Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

ENDS SOON: Got Barclaycard Avios Plus? Get 100,000 bonus Avios for joining Premier Banking with Barclays Avios Rewards

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.  We produce a monthly directory of the top UK travel credit card offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Credit Cards’ menu above.  Thank you.

Keep up to date with the latest UK credit card bonuses by signing up for our free daily or weekly newsletters.

Barclaycard and Barclays are currently running what are, easily, the richest Avios promotional deals we have ever seen. If you only respond to one Avios-collecting offer this year, make it this one.

Full details are on the Barclays website here. I strongly recommend reading the information there alongside our article below.

The offer ends on 30th November 2022. This is the ‘apply by’ date – it doesn’t matter if Barclays takes a few weeks to open your account, as long as the initial application is in by the 30th.

Get 100,000 bonus Avios for joining Premier Banking with Barclays Avios Rewards

This is a complex offer so we’ve broken it up into four articles which we are updating this week:

…. plus the one you’re currently reading:

  • Got the Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card? Get 100,000 bonus Avios for joining Premier Banking with Barclays Avios Rewards

One of these articles should be appropriate for your circumstances.

Only continue reading this article if you have a Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card (the £20 per month version) but have not yet applied for Premier Banking with Barclays Avios Rewards.

Get 100,000 Avios for joining Premier Banking with Barclays Avios Rewards

If you are a Barclaycard Avios Plus cardholder, this is a truly exceptional offer. You are being offered 100,000 Avios – which is worth, in the worst case scenario that you turn it into Nectar points, £675 – for joining Premier Banking with Barclays Avios Rewards (£12 monthly fee, please see terms and conditions below).

The 100,000 Avios bonus is on top of the standard bonus for joining Premier Banking with Barclays Avios Rewards. This will be either 2,500 or 25,000 Avios depending on whether you are an existing or new Barclays current account holder.

You need to keep both Premier Banking with Barclays Avios Rewards and your Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card for four months, starting from the date you open Barclays Avios Rewards. Eligibility and T&Cs apply.

Get 100,000 bonus Avios for joining Premier Banking with Barclays Avios Rewards

Barclays Avios Rewards terms and conditions

Here are some key things to note about Premier Banking and Barclays Avios Rewards:

  • You can opt in to Barclays Avios Rewards if you’re a Premier Banking or Wealth customer with a personal current account with Barclays – you’ll need to register for the Barclays app and have a British Airways Executive Club account too
  • There’s a £12 monthly fee and you have to opt out of Barclays Blue Rewards and go paperless for all your accounts and services.
  • To access Barclays Avios Rewards in the Barclays app, you need to be over 18.
  • To join and remain eligible for Premier Banking for free you need to have an income of £75,000 or more paid into a Barclays current account or at least £100,000 invested with Barclays. T&Cs apply.

Full details of the offer are here.

How does the 100,000 bonus Avios offer for joining Premier Banking with Barclays Avios Rewards work?

Here are the key details:

  • you need to be an existing Barclaycard Avios Plus cardholder
  • you need to activate Barclays Avios Rewards – it costs £12 per month but comes with 1,500 Avios per month and a British Airways upgrade voucher* every 12 months

In return, you will receive:

From Barclays Avios Rewards:

  • you’ll receive 25,000 Avios if Premier Banking with Barclays Avios Rewards is the first current account you are opening with Barclays and you complete a full switch using the Current Account Switch Service within three months.
  • if you have had an existing Barclays current account (not including Premier Banking with Barclays Avios Rewards) for four months or more already, you’ll receive 2,500 Avios as a joining bonus

On top of the bonus above:

  • you will receive an additional 100,000 Avios if you retain your Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card and your Premier Banking with Barclays Avios Rewards account for at least four months

Click here for the full terms and conditions.

What are the benefits of Premier Banking with Barclays Avios Rewards?

Even without the carrot of an additional 100,000 Avios bonus, Premier Banking – with the Barclays Avios Rewards add-on – is a good deal.

To join Barclays Premier Banking for free, you will need an income of £75,000+ OR at least £100,000 invested with Barclays.

Barclays Avios Rewards is the rewards scheme for Premier Banking and Wealth customers with a personal current account. It is the only way to collect Avios from a UK current account.

