Your ‘last chance’ guide to the 100,000 Avios Barclays Premier and Barclaycard offers

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• Ian says:

  28 Nov28 November 03:53

  I got accepted to upgrade my Barclaycard, but rejected to open a Premier current account.

  It was strange though, they said the automated rejection message was something to the effect of “internal credit scoring did not support the risk for the product selected”. However, because it based on an internal credit score and not a pull from an external CRA, they said I wouldn’t get anything in writing nor would I have any recourse to appeal to a human.

  It’s a real head scratcher, and I thought about asking for my data under GDPR, but ultimately it’s not something I could resolve by the 30th so I gave up.

• Robert says:

  28 Nov28 November 04:37

  As a Barclays Premier Avios customer and Barclaycard holder is there anything I can do if the Barclaycard app isn’t offering me the Barclaycard Avios card?

  • Gordon says:

    28 Nov28 November 05:56

    I’d call Barclaycard as if you have a standard Barclaycard there’s no reason you should not be accepted for the Barclaycard avios plus. But I would do it today without fail. You will still be eligible for the bonus once you apply.

  • Rob says:

    28 Nov28 November 08:52

    No. They have taken a decision to exclude you.

    • Gordon says:

      28 Nov28 November 09:04

      That must have been very recently Rob?

      • Rob says:

        28 Nov28 November 09:08

        Barclays has made it very clear to us that if you don’t see Plus in the app then this is the final word on the subject and that you shouldn’t waste your time or their time chasing.

        • Gordon says:

          28 Nov28 November 09:31

          Ahh ok.

        • George K says:

          28 Nov28 November 14:19

          I should say that I couldn’t see an offer on the app when these cards launched, so I cancelled my vanilla barclaycard to reset the 6-month clock. As soon as the new 100-150k avios bonus launched, I applied and was accepted.

          It makes zero sense to not let some people switch, but it actually worked out OK for me in the end!

• BajiNahid says:

  28 Nov28 November 05:32

  Anyone with the BC plus card opened up an account with premier banking even though you have a salary of £75K or less? Any issues?

  Secondly, any recommendation for opening up a quick current account to allow me to switch? Appreciate the help!

  • Gordon says:

    28 Nov28 November 08:38

    Re your first question,
    You need to have a monthly amount of income showing of £3.3k or £40k over the previous 12 months,
    In my case as I already had a standard & Business Barclays account’s the system could see that the income was sufficient and there were no issues. Barclays will carry out checks and inform you of any issues regarding your deposits when your account is up and running.And could downgrade your account if you don’t meet the threshold.

  • Dace says:

    28 Nov28 November 09:39

    I have a salary under £75k but have investments over £100k with them. I initially tried to get the account without moving my investments but they wouldn’t budge. However, when I switched I got £500 plus my fees for changing covered so it wasn’t too bad.

    Imo, you’re going to struggle to get the Premier Banking unless you do one or the other. If you do switch your investments my advice is to call them or go in branch as their customer service isn’t that great so you’ll need a email conversation or a go to person to get them to honour everything.

  • Landlord says:

    28 Nov28 November 16:10

    My salary is just shy of the £75K. The form asks for your salary as it appears on your pay slip, both after tax per month and gross annually. There is no opportunity for me to add my investment income from rental properties, both commercial and residential, which takes me well over the limit.

    The wording on their page is “an annual income of £75K or more”, but doesn’t specify it must be a salary exclusively.

• SammyJ says:

  28 Nov28 November 06:29

  My other half has misplaced his Avios BC, and it wants it to enter the info onto the app to apply for the current account.

  Is there any way of finding the card number etc without having the physical card in hand? Can’t see it in the app or website.

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    28 Nov28 November 07:17

    You should report it missing to Barclaycard unless you’re 100% sure it’s somewhere in the house and nobody could have stolen it. Give them a call, explain the situation and they might be able to help.

    • SammyJ says:

      28 Nov28 November 20:10

      Thanks. Yes it’s definitely somewhere in the house, we had it a few weeks ago along with a few other similar things that have just disappeared that definitely haven’t left the house. In a drawer or handbag or something!

• Andy says:

  28 Nov28 November 06:52

  I did take out a free card a few months ago and then cancelled it. What applies in this position?

  • Rob says:

    28 Nov28 November 08:51

    You can’t reapply for any Barclays cards for 6 months and won’t qualify for bonuses for 24 months.

• Save East Coast Rewards says:

  28 Nov28 November 07:21

  I’ll be so glad when this offer is over and I don’t have to scroll past the permanently pinned Barclays article at the top of the page.

  I’m not sure whether I missed a very good offer (because I’m not currently living in the UK so can’t apply for it) or dodged a bullet as looking at some of comments about what a pain the application process is.

  • Gordon says:

    28 Nov28 November 08:00

    Correct, You missed a very good offer. Also this promotion has been running since the beginning of October so I have no sympathy with people that are leaving the application process until the last minute.
    I popped into my local branch and sorted all of it in 30 mins flat with no appointment,
    I see posts on here mentioning waiting weeks for an appointment at a Barclays Bank in London. If the appointment had been made during October it would not have been a problem.As Rob said weeks ago you are applying for two products so do not delay.

    • Dace says:

      28 Nov28 November 09:43

      Yeah, if you need the bank account people are most likely going to have to go to a branch today and hope they find someone good that can see them. Additionally, they will need to be sure they meet all the criteria.

      I got the credit card today online but already have a Premier Account. So, that isn’t the issue (as far as I can see), however the the banking set up is a pain, especially if you have to do it via the investment route and not the salary route.

