Downgrading to free Barclaycard Avios card

[jintycat]

I have the barclaycard plus credit card and now got the upgrade voucher after £10,ooo spend…I would like to dowbgrade to the free barclays card but having now spent over an hour on the phone to Barclays card they tell me if I downgrade to the free card I lose the upgrade voucher…with a paid american express once you have a companion ticket you still keep it even if you downgrade to a free card…has anyone experience of this with barclaycrd as also got the distinct impression they did not really know what they were doing

[nycvisa]

maybe its a dumb question but how exactly do you downgradde? all i find is a field on the app that says ‘change card’ but when i click there it says that there are no card options for me to choose from (to change to). spent an hour over chat and they seem to be telling me that downgrading is a ‘promotional offer’ that is currently not offered on my account?

makes no sense.

would appreciate help with downgrading. i have only hit the 50k avios, i dont need the voucher

[marshy11]

I am at this stage too. 3k hit and 50 odd K Avios are pending and the message says they will show on the 2nd working day of the next month, so 2 September. My next statement is 2nd September.

Do I downgrade now or later? I have a pending payment to Apple which won’t clear until 24 August.

Don’t want to mess with the Apple order or miss the 50k.

[NunoBettencourtsPinky]

jintycat wrote:

Barclays card they tell me if I downgrade to the free card I lose the upgrade voucher

This is complete cobblers. Simply put, you don’t lose the upgrade voucher once its been posted to your BA account. If it has posted in your BA account, you can downgrade your card without any issues.

[NunoBettencourtsPinky]

nycvisa wrote:

maybe its a dumb question but how exactly do you downgradde? all i find is a field on the app that says ‘change card’ but when i click there it says that there are no card options for me to choose from (to change to). spent an hour over chat and they seem to be telling me that downgrading is a ‘promotional offer’ that is currently not offered on my account?

makes no sense.

would appreciate help with downgrading. i have only hit the 50k avios, i dont need the voucher

I don’t know what criteria Barclays are using when offering a downgrade, but it does seem not everyone is offered it in the app. You might be better off closing the card and reapplying for the standard card?

[nycvisa]

yeh the bot on the chat said i will have to wait 6 months to reapply after i close it. it seems very weird to call a downgrade to an inferior product ‘an offer’

[marshy11]

Re-reading back through this there seems to be two viewpoints on the fee; advance or arrears. For me it is definitely paid in advance as I applied and within 48 hours of applying got a statement and the fee with nothing else on the statement.

When my points convert on 2 September and another statement is generated, with another fee, I shall ask them to remove it.

[NunoBettencourtsPinky]

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. 🙂

Just an update here for reference. My World Elite card stopped working yesterday. Now switched to using the standard blue card which is working fine.

I can only assume there’s a grace period of a few weeks where you can continue using your old premium card before they finally shut it down.

[kevinchoi]

marshy11 wrote:

Re-reading back through this there seems to be two viewpoints on the fee; advance or arrears. For me it is definitely paid in advance as I applied and within 48 hours of applying got a statement and the fee with nothing else on the statement.

When my points convert on 2 September and another statement is generated, with another fee, I shall ask them to remove it.

My fee is also in advance. I downgraded last month and a £20 fee did appear on my statement as at 2 August (i.e. they charged me another monthly fee). But on 3 August, there was a transaction on my app which shows a refund of the £20 – I didn’t need to contact them or anything.

So I’d suggest that even if the £20 fee shows up on 2 September for you, just wait until the next working day or so to see if it gets refunded automatically.

[Michael C]

I’ve also just achieved (and received) voucher, so will presumably downgrade to free card.
Do I need SOME kind of Barclaycard to be able to use the voucher in the future (à la Amex)
or are they completely independent of each other once the voucher’s in your BAEC account?

[bjd]

I am having significant issues downgrading.

The option to change my card is not available via the app (this has already been mentioned by a few people here).

Nobody at Barclaycard seems to know how to help or more to the point wants to help and i keep getting passed from pillar to post. The chat option is useless as i just get getting told I am not eligible to downgrade or to use the app, which gives me no options.

So my question is, has anyone who has not been able to downgrade via the app, how did you do this exactly ?!

Thanks in advance!

[takke]

Just been on the phone with Barclaycard. No downgrade seems to be possible – was advised that you need to wait six months, but sometimes this can appear earlier.

Some people seem to have got lucky earlier on, but I think if the option doesn’t appear in the app, it’s not going to happen and it’s not something customer services can override. Barclays clearly don’t actually want people downgrading.

Cancelled card and back to Chase or Zilch for non-Amex transactions for me.

[Carlos]

takke wrote:

Just been on the phone with Barclaycard. No downgrade seems to be possible – was advised that you need to wait six months, but sometimes this can appear earlier.

Some people seem to have got lucky earlier on, but I think if the option doesn’t appear in the app, it’s not going to happen and it’s not something customer services can override. Barclays clearly don’t actually want people downgrading.

Cancelled card and back to Chase or Zilch for non-Amex transactions for me.

No offer for player 2 to downgrade and no offer for me as HH cardholder to upgrade/change either. Crap system. Lost another customer

[can]

Maybe it was obvious to the most but I just realised it.
I’ve got the paid card when it was first announced, and downgraded in late June.

But I cannot still apply to increase my card limit. Apparently the free card counts as a new card and I have to wait for additional 6 months even to be considered.

