Premier Account – Avios Plus bonus issues

[williamd]

Have Barclaycard Avios Plus account since early in year. Opened Premier Bank Account 19 Nov. Unable to access account online (and thereby activate Avios rewards) until 8 December due to PIN number not arriving in mail, eventually had to call call centre to resolve (PinSentry device and debit card arrived within 1 week of account opening).

Now they are trying to tell me I am ineligible for the 100K bonus as I didn’t activate rewards until 8 Dec. I am seriously unimpressed.

Unable to find original terms and conditions for the offer but was clear (to me at least) you needed to open the account by 30 Nov, not necessarily activate Rewards.

Advice appreciated.

[aq.1988]

The terms did state that you need to have Avios Plus card, and Avios Rewards switched on by the 30th Nov. As you can’t have Avios Rewards without Premier banking, you also need to have that, and at least one of the products must have been newly activated within the promotion period.

But, given the issues you had, I would say you are well within your rights to complain.

You’re not the only one that’s been told they are ineligible for the 100k due to no fault of their own.

Rob has mentioned on one of the other threads today that Barclaycard might be setting up a dedicated enquiry line for customers that have had issues with this offer.

[williamd]

Thanks for the reply.

Re the 30th issue, from the original HFP post by Rob, I’m sure it stated that as long as you had applied for a Premier Banking account by 30 Nov you were OK, even if it took Barclays a few weeks to sort out, so I find the above slightly conflicting. As I already had the Avios Plus CC, surely by opening the Premier Account by 30th Nov I complied?

I was chatting to them on the app earlier, now getting a “service unavailable” error, even when I get a notification that there is a new message for me to read. I’m going to give them a ring when I get a chance. So far it’s been pretty shambolic, however when I called before about the PIN not turning up they were very helpful.

[JDB]

williamd wrote:

Thanks for the reply.

Re the 30th issue, from the original HFP post by Rob, I’m sure it stated that as long as you had applied for a Premier Banking account by 30 Nov you were OK, even if it took Barclays a few weeks to sort out, so I find the above slightly conflicting. As I already had the Avios Plus CC, surely by opening the Premier Account by 30th Nov I complied?

I was chatting to them on the app earlier, now getting a “service unavailable” error, even when I get a notification that there is a new message for me to read. I’m going to give them a ring when I get a chance. So far it’s been pretty shambolic, however when I called before about the PIN not turning up they were very helpful.

The T&Cs were brief and simple:- “You will be eligible for the Avios Bonus when you hold a Barclaycard Avios Plus card and Barclays Avios Rewards, provided that you open or join one or both of those products during the Qualifying Period. You’ll still be eligible if you open or join them by switching from another product during the Qualifying Period.” [3 Oct – 30 Nov]. It was joining Barclays Avios Rewards rather than just opening a Premier account that mattered.

[williamd]

The T&Cs were brief and simple:- “You will be eligible for the Avios Bonus when you hold a Barclaycard Avios Plus card and Barclays Avios Rewards, provided that you open or join one or both of those products during the Qualifying Period. You’ll still be eligible if you open or join them by switching from another product during the Qualifying Period.” [3 Oct – 30 Nov]. It was joining Barclays Avios Rewards rather than just opening a Premier account that mattered.

OK but is it/was it possible to activate Avios Rewards without a Barclays Bank Account? Not to my knowledge. So therefore you open a new account by 30 Nov but without a debit card/pin number it is impossible to then activate online or app banking and subsequently join Avios Rewards.

Just spent 71 mins on the phone with a pleasant lady who didn’t really know the answer.

[JDB]

williamd wrote:

The T&Cs were brief and simple:- “You will be eligible for the Avios Bonus when you hold a Barclaycard Avios Plus card and Barclays Avios Rewards, provided that you open or join one or both of those products during the Qualifying Period. You’ll still be eligible if you open or join them by switching from another product during the Qualifying Period.” [3 Oct – 30 Nov]. It was joining Barclays Avios Rewards rather than just opening a Premier account that mattered.

OK but is it/was it possible to activate Avios Rewards without a Barclays Bank Account? Not to my knowledge. So therefore you open a new account by 30 Nov but without a debit card/pin number it is impossible to then activate online or app banking and subsequently join Avios Rewards.

Just spent 71 mins on the phone with a pleasant lady who didn’t really know the answer.

I was able to activate Avios Rewards immediately upon opening the Premier account without needing the debit card or PIN. I just copied and pasted the terms above.

[williamd]

JDB wrote:

williamd wrote:

The T&Cs were brief and simple:- “You will be eligible for the Avios Bonus when you hold a Barclaycard Avios Plus card and Barclays Avios Rewards, provided that you open or join one or both of those products during the Qualifying Period. You’ll still be eligible if you open or join them by switching from another product during the Qualifying Period.” [3 Oct – 30 Nov]. It was joining Barclays Avios Rewards rather than just opening a Premier account that mattered.

OK but is it/was it possible to activate Avios Rewards without a Barclays Bank Account? Not to my knowledge. So therefore you open a new account by 30 Nov but without a debit card/pin number it is impossible to then activate online or app banking and subsequently join Avios Rewards.

OK, I was not able to work out how to do that and did not know it could even be done without having access to online banking. Can you explain how you done it?

Just spent 71 mins on the phone with a pleasant lady who didn’t really know the answer.

I was able to activate Avios Rewards immediately upon opening the Premier account without needing the debit card or PIN. I just copied and pasted the terms above.

[williamd]

I wasn’t aware that could be done, please explain how that is possible with no access to an online account.

[ClubSmed]

Avios rewards was activated for my by the advisor upon the opening of the account. This was all before I had any physical items (card, PIN, reader).
Did you not have to have a session with an advisor to open up the account?

[williamd]

I followed the link and opened online. No physical meeting or appointments.

[JDB]

williamd wrote:

I wasn’t aware that could be done, please explain how that is possible with no access to an online account.

As soon as my account was approved online it took me to my account where it gave my new account details and I was able to activate Avios Rewards etc.

[williamd]

JDB wrote:

williamd wrote:

I wasn’t aware that could be done, please explain how that is possible with no access to an online account.

As soon as my account was approved online it took me to my account where it gave my new account details and I was able to activate Avios Rewards etc.

It did not work like that for me. No idea why.

[jamesturk]

Spoke again to Barclays today. They’ve confirmed that for name/ address/ data inconsistencies between Barclays rewards and Barclaycard profiles, the 100,000 offer will still be honoured. They just reiterated the ‘4 month lock in’ rule. I’m going into branch tomorrow to have the details mirrored and profiles merged. Frustrating but light at the end of the tunnel at least!

[williamd]

App chat service, which is less than useless in main, tells me because I didn’t activate Avios rewards by 30 Nov I’m not eligible for 100K bonus. Lady on phone told me she thought I should be as the PIN issue was not my doing and she would contact Avios team then call me back. 2 days ago.

Whole thing appears to have been a shambles. Promo period was 3 Oct to 30 Nov. So if you opened a prem bank account on 30 Nov, assuming you already had Barclaycard Avios Plus, then you had to activate avios rewards on same day. Even though you need a debit card and pin number to setup online banking and there is no way on app or website to set this up that I saw.

They say I should have called. Nonsense, this offer is fundamentally flawed. Going back to original HFP post it says you had to apply for a bank account by 30 Nov, and if it then took Barclays weeks to sort, that was their issue, you’d still get bonus.

Confused doesn’t cover it.