Downgrading to free Barclaycard Avios card

[Aston100]

can wrote:

colinc57 wrote:

#Can..
as fee seems to be in arrears , if you downgraded part way ( even if early in) a month I would expect the fee to be charged. of course it may be different if your statement date is not aligned to account opening date ( mine is).

The fee was for the next month. They refunded it over chat.

I don’t think it is.
I believe the monthly fee is for the month gone.
Doesn’t sound right, but the CS agents insisted. Then again, the CS agents have been wrong about several things thus far.

[colinc57]

my account opened 29th March , first fee applied 27th April, so I see any fee as covering the previous month not the next. Pleased they refunded if you didn’t want the card, I will probably downgrade but expect to pay for the final month that I held the card even if a few days..of course my dates might just happen to fall that way.

[can]

I cannot speak for others but when I first applied for the Avios Plus card, I got the fee charged the next day after I got approved. I waited for the card for a week with the charge in my account. When I downgraded after the statement date I got the same charge. I assumed it was for the incoming month. I spent an hour on the chat and they reversed the charge. And that was it.

[Aston100]

I just noticed player 1 got the monthly fee automatically refunded after downgrading. This is in addition to the manual refund of the monthly fee by customer services.
Very odd.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[sm]

Has anyone found their Avios upgrade voucher has been removed from their BAEC account after downgrading to the free card please? Thanks

[Rui N.]

Mine is there.

[can]

sm wrote:

Has anyone found their Avios upgrade voucher has been removed from their BAEC account after downgrading to the free card please? Thanks

Is it even possible?
Anyway, mine is still there.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

My Barclaycard upgrade voucher was achieved late April, and an email confirming this early May. However still only 1 upgrade voucher in my BAEC account (from Barclays Premier). How long are upgrade vouchers taking to appear in accounts?

[PeteM]

Blair Waldorf Salad wrote:

My Barclaycard upgrade voucher was achieved late April, and an email confirming this early May. However still only 1 upgrade voucher in my BAEC account (from Barclays Premier). How long are upgrade vouchers taking to appear in accounts?

Mine took about 48hrs.

[can]

Blair Waldorf Salad wrote:

My Barclaycard upgrade voucher was achieved late April, and an email confirming this early May. However still only 1 upgrade voucher in my BAEC account (from Barclays Premier). How long are upgrade vouchers taking to appear in accounts?

few days really. I’d chase up.

[dougzz99]

For what it’s worth I’ve just downgraded to the free card. Once you’ve had the signup bonus and earned the upgrade voucher the £20/month looks steep. I had two complaints, and could easily make a complaint about the very poor complaint procedure, but can’t be bothered.
I’d say over half of the £10K to earn the upgrade voucher was through Curve to avoid FX.
As annoying as Barclays are, and as poor as the service has been I think it was a decent win versus what I paid.
Not linking the Barclaycard account because of some old account, not crediting the £5 dual offer, charging a fee before the card had even been sent, all very poor, but what I found really annoying was the SMS and email saying the statement was available, yet it wasn’t, but would appear several days later, but dated for when they’d alleged it was available.

[sm]

After downgrading to free card can you still use your existing card for purchases?
Also do you need to register new card with Curve? When I downgraded my Hsbc WE to the free one I didn’t need to re-register it with curve. Reason is I’m travelling soon and not sure new Barclaycard will arrive in time! Thanks

[barracuda]

How long does it take for the voucher to be issued? Is it like avios transferred post statement – or is it like Amex – once spend is achieved voucher issued. Very tempted to book $$$ refundable ticket / get voucher / refund ticket and downgrade – cannot see point of keeping this card with no real ongoing benefits.

[NorthernLass]

There’s a discussion about this about 4 posts up!

[NunoBettencourtsPinky]

sm wrote:

After downgrading to free card can you still use your existing card for purchases?
Also do you need to register new card with Curve? When I downgraded my Hsbc WE to the free one I didn’t need to re-register it with curve. Reason is I’m travelling soon and not sure new Barclaycard will arrive in time! Thanks

The wording in the app is ambiguous, but my take on it (having triggered a downgrade yesterday) is you will get a new card number, and can use your old card until the new card arrives and is activated. I assume your Curve will need to be updated with your new card number.

But don’t quote me on that.

