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Barclaycard has fixed its issues and an exclusive special offer is coming

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On Monday we ran three articles on the brand new, and very exciting, Barclaycard Avios Mastercard credit cards.

Things didn’t go well. As you will know if you tried to apply:

  • the application website was not functioning
  • when it was functioning, acceptance did not seem as high as we were hoping, so we are working with Barclays to optimise acceptance for HfP

Update: we wanted to clarify a point on the article below – there are no actual issues with the Barclaycard acceptance process, it’s working fine, but Barclaycard are keen to improve the acceptance rate for HfP readers so are working on some optimisations.

HFP-Barclaycard-Avios-Plus-Card

Barclaycard has fixed its problems and a special offer is coming

Barclaycard is, of course, very unhappy that this has happened.

They have told us that we will see a special sign-up offer for a very limited period at a later point. This will hopefully encourage everyone who admitted defeat after facing problems this week to sign up.

In a statement yesterday, Barclaycard told us:

We apologise to Head for Points readers for the technical difficulties experienced when we launched our Barclaycard Avios and Avios Plus credit cards. We can confirm that this has now been resolved. We will be coming back to you with an exclusive offer within the next few weeks.”  

If your application has been rejected, you may want to reapply in few weeks time, once we have worked with Barclaycard to improve acceptance for our readers.

If you want to try your luck now, perhaps because you have some spending coming up which you need to trigger the sign-up bonus, it’s best to check your eligibility first using their free tool – the information is reused in the application so it doesn’t take long, and there is no impact to your credit file. You can check your eligibility and apply for the free Barclaycard Avios credit card (5,000 Avios bonus) here. You can check your eligibility and apply for the Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card (25,000 Avios bonus) here.

If you missed our content on Monday, the first of our three articles on the Barclaycard Avios Mastercards is here.

Bear with us. We’ll keep you in the loop. In the medium and long term, these two cards will be an excellent addition to the wallet or purse of all UK Avios collectors.

To learn more about the cards, read our Barclaycard Avios Mastercard credit card review here:

The representative APR is 29.9% variable.

…. and our Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard credit card review here:

The representative APR is 80.1% APR variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases is 29.9% variable.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous 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:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (299)

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

  • Charlie says:

    Got my card today. It doesn’t work with Apple pay and I can’t link it to Curve. Hope they will add these features later on.

    • Rob says:

      Apple Pay definitely coming. Curve issue seems to be down to them using a corporate BIN.

      • h1jfg says:

        @ Rob.
        Do you think the Curve issue will be fixed? Can it be fixed if they’re using a corporate BIN? I managed to get a new Barclaycard Avios on day of release but being able to use with Curve was a big part of my decision.

        • Dave P says:

          Same here, this was my primary reason for taking out this card. Without Curve Fronted it is of no use to me. Is this a simple fix? or one that will most likely not be recitifed. Would rather know now, before I commit to the card ( If I ever receive it!)

      • Melonfarmer says:

        Barclays have just texted me to tell me that they’re aware Apple pay isn’t available for a card I haven’t even applied for 🙄

  • Rob says:

    I THINK it is part of a bigger problem. They have used a BIN (a set of card numbers) normally used for corporate cards. This is having lots of knock-on impacts – no Curve, HMRC treating as corporate, call centre gets confused etc. This should wash through in time. Barclays (in the original HfP articles, which they contributed to) said there would be rewards.

    • Dave P says:

      Are y ou saying this card can not be used with curve fronted? This is the main reason for me taking it out.

  • Alan says:

    I was lucky enough to get the card approved on the day you ran the first article. Everything works as described, the only niggle is that the Barclaycard App and the statement doesn’t show the Avios points earned. I am sure they will fix it but if you (Rob) are in conversation with Barclaycard you might want to mention it.

  • h1jfg says:

    If there is a new offer coming in March, where do those of us stand who managed to sign up on day 1. Will we be penalised? Are we allowed to cancel using our right for any credit agreement? Would that then screw us up when re-applying?

  • Lucy J says:

    I got my card this morning – really thin recycled plastic and I reckon it will break in about a week! Called Barclaycard about Apple Pay and no one I spoke to knew when out would be added. Sigh….

  • h1jfg says:

    Anyone else see the irony in Barclaycard offering “five months of Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple News+ and Apple Arcade for free with your new Barclaycard” but the card doesn’t actually work with Apple Pay.
    I’ll still keep the card for the BA upgrade voucher, but annoyed about it not working with Curve and will be even more annoyed if there’s an improved Avios joining bonus announced before the end of the month.

    • Dave P says:

      No Curve Fronted
      No Apple Pay
      No Card Received 14 days later
      40 minute call centre waits, a car crash roll out that I am jumping out of I am afraid. Not worth the hassle, and Curve Fronted was my road to hitting the bench mark required. If I were Rob, I would not be putting my name to this any longer.
      Not impressed

      • Rob says:

        But in a few weeks Apple Pay will be up, Curve will have fixed its block (once it adjusts its list of corporate vs personal cards) and you’ll be blocked from getting the card again, potentially.

  • Chantal says:

    Received card finally this morning – 14 days later – envelope had been opened and card potentially compromised.. account name somehow incorrect in their system.. managed to speak to someone after going through multiple phone options.. took about 15 minutes.. incredibly helpful person… have sent card back to be reissued in correct name. Also will be more than a little annoyed if a “new improved” offer is rolled out so soon after initial sign up… If as Rob says Apple Pay will be up and running soon then that will be helpful.

    • Rob says:

      It’s not compromised. None of the envelopes seem to have gone out sealed.

      • Dave P says:

        Just got home to mine on the doormat, un sealed and a huge tear down the side. Anyone could have taken the card out and copied down the card details.

        I appreciate what you are saying Rob, however a card arriving with no seal and easily accesible is classed as comprimised in my eyes, and totally un acceptable..

        Easily accessible information from this ‘un opened’ envelope.

        Name
        Address
        Expiry Date
        Card number
        CVV code
        My address
        Credit limit and statement date.

        • h1jfg says:

          Got my card today. Exact same problem as other people. Envelope open. Long tear down the side. I rang Barclaycard immediately. They struggled to find my card on their systems. After hanging on for more than 30 minutes they finally said they’d found it and had marked it as lost due to possible compromise. New card on the way. Glad to hear that someone got the card registered with Curve. Not having Curve Fronted option isn’t a show stopper (and maybe can be fixed in future) but as long as I can avoid foreign exchange fees that will be good as (finally) have plenty of holidays booked for next 12 months.

        • h1jfg says:

          Forgot to say. Credit limit on sticker in envelope was (very) different to the credit limit stated in the email from Barclaycard.

  • NigelG says:

    My card, also arrived after a long wait and in an open envelope, cannot be linked to theTescoPAY+ nor can it be used to pay my online grocery bill (a major source of card spend) keeps getting declined!! Along with absence of ApplePay and Curve integration it’s as Mr Carslberg might have said “Probably the biggest **** up in card issue history” Nice one Barclays!

    • KenC says:

      Me too. Arrived yesterday (ordered 28 Feb), envelope torn open down one side. Cannot put it onto Apple Pay or Tesco Clubcard. Spoke to Barclays. They admit to knowing that it is not yet compatible with Apple Pay but had no idea why I couldn’t set up Paypal, Tesco etc. In all instances, I get the message that the card is declined. Additionally, the Apple Music offers, etc, do not work. Again, Barclaycard had no idea why this was. I was told to try again after 6.30pm.

      • Ryan says:

        Me too on the open envelope! Figured it was some unscrupulous Royal Mail employee trying to clone it so cancelled straight away. Replacement arrived 3 days later

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

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