This is how it works:

  • There is a £12 monthly fee for Barclays Avios Rewards
  • You receive 1,500 Avios per month
  • You receive a ‘cabin upgrade voucher*’ after 12 months (more details below)

What is important to remember about Barclays Avios Rewards is that – unlike a credit card reward – there is no spend requirement. Once you opt in to Barclays Avios Rewards you will receive monthly Avios and an annual BA upgrade voucher*.

If you join Premier Banking with Barclays Avios Rewards and have a Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card, you could get two upgrade vouchers* each year – one from the credit card, if you meet the £10,000 annual spend target, and one from Barclays Avios Rewards. This would allow you to:

  • upgrade a return flight, in both directions, for two people travelling together, or
  • upgrade a flight in one direction for four people travelling together
Get 100,000 bonus Avios for joining Premier Banking with Barclays Avios Rewards

Conclusion

This article is aimed at people who have the Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card but have not yet joined Premier Banking with Barclays Avios Rewards.

As an existing Barclaycard Avios Plus credit cardholder, you should find this a very attractive offer:

  • You’ll receive 25,000 Avios if you’re opening your first current account with Barclays and complete a full switch using the Current Account Switcher Service within three months and switch on Barclays Avios Rewards
  • Until 30th November, you will receive 100,000 Avios as an additional bonus for taking out Premier Banking with Barclays Avios Rewards and retaining it alongside your Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card for four months

The bonus for Barclays Avios Rewards is reduced to 2,500 Avios if you have an existing Barclays current account and are upgrading. You will still receive the 100,000 Avios bonus if you meet all of the other criteria. T&C apply. The offer ends on 30th November.

You can find out more, and apply, on this special page of the Barclays website.

NOTE: Whilst the application site is aimed at people who are new to Barclays, you will see that – once you start to apply – you are sent down a different track as an existing Barclaycard Avios Plus cardholder.

*Cabin upgrade vouchers must be used on Avios reward flight bookings. Reward flights and cabin upgrades are subject to availability. Taxes, fees and carrier charges per person apply. Additional terms and conditions apply to the use of the cabin upgrade voucher, please go to here for more information.

Comments (73)

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

  • Graham says:

    I’ve just tried this, the “switch now” on the Barclays website doesn’t work so tried switching via the app from the Barclays Hilton Honours Platinum Visa card menus and no other cards appear to switch to. The site says There are no available cards right now.

    • Rob says:

      You are banned from the deal as a Hilton cardholder. The Hilton contract stops Barclays from incentivising you to switch.

  • Chris R says:

    If I upgrade my free Barclaycard avois card, do I need to wait until my next statement date when the card will be “upgraded” before I can apply for Premier, or can I just proceed with them both in tandem?

  • Lloyd says:

    The article references several times “To join Barclays Premier Banking for free”, presumably there is no way to pay to join Premier Banking if you don’t have income of £75k, or £100k invested in order to take advantage of this?

    • Claire says:

      The way I’m reading it in the article, you pay £12 a month for it if you don’t qualify for Premier ‘free’ by earning £75k+, which reads to me that I can do it as long as I pay. But on the eligibility checker, it says no – with income under £75k you’re not eligible for anything except the credit card. Confused!

      • Rob says:

        No, that’s not it.

        On the Premier website, it says that anyone earning under £75k can have Premier for £20 per month. This is untrue, which is why the eligibility checker throws you out. What the website is meant to say is that if you were earning £75k but your income drops, you can avoid eviction from Premier by paying £20 per month.

  • Reeferman says:

    I have an in-branch appointment on Friday for an ID check. Hopefully will then complete a successful application.
    Is the 100k AVIOS conditional on a doing a full account switch (for a further 2,500/25,000 AVIOS) or do you sill get the 100k AVIOS regardless?

    • Rob says:

      Requires full switch.

      • Reeferman says:

        Thanks Rob

      • Dr Tom says:

        I have been sent an email saying I qualify for the 100K Avios. I haven’t been able to the full switch as the app throws an error message every time I try (although I would like to do so). So, the full switch is not needed.

        This has been the most nightmarish bank account I’ve ever encountered. App issues, the card was blocked soon after opening it, multiple calls to the call centre then I had to wait over an hour in branch for what I was told on the phone would be a 2 minute ID check, can’t activate ApplePay etc. If it wasn’t for the incentive, I would long since have given up.

