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What else does Barclays Premier offer apart from Avios?

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Over the last week we have been spending time looking at the Barclays Premier and Barclays Avios Rewards partnership, so you can see if it is worth signing up.

This is the last article, you’ll be pleased to hear. It looks at what Barclays Premier has to offer as a stand-alone premium banking proposition, irrespective of the Avios and British Airways upgrade voucher.

Remember that there is a 25,000 Avios bonus for signing up. You will earn a total of 43,000 Avios in your first year.

You can apply for Barclays Premier here.

What else does Barclays Premier offer apart from Avios?

What do you get from Barclays Avios Rewards?

If you qualify for Barclays Premier and complete a full current account switch, plus activate Barclays Avios Rewards (£12 per month fee) you will receive:

  • a sign-up bonus of 25,000 Avios
  • a monthly bonus of 1,500 Avios
  • an annual British Airways upgrade voucher, allowing you to upgrade two x one-way flights or one return flight, booked on Avios, by one class

Here is our main introductory article on how the scheme works: Get 43,000 Avios and an upgrade voucher with Barclays Avios Rewards

There is more to Barclays Premier Banking than just Avios

For obvious reasons, our coverage of this offer has focused on Barclays Avios Rewards, the generous 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus and the annual British Airways upgrade voucher.

Barclays Premier Banking has more to offer than just Avios, of course.

To join Barclays Premier Banking, you require either:

  • a gross annual income of £75,000 or more, paid into your account, or
  • £100,000+ saved or invested with Barclays

Whilst it is most likely that you would qualify via the salary option, if you have considerable liquid assets you may want to look at the savings route. We have a separate article on how to apply for Barclays Premier if you want to qualify based on savings and not move your existing current account.

What else does Barclays Premier offer apart from Avios?

How does the Premier current account work?

It is important to note that there is no fee for a Barclays Premier currrent account.

There is a £12 month fee for joining Barclays Avios Rewards, but this is offset by the 1,500 monthly Avios you earn. You’re basically buying 1,500 Avios for 0.8p each which is a good deal. The annual British Airways upgrade voucher is just the icing on the cake.

Your Premier current account comes with:

  • an interest free arranged overdraft of up to £500
  • ability to withdraw £1,000 per day from cash machines
  • access to a 24/7 Premier relationship team
  • fee-free international payments when made via the app or online, with all major currencies supported
  • a subscription to Apple TV+, saving you £8.99 per month if you currently pay for it

You also get access to a range of dedicated products:

  • Premier mortgages, with exclusive rates for high-value loans
  • Premier Barclayloan
  • Premier insurance and, for high value items, premium home insurance
  • Premier cash ISA and savings products, including a Rainy Day Saver account currently paying 5.12% on £5,000

Some of these products come with an extra Avios incentive if you are enrolled in Barclays Avios Rewards:

  • Mortgage – 700 Avios per month for a residential or personal buy-to-let mortgage, with a one-off bonus of 2,000 Avios when taking out a mortgage
  • Life cover – 150 Avios per month for the first 12 months (500 Avios per month if critical illness cover is included)
  • Barclayloan – 200 Avios per month for each Barclayloan you have (£5,000+) with a one-off bonus of 2,000 Avios when taking out your first Barclayloan after joining Premier
What else does Barclays Premier offer apart from Avios?

Barclays Wealth may also be an option

Whilst we focus on Barclays Premier, Barclays Avios Rewards is also available to Barclays Wealth customers with a current account.

Barclays Wealth requires you to hold investible assets of over £500,000. As well as standard banking services, you can access investment advice, discretionary portfolio management and financial planning.

You can learn more about Barclays Wealth on its website here.

Conclusion

If you are a high earner, it makes sense to move your current account to a ‘premier’ offering. You will get better service and access to more relevant products and services.

The Barclays Premier current account is free so you won’t be paying for the privilege. Whilst there are no stand-out benefits, it remains a definite step up from a standard Barclays current account.

It is worth noting that HSBC Premier has just increased its minimum salary requirement to £100,000, so Barclays Premier is the only mainstream option if you earn between £75,000 and £99,999.

Once you have an account, you can choose to add Barclays Avios Rewards and pick up your 25,000 Avios joining bonus as well as your 1,500 monthly Avios and your annual British Airways upgrade voucher.

