Downgrading from Barclaycard Avios Plus card?

[djrolles]

After about an hour on the phone, I was told that ‘I am not eligible’ to downgrade my card to the free one currently, but need to wait for the next ‘offer’. Has anyone else experienced this?

Rob, this sounds like a shift by Barclays, trying to keep folk on the paid-for card?

[JDB]

You can cancel at any time, so you are not in any sense trapped in the paid for product which is only charged monthly. It has always been the case that options to upgrade or downgrade only appear in the app (and cannot overridden by calling) based on an unknown algorithm – it’s either there or it isn’t. Nothing has changed since inception, so no “shift”.

[PeteM]

I certainly wouldn’t trust anything anyone from Barclays (unless they are from the Executive complaints team) tells you – as @JDB says, keep an eye on the app.

[oxforddoc]

Do you keep the voucher if you downgrade?

[Aston100]

oxforddoc wrote:

Do you keep the voucher if you downgrade?

If it’s in your BAEC account then yes.

[andrew5017]

@djrolles do you see the option to downgrade on your mobile apps? I have no issue downgraded from Avios plus using the apps.

[FarAway]

If you downgrade to basic avios will you also get 1000 avios for spending £1k?

[Bill_B]

FarAway wrote:

If you downgrade to basic avios will you also get 1000 avios for spending £1k?

No, because the T&Cs state that to qualify you must “have not held an Avios Barclaycard within the past 24 months”.

[Ash]

If you hit 10k spend on paid card and downgraded do you need to spend a further 10k to hit the voucher for the free card? Or your spendometer resets to zero with the downgrade?

[aq.1988]

Ash wrote:

If you hit 10k spend on paid card and downgraded do you need to spend a further 10k to hit the voucher for the free card? Or your spendometer resets to zero with the downgrade?

Your spend resets to zero, but then you can earn another voucher for spending £20k. Im not sure if it was designed to work that way, but people have been able to earn 2 vouchers in a single year.

[No Longer Entitled]

Barclaycard are inept so I can assure you it was designed this way. However, whether that was intentional is a different manner.

[Reney]

Bill_B wrote:

FarAway wrote:

If you downgrade to basic avios will you also get 1000 avios for spending £1k?

No, because the T&Cs state that to qualify you must “have not held an Avios Barclaycard within the past 24 months”.

Sorry I don’t mean to report! I am not sure I agree with this comment thou, the exact wording on my app is:

“we’ll only apply one Avois welcome bonus to your BA Exe club account during the lifetime of your card account. After you receive your Avios welcome bonus. If you close or change your Barclays Avios card account and then open a new Barclaycard Avios card account within 2 years from closing your original account, you will not be eligible for another Avios welcome bonus”

I think the first half is more important. If you downgrade is that the same “card account”. If no then you would get 1000, if yes your previous bonus (25k or 50k) is the “only one” you are getting.

[Bill_B]

Reney wrote:

Bill_B wrote:

FarAway wrote:

If you downgrade to basic avios will you also get 1000 avios for spending £1k?

No, because the T&Cs state that to qualify you must “have not held an Avios Barclaycard within the past 24 months”.

Sorry I don’t mean to report! I am not sure I agree with this comment thou, the exact wording on my app is:

“we’ll only apply one Avois welcome bonus to your BA Exe club account during the lifetime of your card account. After you receive your Avios welcome bonus. If you close or change your Barclays Avios card account and then open a new Barclaycard Avios card account within 2 years from closing your original account, you will not be eligible for another Avios welcome bonus”

I think the first half is more important. If you downgrade is that the same “card account”. If no then you would get 1000, if yes your previous bonus (25k or 50k) is the “only one” you are getting.

Surely if the “card account” is different, then the second part of the quote kicks in?

[Reney]

Bill_B wrote:

Reney wrote:

Bill_B wrote:

FarAway wrote:

If you downgrade to basic avios will you also get 1000 avios for spending £1k?

No, because the T&Cs state that to qualify you must “have not held an Avios Barclaycard within the past 24 months”.

Sorry I don’t mean to report! I am not sure I agree with this comment thou, the exact wording on my app is:

“we’ll only apply one Avois welcome bonus to your BA Exe club account during the lifetime of your card account. After you receive your Avios welcome bonus. If you close or change your Barclays Avios card account and then open a new Barclaycard Avios card account within 2 years from closing your original account, you will not be eligible for another Avios welcome bonus”

I think the first half is more important. If you downgrade is that the same “card account”. If no then you would get 1000, if yes your previous bonus (25k or 50k) is the “only one” you are getting.

