An update on the huge Barclays and Barclaycard ‘100,000 Avios’ offer

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• Martin says:

  5 Oct5 October 09:19

  New Barclays Card
  Non-sterling purchase fee: 2.99% of purchase (no minimum

  has anyone yet linked it to Curve?

  • Rob says:

    5 Oct5 October 09:41

    See our forum. Barclays like to close down people who use Curve heavily.

  • Alex G says:

    5 Oct5 October 12:14

    I’ve spent over £20k on my (Avios) Barclaycard this year. About 30% of that is through Curve, because Barclays don’t support Google Pay / Wallet. The rest of my spend is online purchases. I’ve not had any problems. The Curve spend includes about £900 in USD in the States last summer.

    I don’t use Curve Fronted.

• Martin says:

  5 Oct5 October 09:25

  The new Marriott offer on the Marriott AMEX has a longer list of hotels than the earlier one (18 vs 15 pages) which seems to include the UK hotels, notably all Scottish ones, not previously in scope 😀

• Sam says:

  5 Oct5 October 09:38

  Hi Rob, I have the Barclaycard Plus, getting it while the 50k avios promo was on this site. That card attracts a free of £20 per month. I meet the income criteria for the Barclays Premier account. Are you saying that if you meet the income criteria there is no fee for the Barclays Premier account?

  I recall some time ago when the avios card was launched that the £20 fee for the card could be reduced to £15 if you had a Barclays card – is that the case?

  • Rob says:

    5 Oct5 October 09:41

    Premier is free BUT Barclays Avios Rewards is £12 per month. You get £5 refunded for having both products. And, of course, your £12 gets you 1,500 monthly Avios so it nets off.

• barry cutters says:

  5 Oct5 October 09:44

  What about the issues for those that cant apply at all???

  Do the checker and it says download app.
  Download app and there’s no option to apply for an account.

  Multiple people having same issue.

  • Alex G says:

    5 Oct5 October 13:43

    The option to open a current account from the App seems to come and go. I opened an account through the web site on Monday. Account opened straight away, but I cant register it in the app or do any online banking until I get a passcode or receive the debit card.

    You could try removing the app and reinstalling it. The option to apply for an account might reappear. If you apply through the app, you should be able to fully use the account straight away.

• Vit says:

  5 Oct5 October 09:45

  Met salary requirement for the Barclays account but stuck with (free) Barclays Avios card. Cannot upgrade. I guess nothing can be done, Rob? 🙁

  • Michael Jennings says:

    5 Oct5 October 10:19

    Same for me.

• Alex says:

  5 Oct5 October 10:27

  I didn’t realise this was an option to sign-up without the income requirement. It would be quite nice to get the missus signed up for the 100k Avios but the site / app isn’t clear on how to do it without the income / savings. Does anyone know how to do it?

  • Rhys says:

    5 Oct5 October 10:41

    We don’t know if it’s an option yet!

• ForestPark says:

  5 Oct5 October 11:04

  Apologies for asking yet another Barclays offer question, but for the life of me I cannot find a simple, concise answer in any of the posts nor comments.

  A bit of context – I’m not a Barclaycard nor Barclays Banking customer, nor have ever been (had the Hilton card once 8 years ago or so). Also fortunate enough to earn more than £75k gross annually paid into an HSBC Premier account, though I doubt they monitor this.

  Can someone please answer in simple terms the following:
  a) What is the max number of Avios I’m eligible for based on the above?
  b) What combination of products/actions do I need to apply for? i.e. Open a barclaycard + a barclays premier account + switch a bank account receiving payroll?
  c) What is the minimum length of this combination, and therefore minimum cash outlay that I’d need to spend in order to obtain said Avios in point (b)? 4 months x £20 = £80 effectively?
  d) What is the credit score impact to this? If I understand correctly, opening a credit card, current account and a ‘dummy account’ would constitute 3 hits in a very short period. Could be dangerous to do it in a short period?
  e) Building on the above, is there a recommended lead time to do all of these activities? Space it out over a few months?
  f) What exactly does the ‘switching accounts’ entail? I don’t mind re-routing my salary from HSBC to Barclays but I don’t want to close that account.

  Any input greatly appreciated from the wise HfP community!

  • Chas says:

    5 Oct5 October 12:13

    a) 150k avios “lump sums” based on 25k for credit card and hitting the SUB, 25k for switching your bank account (although see my response to f below) and 100k for having both the credit card and Premier Banking with Avios Rewards. On top of that you’ll get regular avios from spend to hit your SUB (4.5k avios for the £3k spend), plus 6k (1.5k per month for 4 months)) for enrolling in Avios Rewards with the Premier a/c
    b) Apply for credit card first, then if you’re rejected you haven’t applied for the bank a/c needlessly. Once accepted apply for the Premier account
    c) The original articles clearly state 4 months. Card is £20 pm (although should be reduced to £15 in combination with subscribing to Avios Rewards with Premier Banking), Avios Rewards with the Premier a/c is £12. So outlay should be £108, but might be £128 if your £5 reduction doesn’t credit
    d) I think you only get a credit hit if your bank a/c has an overdraft attached to it, but someone more knowledgeable can confirm. I think it’s therefore only 1 hit on your credit file. Even if it was 3 it would probably only be an issue if you were looking to apply for a mortgage in the next 6 months or so.
    e) I’d just do it in one go (doing the credit card application first)
    f) A switch means that all your DD’s and SO’s are transferred over automatically. To qualify for the 25k avios though it needs a full switch which also includes closing the original account. So if you don’t want to close your existing HSBC account, then don’t switch from that – set up a new one somewhere else, and switch from there.

    • ForestPark says:

      5 Oct5 October 13:43

      Thank you for the thorough answer – much appreciated!

      Just on (f) do I need to: create a new Monzo or Starling account (would this be the easiest?), put my salary to be paid (does one salary have to be paid in before I switch?) into that + one direct debit there and THEN proceed to switch?

      • BuildBackBetter says:

        5 Oct5 October 15:33

        Yes, Monzo or Starling would work. No need to credit salary there or set up a DD. But make sure you credit your salary to Barclays account once set up. Some say a monthly transfer will work, but not sure.

  • allycat says:

    5 Oct5 October 16:24

    @ForestPark – slight tangent, but on your question re HSBC monitoring the Premier qualification requirements, they do monitor them. I was offered HSBC Premier via our business bank relationship manager many years ago and my salary was over £75k but no other products. After a year or two they did a check and said it would be moved to a standard account as I did not meet the criteria such as having a mortgage or other investment as well as the salary. I was due to remortgage anyway so I moved it to HSBC and that sorted it out, but they do monitor it. Not sure how often though.

• Kshitij K says:

  5 Oct5 October 12:50

  Hello, if you get paid more than £3330 every month. Would you be eligible for the 100k Avios ?

  • Rhys says:

    5 Oct5 October 13:14

    Yes, that’s only the minimum required!

    • Stephan says:

      5 Oct5 October 13:22

      What if the regular income is below 75k but with bonus it’s above? I assume that’s fine but hopefully don’t know if they require more information

      • Rob says:

        5 Oct5 October 13:35

        You’re fine – they look at what you pay in but, if they challenge you, you can easily show them.

    • Numpty says:

      5 Oct5 October 13:39

      But its £4312 pcm to equal £75k annual gross. Subject to changes in tax rates, NI rates etc. 😉

      • Froggee says:

        5 Oct5 October 13:49

        But Barclays say £3,330

        Remember, people make pension contributions, have salary sacrifice, student loans etc.

        I guess Barclays are just being pragmatic.

    • Kshitij K says:

      5 Oct5 October 13:47

      Thanks

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