Barclays - Good news for them

[fourstardan]

I've got Barclays Blue rewards and have had for the last couple of years.

I receive this;

Barclays Blue Rewards is changing – and there’s good news for you....

Good news that they'll remove my 5 pound a month for two direct debits!

Utter shambles, has anyone got another bank doing similar perks as I think I'll move now (Been with them for 30 years!)

[NickZ24]

well its s buyers market.
New banks pop up. Before a long standing relation with a bank had its perks.
Nowadays you are just another customer.

[mikey_b]

I moved from Lloyds to Starling, and now get 3.25% interest on current account. Obviously it depends how much you keep in there, but it's more than a fiver a month for me.

Process was more seamless than I feared, in fact it just worked exactly as advertised. Opened the new account, made sure the card and app worked fine, and then used the Current Account Switch service to move everything over. I did pick a date that was a few days ahead of the next scheduled direct debit, but actually I needn't have worried. They even copied over all my saved payees from the Lloyds account, so I didn't have to set them all up again in the app.

Find a new account and just move, if you're not happy where you are.

[Phateuk]

I have a halifax account that pays £5/month, you need to either keep £5k in there or spend £500/month on debit card.

[Aiminghigh123]

I moved from Barclays 2 months ago after 22 years.
Moved to First Direct who gave me £175 for switching.
Signed up to regular saver which pays 7%. Ok I can only deposit £300 a month but I’m not losing.
Still got HSBC premier which is free and has ok perks. £500 interest free overdraft which I take full advantage of just because I see it as free cash.

I use Chase daily saver which pays like 5.1%.
Dump salary in then drip feed money out when needed, pay bills credit cards etc. I seem to get around £15-£30 a month in interest.

Nationwide offering £200 to switch to them.

Edited by Aiminghigh123 on Wednesday 19th June 17:23

[fourstardan]

I have seen a few account offerings but thinking about this I'll need to amend all the critical direct debits and other payment processes. Utter chaos.

[nyt]

fourstardan said:

I have seen a few account offerings but thinking about this I'll need to amend all the critical direct debits and other payment processes. Utter chaos.

Isn't that automatic now .. https://www.currentaccountswitch.co.uk/

[Aiminghigh123]

fourstardan said:

I have seen a few account offerings but thinking about this I'll need to amend all the critical direct debits and other payment processes. Utter chaos.

If you mean just switching accounts no it’s easy.

All the big lenders are signed up to current account switch.

When signing up as long as you go through the link that says switching they do everything for you.

All of my DD got transferred over on a set date. Went into FD app and has everything my Barclays had. All my payees, DD etc etc.

It was easier than ordering a Pizza on Deliveroo.

[fourstardan]

Time for a change then!

[lastofthev8s]

Assume they’ll still be charging the £5 a month fee then?

Looks like I’ll be finding another home for what I have in the saver account then from September.

[leef44]

Thank you for this. I haven't got the email yet. It seems specific to Premier banking. So if you have another account or joint account then you continue to get the rewards. Or am I mistaken (speed read the agreement)?

[lastofthev8s]

It’s twofold, Premier banking will no eligible for Blue Rewards (list of eligible accounts is in the link bellow) plus they’re removing all the rewards on Barclays Products from 4th September.

Not sure what ‘rewards’ are otherwise available to be gained.

£5 fee will remain so will be moving on just before the change as no mention of what actual rewards there will be.

https://www.barclays.co.uk/content/dam/documents/p...

[fourstardan]

lastofthev8s said:

It’s twofold, Premier banking will no eligible for Blue Rewards (list of eligible accounts is in the link bellow) plus they’re removing all the rewards on Barclays Products from 4th September.

Not sure what ‘rewards’ are otherwise available to be gained.

£5 fee will remain so will be moving on just before the change as no mention of what actual rewards there will be.

https://www.barclays.co.uk/content/dam/documents/p...

Its a bizarre notice/change, why not just say sorry we are pulling the product.

If anything they've actually made me realise what I am missing compared to other bank offerings.

[DanL]

lastofthev8s said:

It’s twofold, Premier banking will no eligible for Blue Rewards (list of eligible accounts is in the link bellow) plus they’re removing all the rewards on Barclays Products from 4th September.

Not sure what ‘rewards’ are otherwise available to be gained.

£5 fee will remain so will be moving on just before the change as no mention of what actual rewards there will be.

https://www.barclays.co.uk/content/dam/documents/p...

As a premier customer I’ll no longer be eligible for the rewards, but they’re also cancelling it for me so I don’t pay a fee. Instead they’re granting me access to the blue rewards accounts (such as the rainy day saver) as part of premier.

If you’re not a premier customer, this seems to suck somewhat. For me it makes sense - the only reason I have the blue rewards is to access their accounts, and I couldn’t understand why these weren’t just part of the offering with premier. Now they are, so it’s an anomaly that’s been resolved.

It was sort of nice to see £5 drop into the rewards account each month, but I can imagine they’re not making money on this offering.

[OMITN]

I’ve just got my email from them. I agree that it’s long and rambling and not very clear!

What seems to be the case is that as a Premier customer I can access the Blue Rewards benefits (such as they are) without paying the £5 fee.

The only attractive benefit is a free subscription to Apple TV+ which I’ve recently had to start paying for after 12 months free from Apple. So I might lose £5 a month but I can now reduce outgoings by £8.99 per month.

I know account switching is easy but I can’t be bothered….

[Al Gorithum]

Barclays are filth. They foreclosed on a mortgage I had with them, for no reason whatsoever. Unlucky for them I had the cash so just wrote a cheque, and tell them to FRO every time they come looking for business.

[fourstardan]

One wonders whether the Banks are preparing to weather upcoming storms with this sort of offer being taken away.

[WyrleyD]

I had been with them for over 25 years and had a "Premier" account that I opened after a meeting with the "relationship" manager, used to have regular catch-up meetings with him so that he could try and sell me more products/services. Anyway, as part of the account there were various insurances etc. in case I became unemployed and as it happened the company I was working for collapsed into bankruptcy and I was made redundant by the liquidators. Notified the relationship manager that I needed to claim on the redundancy facility and the next I knew my debit card had been frozen and access to my accounts blocked and he became uncontactable all of a sudden. I immediately closed my accounts and started to use my Nationwide bank account instead and it took a while but eventually got a cheque from Barclays for the balance of my accounts, all this was in the 1980's. They were a right pain to deal with after my father died and I had to liberate the balance from his account with them and have not set foot in their doors since then.

[DanL]

Al Gorithum said:

Barclays are filth. They foreclosed on a mortgage I had with them, for no reason whatsoever. Unlucky for them I had the cash so just wrote a cheque, and tell them to FRO every time they come looking for business.

Surely foreclosing for no reason is breach of contract?

[Tim330]

As a premier customer I have a rainy day saver and avios rewards, will I loose the rainy day saver from September? I can't make sense of the updated terms