Surely if the “card account” is different, then the second part of the quote kicks in?

Then there is the middle part. If you think it is a new card account. There there is the bit about ‘after you receive your welcome bonus’ which could mean the 1000 points then if you close or change blah blah blah.

The conclusion is that it is not well
written. This offer is in the ‘card change’ bit of the app not for new applications. When Barclayscard avios first started lots of people had an offer to convert and I believe they did get the points.

For a £1000 spend on a free card I’m happy to give it a go and see what happens.

[MajaS]

I am also having this issue – after just over a month of the Avios plus I would like to downgrade and no luck. I don’t really want to cancel the card as want to continue earning Avios on mastercard spend. Feel a bit trapped! Suggestions?

[BuildBackBetter]

Can someone who downgraded confirm if downgrading from the paid version to free card shows up as a new card in credit profile?

[BuildBackBetter]

My posts are disappearing since I updated Gravatar. Apologies if the same post is repeated.

Has anyone who downgraded see that the free card appears as a ‘new’ card in their credit profile? Or does it just use the old credit facility?

[Bill_B]

BuildBackBetter wrote:

Can someone who downgraded confirm if downgrading from the paid version to free card shows up as a new card in credit profile?

It shows up as a new card with new card number. The old card goes away.

[zapato1060]

So the option to downgrade will be on app or it wont, is that right?

Slightly OT the Barclays upgrade voucher, can I do just a one way from say MIA-LHR?

[ExpatInBerlin]

@zapato1060 with the Barclaycard upgrade voucher your journey must start in the UK, so no you wouldn’t be able to do a one way from MIA to LHR. HfP article explaining everything to do with the voucher here https://www.headforpoints.com/2023/01/10/how-do-barclaycard-avios-mastercard-upgrade-vouchers-work-2/

[Michael C]

Barclays say it’s not even possible to downgrade using the webpage, but they don’t know why not.
“It’s strange, isn’t it?”….

[SteveJ]

MajaS wrote:

I am also having this issue – after just over a month of the Avios plus I would like to downgrade and no luck. I don’t really want to cancel the card as want to continue earning Avios on mastercard spend. Feel a bit trapped! Suggestions?

There was a whole thread on this with copious data points:
https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/downgrading-to-free-card/page/4/

Summary is the option to downgrade usually appears in the app after 3-4 months of cardholding. Noone at Barclays can assist in downgrading any sooner, so no point calling.

You’re not trapped, you can either choose to pay at least 3 months worth of fees then downgrade at that point or cancel at any time. Of course the 3-4 month isn’t written anywhere, so you have no comeback against BC if the option never appears. But I’m not sure that never seeing the option has happened to anyone who stuck it out (many cancelled before as didn’t trust it would arrive), but the above thread and the data points therein is a good reference point.

[No Longer Entitled]

It might be time for HfP to amend the following in their review:

“Can you swap between the two Barclaycard Avios credit cards?

If you have the Barclaycard Avios Plus card, you can use the Barclaycard app to downgrade to the free card once you have triggered your Avios upgrade voucher or have banked the sign-up bonus.”

It obviously isn’t a straightforward as presented.

[Joe G]

It seems to me that once the admittedly generous welcome bonus is factored out I can’t really see the value in paying for the Avios plus longer term over the free card, especially as the upgrade voucher seems a bit fiddly to use. I’d be interested to hear from those that have had it into the second year and the reasons for keeping it over downgrading (other than Barclaycard won’t let them)

[aq.1988]

Just as a data point, I took the card out in June, and the option to downgrade appeared late September. I was just about to do the DG, but then the 100k offer launched in October, so I kept the card.

I waited until the 100k landed, kept the card for another month or so, then was about to do the downgrade, but then the option disappeared. I paid the balance off (even before it was due), and the downgrade option re-appeared. Now just waiting for the blue card to arrive.

My P3 took the card last month, and has earned the 50k bonus, and the option to downgrade has appeared already. Annoyingly, the 50k only posted the day after the points were transferred to BAEC, so keeping the card until at least next month. May decide to keep it until the voucher is earned, as will hit in a few months anyway.

Other than the fact that the vouchers can’t be used for journey’s starting outside the UK, really wish BC offered referral bonuses.