Barclays Premier vs RBS Premier Black

[facelikefizz]

My RBS Premier Black current account costs £372 a year. For that I get £10 cashback a month that I exchange for 1170 Avios (despite Rob saying that Barclays is the only bank account to give Avios), annual travel insurance (an equivalent policy with LV is £330), Dragonpass free lounge access, an FX fee-free Mastercard (which earns ~0.6 Avios per pound) and some other benefits that I’m not bothered about. The cost if I switched to Barclays would be £594 a year (£144 for the account, £330 travel insurance and probably about £120 on airport lounge visits).

I’ve already had the Avios Plus card and downgraded to the free one. My husband has just hit the £3000 on his and was planning to downgrade so if we switched he’d have to pay for it for another four months.

The 100,000 Avios is worth well over £1000 as we always use 2-4-1 voucher. So I’m trying to weigh up is it worth switching to Barclays for the £1000 worth of Avios but at a cost of £220 a year. Anyone here with RBS/NatWest planning to move over to Barclays?

[sloth]

Not answering your question as such but you also get the £10/m on the NatWest premier reward (non black) account for the same criteria and only £2/m fee. In addition you can have both the rbs/NatWest premier alongside the Barclays premier. I had both (shut Barclays of my own accord) but also have hsbc premier and no issues with that

[facelikefizz]

sloth wrote:

Not answering your question as such but you also get the £10/m on the NatWest premier reward (non black) account for the same criteria and only £2/m fee.

I’d forgotten about that account. £2 for 1170 Avios a month really is a bargain.

[TerryTierPoints]

an equivalent policy with LV is £330

Check out the Barclays travel packs for a cheaper option.

[facelikefizz]

TerryTierPoints wrote:

an equivalent policy with LV is £330

Check out the Barclays travel packs for a cheaper option.

Thanks! I didn’t know Barclays did that. Sadly it doesn’t give the activities cover I need. Although I think I could get top up insurance elsewhere. I’ll need to look into the costs.

[Entitled]

By your own math the net spend to you for switching is £220 and your question appears to be is it worth spending £220 to gain over £1,000? In purely monetary terms it seems sensible but only you can judge the return on effort involved.

A couple of further thoughts:
– you are under no obligation to keep the Barclays account beyond the term required in the T&C’s. Do you have a travel free window whereby you wouldn’t need insurance or the £120 you have allocated for lounge access? That would increase the profit.
– alternatively keep the RBS alive and open the Barclays in addition. Even the sunk cost (monthly fees) still leaves you ahead without the aggravation of searching for new insurance or trying to buy lounge access.

[TerryTierPoints]

@facelikefizz I’m actually in the opposite scenario.

I have Barclays Premier + Travel Pack and Barclaycard Avios Plus. Now that I’ve triggered the joining bonuses and vouchers I’m considering moving. I like the Premier Travel Pack benefits and ongoing Avios collection but the Barclays app, online banking and customer service are atrocious.

Before your post I didn’t realise it was possible to collect Avios with RBS. How do you find the RBS Premier Black app, online banking and customer service?

Maybe RBS Premier Black, Amex BAPP and regular Barclaycard Avios (for retailers that don’t access Amex) might be a good combination.

[facelikefizz]

Entitled wrote:

– alternatively keep the RBS alive and open the Barclays in addition. Even the sunk cost (monthly fees) still leaves you ahead without the aggravation of searching for new insurance or trying to buy lounge access.

I’ve just reread the T&C. I had thought you had to do the switching service to get all 125,000. But now I read it as only the 25,000 is dependent on that. And for the 100,000 I just have to keep the account and card alive for 4 months. And so, like you say, I could keep RBS going. If that’s the case, it’s a no brained to open Barclays in addition!

[facelikefizz]

TerryTierPoints wrote:

Maybe RBS Premier Black, Amex BAPP and regular Barclaycard Avios (for retailers that don’t access Amex) might be a good combination.

This is our current set up and it works really well for us. The big bonus from Barclays is very attractive though! I have no complaints about RBS and like their app a lot more than Barclaycard. The travel insurance is excellent and they paid out no problem when I made a claim. I also really like the accompanying Mastercard as I spend a lot in dollars (no annual fee, no FX fees and earns Avios). I don’t really want to leave RBS. So if I can keep it and have Barclays as well, just for the four months as I now think I can, that’s what I’ll do.

[Jan M]

I have the normal RBS account and also exchange their rewards for Avios. Basically that is 3 pounds per month for 1,170 Avios every other month. The credit card offers more Avios on supermarket shopping than an Amex Gold (1.17 per pound spent). And the app is really great, so much better than Barclays.

[John]

You are not paying £2 a month for 1170 avios, you are trading a £10.42 Waitrose / Morrisons gift card (and other various options) for 1170 avios.

Which is not necessarily a bad deal, but you should still be aware that is what you are doing.