If i threaten to close account.

Andybez38

If i threaten to close my account, is it the norm to be passed on to another dept offering you some sort of deal to stay with them?. The reason i ask is, im thinking of closing my barclaycard account due to the higher intrest rate 19.9%. Twice i have e mailed telling im not happy with that rate and could they reduce it. Twice i have had a reply telling me it has gone to a different dept for them to review the intrest. And yes twice i've had no reply from them or lower intrest rate offered. Im now thinking of phoning them directly to close my account. Will they offer a better rate do you think. Has anyone done this and been succsessfull. :rolleyes:

dwsjarcmcd

Andy,
Not with Barclaycard but with Alliance & Leicester (MBNA) I have. Actually I did cancel it but they offered me free balance transfers, lower rate etc. Still shut it cause don't need it. I guess it will also depend on your payment history whether they offer this type of retention tactic

JasonW_2

If you do it in a nice way you get treated better and have more chance of success. They don't want a pain in the !!!!!! customer now do they? If you have kept your account in good order with no missed payments, over limits etc then you have more chance. I wrote to tesco (RBS) and BOS this time last year and got 0% for 9 months on both my cards.

Also, the other day I got my statement in from BOS, I was on 11.9% and they were increasing it to 13.5% so I called them up, was really nice about it. Truth be told I'm looking to cancel one card anyway, so would have been no loss if they had said tought. I was passed through to retentions, even though I never mentioned cancelling, and he said I would be expempt from the increase, but would also lower it to 9.9% which is the lowest standard APR for their card anyway. Nice result indeed

J

mountainofdebt

by threatening to close my account.

If you have another card why not transfer the Barclaycard balance to it and when that's completed then transfer it back to Barclaycard at 6.9%?

Things to check are:

1) that there are no fees attached when you transfer the money away from Barclaycard (although do the maths do see if it would be still worth doing even if there were)

2) The 6.9% offer is still on - you can check on the Barclaycard web site and even do the transfer online as well.

3) Don't spend on the Barclaycard once the trasnfer has been completed.

Clariman

Hi Andy

If you are going to negotiate a better rate, you need to strengthen your negotiating position. Threatening to close your account is fine, but if they see that you have a hefty balance sitting on it (a) they will think that you still need the credit, so they have you over a barrel and (b) why would they give away money that they think they can earn from you ?

To strengthen your negotiating position, pay off your card balance - either using savings or by doing a BT to another card and then go back to threaten closure. At that point they can see that you could walk away then and there and you are more likely to be taken seriously.

Clariman

empfun

Andybez38, I called to close this week the customer service rep wasn't very experienced and she was obviously reading from a script on the closing procedure quite probably for the first time. She asked why I was closing, I said it lacked benefits of other cards. She then instructed me to destroy the card and that was it. Got a letter in the post confirming closure and opportunity to re-new the card.

mary

Clariman wrote:

To strengthen your negotiating position, pay off your card balance - either using savings or by doing a BT to another card and then go back to threaten closure. At that point they can see that you could walk away then and there and you are more likely to be taken seriously.

Clariman

I have had probably 8/9 cards over the last 1-2 years, have always paid them off with savings, then phoned up to cancel the cards, but never have had a repeat of 0%. They never make any money out of me, but of course they won't know if they will in the future. I was offered a rate of maybe 3.9% or something similar once, but I said I was only interested in a repeat of 0%, with tongue in cheek. I'm always polite and jovial about my requests, don't go in all guns blazing. I do get the impression that other folk get repeats, but don't honestly know what if anything I'm doing wrong

JasonW_2

I ALWAYS write to them, I never ask on the phone. At least with a letter you can put your concerns down, and back up what you are saying, and then ask. At least they have time to consider it and get back to you. Telephone calls are mostly recorded, but so what in this case when asking for that, they aren't going to do anything about saying no. At least with a letter, they have to reply and they are representing the bank, so have to try and keep customers happy. It's pure speculation, but I've had 0% on every card I've asked for by letter. Have never tried the phone, so it might be coincidence, the bank concerned, or the person replying. To be honest I'm not bothered, as its worked

I never say give me 0% or I am leaving though, if I was them I'd say goodbye then

J

gamma

I phoned barclaycard last week telling them I would like to close the account, reasons being, no more nectar and withdrawl of the extended warranty.

They offered me £30 in high street vouchers and 12.9 % reduced interest from 19.9% for the life of the card.

They were extremely nice and I would now def stay with them as they are very competitive with their rates. for me anyway

creditcardking_2

I tried this with the Halifax, they said thats your account all closed, 2 seconds after I said I was wanting to close it. I then had to ring back to open the account again and pretend I had made a mistake by closing it.

Littlemiss-lotsofdebt

I rang Barclaycard a few months ago, was paying scarily high APR and asked whether they could reduce the APR. They slashed it to 12.9% there and then, and shortly afterwards I cancelled my PPI. However, I did this the other way round with Virgin and they said they could not reduce my current APR - it's 13.9, so maybe if you're planning on doing the two things, it might be better to ask them to reduce the APR first. After all, they're losing money and you're gaining I suppose!!!