Total nightmare with Barclaycard Avios

[FlyingBear]

I just got the Barclaycard Avios credit card but have now wasted about 4 hours trying to get it to link to my Avios account. Barclays support are absolutely shocking.

The issue I have is that the linking process never completes – at the end it’s supposed to go back to the app but tapping on the button has no effect. The app is then in a sort of half-linked limbo state where it does show the BAEC membership number and a static balance as of that point in time, but also keeps insisting that I need to link it.

I raised this with them 3 weeks ago and after going through the really annoying automated system eventually managed a chat with an actual person. It is massively frustrating to communicate with them this way because they have made the ridiculous decision to override the phone’s standard keyboard and use their own rubbish version instead. This means that there is no autocorrect so you end up having to type everything two or three times before it resembles coherent English. After getting me to do all the usual messing about reinstalling the app etc (which involves re-registering security details and stuff) they told me they would escalate the issue and I would hear back within 3 days.

Three weeks later, I still haven’t heard back and so I try to contact them via the app again – but having to start again from scratch with the automated joking around was too much to face so I decide to call them. I got a nice Indian-sounding chap who after spending a good while barking up wrong trees and telling me about things that were in no way related to my issue, finally told me that the “Barclaycard” app is deprecated and no longer in use (!!) and I should be using the “Barclays Mobile Banking” app instead. I double confirmed this with him as it does not say in the app or on the app store page that there is any problem with using the Barclaycard app. So I finish the call, uninstall the Barclaycard app and go through the whole set up process with this other app. After all that, the issue is still exactly the same here as well.

Then another bod pops up on the online messaging and offers me some more help so I tell him the latest. He says that all of the above is wrong and I need to switch back to the “Barclaycard” app. At this point I’m really quite dissatisfied with the experience and ask him politely to log this. Again I go about reinstalling the other app and re-registering etc, etc, which this time requires me to scan my driving license and record a video to prove my identity and then wait about half an hour for them to manually check all this. And at the end – of course – the symptoms remain exactly as they have been all along.

They are still asking me to follow the same instructions again and again, which have the same result – the link at the end of the process does not open the Barclaycard app and so it does not complete the linking properly.

So I’m expecting about 6k Avios in respect of my first month’s spending and the welcome bonus to be credited to my BAEC account within the next couple of days – I am not particularly optimistic that this will work!

[aq.1988]

I’ve had the Barclaycard for a couple of years now, and the link to BAEC in the app had worked fine up until a few months ago. But, the avios had been transferring fine from the card and Premier account all those months, up until November, when the avios from my card spend failed to transfer. But, they have posted today fine.

[JDB]

@FlyingBear – do you actually need the Barclays/Barclaycard app to be linked to BA? It doesn’t really serve any particular purpose and it isn’t necessary for the monthly Avios sweep from Barclays to BA. When I first got the Barclays Avios card, they just used my BAEC number to effect the transfer. At some subsequent date I did successfully link the accounts but for some reason they unlinked themselves a while back, I haven’t done anything about it and there has been no interruption to receiving the Avios in my BAEC account.

I was just able to link the accounts again, so there doesn’t appear to be a generalised issue. Maybe there is a slight name or space mismatch or similar?

[FlyingBear]

Thanks for the suggestions folks. I guess I don’t really need to see my up to date Avios balance in the Barclaycard app, as long as my points are getting transferred successfully. We will see whether they land tomorrow – fingers crossed!

[NorthernLass]

Every time I log into the app it says I need to link to my avios account. Like @JDB it hasn’t affected the monthly transfer of avios. I have re-linked it and it does update the avios balance, but the message is still there afterwards.

It’s been messy since the start but as long as I get the avios and upgrade voucher it’s all good!

[Rui N.]

Mine was linked for a while (didn’t have any trouble linking) but the link was broken sometime ago. Didn’t bother linking again, all Avios come just fine.

A funny thing on my BC app is that the statements that show on the app don’t update correctly. Only statements on the app are from my previous BC Visa that I had a long time ago, not the ones for my current BC Avios+. On the website statements are all there just fine.

[bobthebuilder]

JDB wrote:

@FlyingBear – do you actually need the Barclays/Barclaycard app to be linked to BA? It doesn’t really serve any particular purpose and it isn’t necessary for the monthly Avios sweep from Barclays to BA.

Agree. I have had issues with this linking and unlinking several times over the years, but does not impact me actually receiving the Avios in my BA account.

[marks7389]

Never bothered linking ours. Oddly, my wife’s seems to show a negative pending Avios transfer balance (even when nothing has been refunded), but the Avios still transfer across correctly every month based on the value of the transactions.

[FlyingBear]

Thankfully, the Avios have landed in my account today so I am happy. It is good to know I am not alone – and can stop worrying about it being linked in the app now!

[Gosia44]

FlyingBear wrote:

Thankfully, the Avios have landed in my account today so I am happy. It is good to know I am not alone – and can stop worrying about it being linked in the app now!

Take a look in the Barclaycard section of the forum. You are definitely not alone.

[JDB]

@Gosia44 – I know you had an issue you reported here last month, but the OP was chasing the ability to see their Avios balance in the Barclays app, so of little importance.

It’s difficult to know whether both of your issues related to Barclays or BA. Interestingly both are planning to migrate to brand new platforms next year, both replacing legacy systems (some originating from acquisitions) held together by sellotape and an army of contractors. We will see how those transitions work out.

When Barclays started offering free Apple TV+ earlier this year, the sign up process on both sides was remarkably quick and slick!

[CJD]

It’s probably a Barclays issue, my Avios account appears to have been de-linked a couple of months ago so I don’t have an up to date balance in the app.

[Gosia44]

The failed avios transfer is definitely a Barclays issue. I received a letter from Barclays in response to my complaint saying “our internal team have identified the issue (…) and a fix has been implemented”.

I have been unable to link the app since September but that does not bother me as long as the avios arrive on time.

[JDB]

CJD wrote:

It’s probably a Barclays issue, my Avios account appears to have been de-linked a couple of months ago so I don’t have an up to date balance in the app.

Not sure there’s any evidence either way, but with two legacy organisations attempting to transmit data to each other via a patchwork of legacy BArclays IT systems, what could possibly go wrong?