[Rui N.]

You get a new card number.

[kevinchoi]

Applied for the Avios Plus card in April and just got the upgrade voucher from 10k spend. If I downgrade to the free card now, when will the counter for the upgrade voucher (after 20k spend) start? Will it only count spending from next April onwards, or is it 12 months from now?

[barracuda]

Just as data point – Hit the spend target on the 29th of June, which the barclays app registered the next day – the BA voucher did not show up into my account until either the 7th of 8th of July – it was still not there on the 6th. It is dated on the BA website as being issues on the 30th of June and has a two year validity.

[NunoBettencourtsPinky]

I downgraded last month and the new blue card arrived a few days later and I haven’t yet activated it, but I’ve continued to use my World Elite card without any issues. I’m no longer paying the £20 fee and earning is at 1:1 as it should be on the downgraded card.

My point? I’ve no idea now I’ve typed that out. 🙂

[SteveJ]

NunoBettencourtsPinky wrote:

I downgraded last month and the new blue card arrived a few days later and I haven’t yet activated it, but I’ve continued to use my World Elite card without any issues. I’m no longer paying the £20 fee and earning is at 1:1 as it should be on the downgraded card.

My point? I’ve no idea now I’ve typed that out. 🙂

@NunoBettencourtsPinky Has using the Plus card without activating the downgraded card continued to work for you? I much prefer the darker colour of the Plus card that I currently hold. Plan to downgrade once achieving the voucher, so I wonder how long this would last without activating the Blue standard card after downgrading.

[NunoBettencourtsPinky]

SteveJ wrote:

NunoBettencourtsPinky wrote:

I downgraded last month and the new blue card arrived a few days later and I haven’t yet activated it, but I’ve continued to use my World Elite card without any issues. I’m no longer paying the £20 fee and earning is at 1:1 as it should be on the downgraded card.

My point? I’ve no idea now I’ve typed that out. 🙂

@NunoBettencourtsPinky Has using the Plus card without activating the downgraded card continued to work for you? I much prefer the darker colour of the Plus card that I currently hold. Plan to downgrade once achieving the voucher, so I wonder how long this would last without activating the Blue standard card after downgrading.

Well its been a month since downgrading and I’ve continued using my Plus card without issues. The Blue card is sat in an envelope on my desk. Weirdly it does appear in my Barclaycard app, so assume its activated (maybe I did that?). Either way, the Plus card continues to work, transactions are showing under the new card number in the app, and I’m not being charged a fee.

Frankly, I’m just being lazy about changing all my card numbers on Amazon, TFL, Curve etc.

[CH]

SteveJ wrote:

NunoBettencourtsPinky wrote:

I downgraded last month and the new blue card arrived a few days later and I haven’t yet activated it, but I’ve continued to use my World Elite card without any issues. I’m no longer paying the £20 fee and earning is at 1:1 as it should be on the downgraded card.

My point? I’ve no idea now I’ve typed that out. 🙂

@NunoBettencourtsPinky Has using the Plus card without activating the downgraded card continued to work for you? I much prefer the darker colour of the Plus card that I currently hold. Plan to downgrade once achieving the voucher, so I wonder how long this would last without activating the Blue standard card after downgrading.

There’s a comment on the attached letter with the blue card that once it’s used, the old card will stop working. Hopefully it’ll continue that way (the old card continuing to work) until it naturally expires.

[jayjay]

Anyone see any reason to keep the Plus card once you’ve earnt the bonus and the upgrade voucher?

[NunoBettencourtsPinky]

A few reasons spring to mind:

– A higher ongoing Avios earning rate on the Plus card – 1.5 Avios per £1, vs 1 Avios per £1 spent on the standard card.
– The potential to earn another upgrade voucher next year for £10K spend on the Plus card, vs the £20K required on the standard card.
– You might get a buzz from handing over your premium World Elite card in restaurants and petrol stations.

I guess it depends if you think the extra 0.5 Avios and lower spend to get the voucher is worth the £240 a year fee on the Plus card.

My view is if you can manage £20K spend on the standard card during your card “year”, the premium card probably isn’t worth it in the long run without the initial signup bonus.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[CH]

For those who have continued to use the old Plus card after downgrading, how long has it remained active? Mine seems to have died after about 7 weeks.