  • VerdantBacon says:

    28 Nov28 November 10:07

    It’s 150,000 Avios so the offer is excellent, Barclays are complete garbage to deal with, but you just have to open a couple of accounts, hold them open for 4 months, collect your Avios and then you can abandon the accounts.

    While it does sound like a huge pain, it doesn’t stop it from being 150,000 Avios!

  • SammyJ says:

    28 Nov28 November 20:11

    Yeah I was kind busy watching my dad die through October, arranging a funeral in November, and being made redundant yesterday. And I still managed to do it in time, so I agree – no sympathy for those that were too lazy!!

• jonnyfly says:

  28 Nov28 November 07:56

  Got the Barclaycard (after many issues) but Premier bank account “referred” by branch to an unnamed department 6 days ago. No updates. Who can I call to chase up? Phone refers me to branch and vice versa. Will Barclays honour their promo if their own admin delays account approval beyond Thursday (31 Nov)?

  • Speedbird676 says:

    28 Nov28 November 08:35

    31st November is the one day of the year everything works seamlessly at Barclays.

    • Gordon says:

      28 Nov28 November 09:05

      That’s because there is only 30 days in November?

    • jonnyfly says:

      28 Nov28 November 12:21

      That’s the deadline the “Customer Care Specialist” in their flagship branch gave me. Clearly it means Wed 30 Nov. She also wrongly said the 100,000 Avios was just for opening the credit card!

      More seriously, is there any email address escalation address for Premier at Barclays? Or the name of a Premier relationship advisor for London? My account application appears frozen/lost for a week – can’t get through by phone, emails for Customer Care Specialist unanswered, no appointments in branches, no business advisor at all in my branch, no promised call backs. It’s been shambolic so far (and the credit card application process was almost as bad). Makes HSBC Premier seem almost…premier.

      • Richard says:

        28 Nov28 November 16:02

        Call 0800 085 1115. I don’t remember where I first found that number, but it’s some kind of hotline for Premier applications, which they do answer promptly. (Sadly, the reason why I know this is that I’ve had to call them 4 times and spend 2.5 hrs in conversation with them to get my own account sorted out… but, at least I was speaking to a human who was doing their best to help.)

        • jonnyfly says:

          28 Nov28 November 21:41

          Thanks Richard. After 40 mins on hold to customer services, I’ve got a call tomorrow diaried with a “Barclays Financial Guide” – this one has an email confirmation and a time (unlike the previous two promised callbacks – which never were made). If no luck with that I’ll try your number.

          Barclays app had a permanent white and grey box where the (bank account) product info should be – so had to apply online using Rob’s web link – which doesn’t do ID verification – after no-one could fix the app issue. Then the branch couldn’t find the details I’d applied with (despite having the application reference email). So they started again. Except with misspelled details on me from 30 years ago, instead of the ones provided. Refused to scan any proof of income docs saying I was already product-eligible already so unnecessary. Then said the opening had to be referred. Then customer service lines say I should have provided income details in the branch so they could review them – and around we go again. And then no-one can say if the application has been reviewed, in a queue, declined or if further steps are required. It’s incredibly frustrating – and time-consuming…

        • Stuart B says:

          29 Nov29 November 15:37

          FYI I called this number and they were much nicer than the usual Barclays lot, but ultimately they can’t get round the huge bottlenecks for ID checks nor can they even review your application. Shambolic ‘process’ that’s far too heavily reliant on a very poor app. Managed to schedule me an appointment in a month (a bit better than the initial four months) but still very much outside the promotions window.

          Lesson learned.

        • jonnyfly says:

          29 Nov29 November 18:13

          Update: all sorted. Financial guide called me. Unfroze my “Manual review” application and it completed immediately. Could find no reason why it was sent for referral, frozen and unprocessed for a week.

          Told me explicitly that 100k does NOT require an account switch. That’s an extra 25k promo that started before this promotion and is optional, additional and unrelated to the 100k.

          Did Avios/BAEC link in app while on phone. Premier Account also appeared immediately in app alongside Barclaycard. Paperless on.

          She apologised for the previous omnishambles. I think we’re sorted!

          Good luck to anyone else applying!

  • VerdantBacon says:

    28 Nov28 November 10:14

    I’d probably get a new calendar before getting a new bank account in your situation

    • qc says:

      28 Nov28 November 10:49

      I’m sure that was a joke!

      • Gordon says:

        28 Nov28 November 11:32

        Are you referring to Barclays Bank 😆

• Matt says:

  28 Nov28 November 08:13

  Unfortunately you can’t get this if you already have the old Hilton honors platinum visa by barclaycard. Spent several hours on phone calls with both Premier and BC teams, even writing off and updating the name on my visa to exactly match the premier a/c (to include middle name as one CS person advised) as the app wasn’t letting me swap product. Seems to be no staff discretion even after escalation, just ineligible for a swap.

  • Rob says:

    28 Nov28 November 08:48

    Barclays is legally not allowed to incentivise you to drop the Hilton card, I believe. Not exactly a surprise.

    • LS says:

      28 Nov28 November 13:18

      Legally is the wrong word here. There is no statute saying they can’t offer you a card. There may well be a term in their contract with Hilton saying this (although I’m amazed Barclaycard didn’t say such a term could only survive whilst the Hilton card was available for new customers).

      • George K says:

        28 Nov28 November 14:47

        This certainly wasn’t the case a while back, but all changed when barclaycard enforced the one-card only rule. Those who had two cards up until that point could keep them but anyone closing a card, shut the door on the possibility of having two forever. I had the IHG barclaycard (before they handed it off to Creation) and a plain vanilla barclaycard platinum for a long time.

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