HfP bonus 5,000 Avios – post when?

[Grant]

Can someone please remind me when the HFP 5,000 bonus Avios are due to be paid. I have received my card after applying with the HFP link in the offer period but my bonus tracker only shows progress towards the original 25,000 SUB.

[Youllnever]

Probably around the same time as the comp: https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/5000-comp-barclaycard-avois-text-6-weeks/

[Rob]

60 days from the end of the promo (so last Monday).

[Aston100]

I presume you’d still get the 5k if you decided to downgrade to the free card?

[Ruikis]

You cannot downgrade – i have just been told by their customer services to close my account and re-open a free one after 6 months. Can this be right?

[Aston100]

Ruikis wrote:

You cannot downgrade – i have just been told by their customer services to close my account and re-open a free one after 6 months. Can this be right?

I doubt that is correct.
Probably more evidence of their lack of knowledge.
What is worrying is when the ‘specialist team’ (the people that the phone agents contact through chat, while they put you on hold) are talking out of their backsides. Supposedly subject matter experts, yet full of crap.

[NorthernLass]

I’m sure Rob has said you can downgrade – given my recent experience of BC chat, email and phone agents, I would get a second opinion on anything they say before making a decision!

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

[Youllnever]

I’ve heard someone (can’t remember who) say that you’ll only be able to downgrade after holding the card for a minimum of 6 months.

[Ant68]

Youllnever wrote:

I’ve heard someone (can’t remember who) say that you’ll only be able to downgrade after holding the card for a minimum of 6 months.

I wasn’t sure I needed the premium card but Rob, and many others on here, advised taking the card out and then downgrading after reaching the initial spend at 3 months. I was also advised (on this forum) to go ahead with it in order to find out what the mysterious World Elite privileges were (it has been impossible for me to find out what they are). I’m sure the people who’ve advised us to do this weren’t misleading us.

I’d be very grateful if someone knows for sure, and could confirm for certain, that we can downgrade after 3 months. If not, I really do want to know what the mystery World Elite privileges are and whether they’re worth 6 months of fees to me, personally. Because otherwise I don’t want to pay for 6 months. And since Barclaycard still haven’t replied to the application I can hopefully cancel it, although seeing the feedback to their customer service I’m wondering how easy that would be.

Surely we haven’t been sold a pup?

[Tom2]

Ant68 wrote:

Youllnever wrote:

I’ve heard someone (can’t remember who) say that you’ll only be able to downgrade after holding the card for a minimum of 6 months.

I wasn’t sure I needed the premium card but Rob, and many others on here, advised taking the card out and then downgrading after reaching the initial spend at 3 months. I was also advised (on this forum) to go ahead with it in order to find out what the mysterious World Elite privileges were (it has been impossible for me to find out what they are). I’m sure the people who’ve advised us to do this weren’t misleading us.

I’d be very grateful if someone knows for sure, and could confirm for certain, that we can downgrade after 3 months. If not, I really do want to know what the mystery World Elite privileges are and whether they’re worth 6 months of fees to me, personally. Because otherwise I don’t want to pay for 6 months. And since Barclaycard still haven’t replied to the application I can hopefully cancel it, although seeing the feedback to their customer service I’m wondering how easy that would be.

Surely we haven’t been sold a pup?

No article on HFP is financial advice. You should never apply for credit based on an article on a website.

Whether or not you can downgrade within 3 months is not currently clear. Barclaycard vaguely state that you can check whether you can downgrade within the app, some people have the option and others don’t.

If you do have to wait 6 months before you can downgrade you would still be getting 25,000 Avios for £120, a rate that if there was ever a route to buy Avios for would be jumped on by any sensible points collector. If you do not have the option to downgrade you still have the ability to close your account at any point in time.

[Youllnever]

Barclaycard’s CS apparently said you can only downgrade after 6 months (if offered to your card), which does make sense since you’ll only be able to cancel and reapply again after 6 months as well, so the timing does line up.

[Rob]

Barclaycard wrote, in our Q&A article, that a downgrade would be available via the app. No timeframe was mentioned. We are chasing this.

[JDB]

Ant68 wrote:

Youllnever wrote:

I’ve heard someone (can’t remember who) say that you’ll only be able to downgrade after holding the card for a minimum of 6 months.

I wasn’t sure I needed the premium card but Rob, and many others on here, advised taking the card out and then downgrading after reaching the initial spend at 3 months. I was also advised (on this forum) to go ahead with it in order to find out what the mysterious World Elite privileges were (it has been impossible for me to find out what they are). I’m sure the people who’ve advised us to do this weren’t misleading us.

I’d be very grateful if someone knows for sure, and could confirm for certain, that we can downgrade after 3 months. If not, I really do want to know what the mystery World Elite privileges are and whether they’re worth 6 months of fees to me, personally. Because otherwise I don’t want to pay for 6 months. And since Barclaycard still haven’t replied to the application I can hopefully cancel it, although seeing the feedback to their customer service I’m wondering how easy that would be.

Surely we haven’t been sold a pup?

Nobody has “advised” you to do anything. You have read details of a new product on a website that has provided information for you to consider whether a product is suitable. You, and you alone, are responsible for deciding whether any product is in fact suitable. Any applicant also confirms, more than once, during the application process that they have read and understood the terms and that they have determined it is the product they want. Those terms offer no advice nor promise anyone can downgrade or change cards. To seek to blame your buyer’s remorse on someone else is quite bizarre.

[Rocket]

Other than wait 60 days from end of promo to see if bonus points get paid, is there anyway to know whether or not the referral from HfP was successfully tracked? I don’t see any mention of bonus points in the various emails I received from Barclaycard confirming my application or account opening.

[dougzz99]

@Ant68. Clearly you’ve been a victim of mis-selling by the forum. I think as a minimum you should receive some compo from the forum regulars. If you post your bank account details here I’ll chip in 50p. Thoughts and prayers are with you at this most difficult of times.

[colinc57]

If you read the declarations you electronically signed you should recall seeing Rob being mentioned as the referring intermediary

[Rocket]

I see that in the pre-contract agreement and the terms but I don’t see any reference to bonus/referral points.
Presumably the reference to intermediary would be there even if I used a HfP referral link whilst bonus promotion is not running.