        • Daniel says:

          Same here. No issues with Barclaycard or Barclaycard app. Opening Premier account is a totally different story. Spent 1 hour in my local Barclays branch for ID check. Still Barclay app not working (they couldn’t give me an activation code without a debit card…). If it wasn’t for 100k Avios I would cancel the app after the 1st difficulty.

    • Daniel says:

      Reading T&C I believe full switch is only required for a sign up bonus of 2.5k/25k AVIOS. Not mandatory for 100k AVIOS bonus.
      From Barclays web:
      Collect a guaranteed 100,000 Avios bonus when you open a:

      Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card (£20 monthly fee), and
      Premier current account with Barclays Avios Rewards (£12 monthly fee), or
      Hold a personal Wealth current account with Barclays Avios Rewards1 (£12 monthly fee).

      • Rob says:

        You are misinterpreting it.

        • Gary says:

          Hi Rob, are you sure?

          I’ve read through the T&Cs and comments on the forums that suggests if you don’t switch current accounts you only lose the 25k bonus, not the 100k too.

          Can we get confirmation from Barclays on this?

          • Rob says:

            You serious believe that Barclays intends to give you £1,000 for opening an account you’re not using? The T&C are useless, unfortunately, and don’t begin to address the multiple permutations of ways people may approach this offer.

    • yorkieflyer says:

      What a ridiculous bank that requires you to make an appointment to prove your ID, just had the same. Never had this palaver before

  • Graham says:

    I had the premium Avios card but now only the free Avios one. Never banked with Barclays but meet the other criteria. Not clear if I qualify??

    • Daniel says:

      Unfortunately NOT

      • Rob says:

        You would qualify if the Barclaycard app let you upgrade back to Avios Plus – but it is very unlikely that it will (and of course you’d then need to get Premier too).

  • apepat says:

    Not sure if Rob or someone knows/can advise. I have a Freedom Rewards card but the app said I would only get the new card/features after the next statement date in Dec 22 which was obviously after the qualifying period. It did look like the switch is accepted as I got a “welcome email”. I have already got the Premier account opened and Avios Rewards switched on last week. The T&C was not very clear if it’s ok as long as the switch is accepted (but not done) within the qualifying period. I contacted Barclays CS but they only said I should be ok but could not confirm…

    • Rob says:

      They have told us that as long as you apply it’s fine. This is mainly an issue for Premier as some people are required to show ID in a branch and slots are heavily booked.

  • VerdantBacon says:

    Signed up and been approved for both products, turned on Avios rewards.

    Haven’t received a confirmation email for the deal or a welcome email for Premier, also the current account and credit card are on separate apps and neither app sees the other product.

    How can I be sure that this has worked correctly?

  • TobyH says:

    When this was first announced earlier in the year I took the decision to cancel my Hilton card on the basis I was going to take the Barclays Premier CC out once my six month cooling off period expired. I was already a Barlcays Premier current account holder anyway, already subscriibng to Avios rewards ‘bolt-on’, so when this offer rolled round it was perfect. I already have HSBC Premier, and the associated CC there, was thinking of winding that down too – so I could focus on Barclays.

    I failed to make a note of when I cancelled the Hilton card to know when to consider applying for the Barclays Avios. However when I phoned up to enquire, my spidey-senses must’ve been tingling as it was in fact 6 months to the day. I left it a week and eventually got round to applying.

    I was ultimately rejected – I have never missed a payment on anything in my life and when checking my credit record that is reflective of that. Barclays cited having too much credit elsewhere (all balances are paid off monthly).

    Along with an algorithm in Barclays Risk dept deciding that I am a concern because of credit assigned elsewhere, I guess Barclays need customers to be profitable, and I am presumably not one for them when it comes to the credit card product.

    Shame really as I wasn’t seeing much of the way of perks from Barclays Premier until earlier this year and was only a short while away from thinking about switching all that into HSBC before these offers started. Just glad I didn’t close the HSBC credit card account down first, although maybe that was the whole problem!

    • George K says:

      I went down a similar path to yours, having cancelled a barclaycard in order to get this one, and was afraid that I would have the same rejection due to unnecessarily large credit limits elsewhere. I can’t be sure whether this was what spared me, but I declared that I wanted to do a balance transfer as one of the reasons for taking out this card, which was a recommendation shared here earlier in the year when a lot of people were getting rejected for no good reason.

      One to think about when/if you do reapply!

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.