Downgrading to free 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.