Switching to a Barclays current account

[Kyo]

I am considering opening a Barclays current account to earn 1,500 Avios points monthly. I already hold a Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card so have already received the 25,000 Avios points sign up bonus around a year ago.

I note that “New Barclays Premier Banking or personal Barclays Wealth customers will receive a 25,000 Avios joining bonus. To receive this, you’ll need to move your existing current account to Barclays via the Current Account Switching Service, within three months of joining Barclays Avios Rewards. Existing Barclays customers will receive a one-off bonus of 2,500 Avios when they join Barclays Avios Rewards.”

On their application form there is the question around whether I am an existing Barclays customer. I don’t bank with Barclays but have a credit card, so does that mean I qualify as a new customer which would allow me 25,000 Avios points, or an existing customer which would allow me 2,500 Avios points?

[AndrewT]

I think in that context you are an existing Barclays customer, but would still be a new Barclays Premier Banking customer as the latter relates to a current account. The former is still important though to ensure the two are logically connected to you as a single customer, as that is what gets the £5 reduction off the £20 / month Avios Plus card fee.

The 2500 bonus is for existing current account holders who activate Avios Rewards on an existing account.

[Kyo]

Thanks for your speedy response AndrewT. I wasn’t aware of the £5 reduction in the £20 / month credit card fee. I’ll sign up on their website and “trust the process”.

Another question, would my salary need to be paid into the current account to qualify, or would depositing/withdrawing this amount regularly suffice?

[CyberMan]

Agree with AndrewT, technically speaking, Barclays and Barclaycard are two separate entities, the latter only offering lending products. As long as you don’t hold any retail products with Barclays (Current/Savings accounts, mortgages, etc) you should be fine provided you haven’t had a premier account with them in the past.

Re the salary, there doesn’t seem to be any mention of where it needs to come from/how much needs to stay in there in the T&Cs so you can likely just argue it with them if they have a problem with it.

[Kyo]

I’m trying to apply for the account now, but seem to have trouble with the id check question around previous bank accounts. In my case, choosing the bank account that was opened within a certain date range None of the choices (typically big banks) appear to apply to me, unless the bank I’m using is actually hiding behind these bigger banks. I’ve got about 5-6 bank accounts open, most of them I should close off. I’ve checked my emails to see what date I opened an account with these banks, which didn’t help at all. So I’ve selected the none of the above option and the online application form returns an unhelpful error message.

Has anyone got a good way of getting around this bit, e.g. maybe knowing which of my banks that I use may correlate to any of the larger banks. For context, the bank accounts I use most often are HSBC (current account), Chip (savings account) and Zopa (cash ISA), with others maintaining a zero balance.

[PIL]

They use credit agencies for such info. Signing up to clearscore should be helpful in answering what you opened and when

[Kyo]

Thanks PIL. I have signed up to Clearscore. Happy to see my good credit rating too!