[nigelwalsh]

Does anyone know if you have downgraded, then spend the 1,000 GBP do you then get the lower card bonus too?

[Aston100]

nigelwalsh wrote:

Does anyone know if you have downgraded, then spend the 1,000 GBP do you then get the lower card bonus too?

No.

[Aston100]

To confirm something I said elsewhere, regarding downgrading.
The option to downgrade appeared in the app out of the blue one day. No rhyme, reason or any kind of logic involved AFAIK.
It simply wasn’t there for weeks, and then one afternoon it appeared (wasn’t there that same morning).

Useless customer service; lots of IT glitches and an overall poor product not fit for anything other than the occasions when Amex isn’t accepted.
I’d suggest people use this card just for any sign up bonusses and then downgrade / move on. Even the upgrade voucher is crap given all the restrictions.

[bjd]

Same here , paid the balance and cancelled. I would’ve downgraded if given the option but no one at BC seemed to know why I couldn’t or didn’t want to help. To be honest it’s been a bit of a trial from day one with this product. I won’t get a BC again, no matter what the offer is.

I can accept the odd quirk or tech glitch, but what I can’t abide is consistent poor customer service. I’m out.

[marshy11]

Where do you see the option to downgrade?

Like @nycvisa I can only find a field that says ‘change card’. There is nothing in there which enables me to downgrade.

Can someone please confirm if I am looking in the correct place.

[Carlos]

marshy11 wrote:

Where do you see the option to downgrade?

Like @nycvisa I can only find a field that says ‘change card’. There is nothing in there which enables me to downgrade.

Can someone please confirm if I am looking in the correct place.

If the offer isnt there you simply cannot downgrade, some people dont ever see the option, for others it appears once in a blue moon

[kinnimod]

Rob in your article of 23 June headed 19 Questions on the new Barclaycard Avios Credit Cards you say

In this article, we’ve put together answers to 19 questions which you may have had about the cards.

Barclaycard contributed to and approved these answers when the cards launched, which is when we first ran a version of this article. We have updated the answers where necessary to reflect feedback from the last three months.

Can you upgrade and downgrade between the two cards?”

Yes. If you want to swap between Barclaycard Avios Plus and Barclaycard Avios, you can. Go to the Barclaycard app and select ‘Change to a different card’ under your existing Barclaycard in the ‘Cards’ section of the app. It should happen automatically, but note that the option may take some weeks to become available. Anecdotally it is working fine for some people but is not showing for others.

Rob, I’m trying to downgrade having held the Avios Plus card for over 3 months but there is no option to downgrade in the change card feature in the App and customer service say they can’t do it. The answers from Barclaycard say you can downgrade. But that is not right, at least in my case. I don’t want to cancel as the free card is useful where Amex not accepted. I just want to downgrade. As I signed up on your recommendation and on the basis of your Q&As, all help to downgrade would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

[marshy11]

kinnimod wrote:

Rob in your article of 23 June headed 19 Questions on the new Barclaycard Avios Credit Cards you say

In this article, we’ve put together answers to 19 questions which you may have had about the cards.

Barclaycard contributed to and approved these answers when the cards launched, which is when we first ran a version of this article. We have updated the answers where necessary to reflect feedback from the last three months.

Can you upgrade and downgrade between the two cards?”

Yes. If you want to swap between Barclaycard Avios Plus and Barclaycard Avios, you can. Go to the Barclaycard app and select ‘Change to a different card’ under your existing Barclaycard in the ‘Cards’ section of the app. It should happen automatically, but note that the option may take some weeks to become available. Anecdotally it is working fine for some people but is not showing for others.

Rob, I’m trying to downgrade having held the Avios Plus card for over 3 months but there is no option to downgrade in the change card feature in the App and customer service say they can’t do it. The answers from Barclaycard say you can downgrade. But that is not right, at least in my case. I don’t want to cancel as the free card is useful where Amex not accepted. I just want to downgrade. As I signed up on your recommendation and on the basis of your Q&As, all help to downgrade would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

It has been confirmed on the forum that some have the downgrade (my husband) and some don’t (me). Nothing any different in our spends or action on the card.

I have hit the target with my avios being credited on 2 September, which is the same date as my statement and charge, so will be cancelling the card by telephone sometime during that day.

[kinnimod]

Thanks, but isn’t the point that Barclaycard said in the Q&A that EVERYONE could downgrade if they wanted to, not just a select few? It seems very unfair which is why I’m asking for Rob’s help since he has done all the running on the Barclaycard Avios front.

[JDB]

kinnimod wrote:

Thanks, but isn’t the point that Barclaycard said in the Q&A that EVERYONE could downgrade if they wanted to, not just a select few? It seems very unfair which is why I’m asking for Rob’s help since he has done all the running on the Barclaycard Avios front.

The wording in the Q&A makes it quite clear the ability to downgrade is not a given and also that it may take some time to appear. Additionally, the terms only provide for a potential upgrade so not sure what unfairness you are referring to?

[kinnimod]

https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/downgrading-to-free-card/page/3/#post-390425

The unfairness I am referring to is the section in the Q&A which says, in very clear terms

“Can you upgrade and downgrade between the two cards?”

Yes. If you want to swap between Barclaycard Avios Plus and Barclaycard Avios, you can. Go to the Barclaycard app and select ‘Change to a different card’ under your existing Barclaycard in the ‘Cards’ section of the app.”

That is simply not true and that is why it is unfair!