You can apply for Barclays Premier here.

Category

Barclays Premier

Comments (59)

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

  • Keith says:
    8 Sep8 September 08:46

    Any idea if the 25,000 bonus is only awarded if this is your first Barclays Premier account, or if it’s your first Barclays account of any kind? I’ve had another Barclays current account in the last year so wonder if the 25,000 isn’t available to me.

  • Alan says:
    8 Sep8 September 09:06

    Worth adding Apple TV+ to the article I think, Rob – it’s a decent benefit given how poor most of the Barclays financial products are.

    • Matt says:
      8 Sep8 September 09:18

      Agreed. As per one of the above comments, there is still confusion that Apple TV is free with premier banking (no need for blue rewards).

      Rob should also list the rainy day saver (5.12%) on £5k balances. Seems good to me to have that interest rate on an instantly accessible account.

      Following the recent changes, I’m confused now why a premier customer would pay for blue rewards now as the two key benefits as per above come with premier banking as standard. Ignorance unless I’m missing something?

      • Roy says:
        8 Sep8 September 10:52

        I doubt think you can even get Blue Rewards any more as a Premier customer. Given that all the Blue Rewards benefits are now included with Premier as standard, it would just be throwing money away.

        • Matt says:
          8 Sep8 September 10:53

          You can still get it.

          • Roy says:
            8 Sep8 September 11:43

            I think it’s changed in the last couple of days. There was a confusingly worded email about new T&Cs as a result of Blue Rewards benefits being included with Premier. I no longer see an option in the app to switch from Avios Rewards to Blue Rewards.

            The cash reward for having two direct debits finally ended this week and as a result now all Blue Rewards benefits are included in Premier, I think.

      • Don says:
        8 Sep8 September 11:28

        If you’re Premier they automatically cancel Blue Rewards

  • George K says:
    8 Sep8 September 09:51

    Interesting that HSBC has upped the salary requirement. Does that mean that it will cull its ranks, or would this threshold now only apply to new joiners?

    • mrd says:
      8 Sep8 September 09:55

      Applies to new applicants only. There’s a caveat at the bottom of the Premier page where the new criteria is stating that it doesn’t apply to those who have already opened a Premier account or words to that effect.

    • Rob says:
      8 Sep8 September 10:15

      Would be bad PR to cull. If I were them I would wait 5 years, allow most who were on £75k to get to £100k via pay rises and then cull.

    • Roy says:
      8 Sep8 September 16:45

      They upped the requirements for the savings and investments route, too. Was £50,000, now £100,000.

    • Mike P says:
      9 Sep9 September 10:10

      Wonder if this means the product will be enhanced? Not holding out much hope though.

      • Rob says:
        9 Sep9 September 10:35

        Sunday Times article says it will. They are hiring 1,000 new Premier advisors to massively increase the customer base.

  • Qwertyknowsbest says:
    8 Sep8 September 13:09

    Apologies if already asked, wanted to be sure before applying.

    I cannot see any mention of the 25K Avios sign up bonus on the Barclays link, am I missing something obvious? Like to screen grab such.

    Closed a Barclays account this year (not premier), does this rule the bonus out for me?

    Thanks for any clarification.

    • Lumma says:
      8 Sep8 September 13:20

      I’ve never had a barclays current account and I can’t see any reference to the bonus points either.

      Even in the barclaycard app it just says “join premier and collect at least 20,500 avios in your first year”

      • Rob says:
        8 Sep8 September 13:43

        Did you click ‘Explore Avios Rewards’?

        Technically it’s not a bonus for joining Premier, it’s a bonus for joining Avios Rewards after getting Premier.

    • Rob says:
      8 Sep8 September 13:43

      You didn’t click ‘Explore Avios Rewards’.

      This offer has been running since Day 1, 4 years ago.

      • Lumma says:
        8 Sep8 September 13:55

        Thanks, you’d think they’d want to shout about it a bit more. One other thing, it says you need to do a full current account switch to get the bonus. Does this need to include direct debits or can I just switch an unused account?

        • Roy says:
          8 Sep8 September 17:26

          I think there might be a manual element to the process. I didn’t use the current account switch service as I wanted to keep my old account open. They told me I wouldn’t get the bonus but in the event the bonus credited anyway.

          Might have been a mistake but I suspect was a manual decision as it would have been self-evident to anyone who reviewed my account usage that I was using it as my main account.

          • Roy says:
            8 Sep8 September 19:08

            This was a couple of years ago, though, just to be clear, so things may have changed.

            My point about it being a manual process, BTW, was that it could work both ways (if you try to game the system).

  • HughM says:
    8 Sep8 September 13:29

    My earnings are way below the threshold, but 2 years ago we parked a legacy in the instant access saver to qualify for Premier. Branch staff were brilliant with the complex joint application, and we reaped a huge reward in Avios. Have since downgraded to the free Avios credit card, via the app but keep Avios reward going. The downside, and it’s rather a large one, is the miserable rate of interest on the instant-access saver account: just £105.21 this month. The Virgin Money equivalent would have beaten Premier by about £8000 in the past couple of years. You can’t win ’em all, but I’m now mulling an exit strategy.

    • Froggee says:
      8 Sep8 September 16:07

      Obviously this isn’t investment advice because I don’t do that, but you could instead open an investment saver with Barclays, put the cash into a money market fund, and get something acceptable at a very, very low risk.

      Or if that is too risky you could buy a short dated gilt and get approx 3.8% (minus dealing and Barclays 0.1% platform fee). And if you buy the right gilt e.g. yielding 0.125% then almost all of your return comes from capital gains which are tax free on gilts. This actually sees you ahead of any fixed deposit if you are a higher rate taxpayer.

      Or you can keep donating to Barclays’ bottom line!

      • Roy says:
        8 Sep8 September 17:44

        Does Smart Investor allows dealing in gilts? I hadn’t spotted that.

        • Froggee says:
          8 Sep8 September 19:05

          They say they let you access gilts Roy although I own all mine through Interactive Investor.

          My smart investor portfolio was £100k of investment trusts (five holdings) on the basis I can forget it. Annoyingly one got taken out which I replaced and now a further two have been bought back at 2% discount to NAV so I am up to almost 50% cash out of lethargy.

    • Roy says:
      8 Sep8 September 17:33

      Do you still have your funds in Everyday Saver, by any chance? If so you should put the first £5,000 in Rainy Day Saver, and the balance in Blue Rewards Saver.

      You might have missed that these accounts are now open to all Premier customers. (Previously they were only open to Blue Rewards customers, and it wasn’t possible to be a member of both Avios Rewards and Blue Rewards at the same time. Blue Rewards is no longer relevant to Premier customers, however, as all Blue Rewards benefits are now included in Premier as standard).

      • Froggee says:
        8 Sep8 September 19:07

        The points Roy makes on savings above is the sort of thing that Barclays’ relationship manager should have flagged. They should be giving your account a cursory look over at least annually.

        Sad face.

        • Roy says:
          8 Sep8 September 19:15

          To be fair, I think Blue Rewards Saver has been available to all Premier customers for rather less than a year, so if there is an annual review (which is news to me) it might not have taken place yet.

          They did email me (and I presume all Premier customers) when Rainy Day Saver and Blue Rewards Saver became available to us, and I moved my funds within days.

          I do appreciate it’s easy to assume most of these emails are just marketing fluff and end up not reading them.

          • Roy says:
            8 Sep8 September 19:37

            *thinks* is the annual review related to that text message they send asking you to click to schedule a time for a call with them? I confess I’ve always ignored it – mainly based on the general consensus that people feel it’s just a marketing/cross-selling exercise. But maybe it has value for people who aren’t in top of things …

  • C says:
    8 Sep8 September 14:03

    I have already triggered the BAPP voucher for the year. Should I sign up to the barclaycard Avios plus card do the £10k spend for the voucher or just wait it out to trigger the following year’s companion voucher?

    I normally make Avios bookings for three people so if the companion voucher was booked under I class does the Barclaycard voucher is based on availability in I class too?

  • Roop says:
    17 Sep17 September 18:11

    Hiya, I just opened my new Premier account and registered for the Barclays Avios rewards (£12/month). On a call with customer service and I am told I can’t get the Barclays Blue rewards (Apple TV+, MLS etc) if I am on the Avios rewards.
    May be I did not understand this article and even their welcome emails wrong. Is this correct that’s it’s avios or Apple tv+?

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