Does anyone find Barclaycard Freedom (Rewards) to be a constantly moving goalpost?

2sides2everystory

I am beginning to get somewhat fed up with this scheme. My total accumulated Reward balance since the scheme started is less than £10.

I buy a quite a lot of fuel at Shell petrol stations (sometimes between £150 and £200 a month, and of the other participants in the scheme I also use Pret a Manger.

Is it really worth my while using a Barclaycard chasing the occasional weasly promotions organised by Shell and Barclaycard for example?

I think I should have left my Barclaycard at home and just used Amex Platinum Cashback as I do for almost evrything else.

I remember being frustrated by the initial very hit and miss implementation of the Barclaycard Freedom scheme. I gave up trying to find out if it had been improved. I guess I just hoped it would.

Apart from the rather weasly promotions I have noticed at Shell (first it involved a minimum £25 purchase, then most recently a minimum 40 litres per purchase to qualify), three things that were not good are:

1. The broken promise that the Reward Balance would always be easily seen at the card terminal at participating merchants. I think they totally over-promised this - I think it requires an investment in new terminals that some (most) merchants/franchisees were not willing to make.
2. The fact that franchises seem to have got in the way of full participation. I believe some (most?) Pret a Manger shops are franchised and many did not participate in Barclaycard Freedom.
3. The Barclaycard website that seems deliberately not to account Rewards properly. It is a new scheme so why can't we see all the transactions?? There was some glitch last year that caused them to fail to report where first few weeks Reward balances were earned but currently I cannot look back beyond part way into the February promotion Shell period. If I change the calendar start date to prior to 9th February 2010, the website throws me right out so I have to login again.

All in all, I feel I have been sucked in by promises of promotions of up to double and treble rewards and in actual fact the accumulated "reward" for me as someone who has tried to take part in promotions, is actually piffling.

The best transaction (I think - because I can't check back any further than the last half of February) looks like I did manage to nab 2% on just one tankful of diesel.

My latest transactions show I that I got 1% on a tankful in early April, but only 0.5% yesterday. I don't remember/understand how that should be so.

It would help to reconcile my Reward account if they at least marked the transactions with a link to the promotion in question.

Meantime, I think I will put my Barclaycard away, and at recent Shell prices I think I may start giving them a miss too :money:

rtho782

On the basis that I own a motorbike, and therefore a full tank is approx 13 litres, I find this borderline discriminatory!! :P

Saints2011

2sides2everystory wrote: »

I am beginning to get somewhat fed up with this scheme. My total accumulated Reward balance since the scheme started is less than £10.

I buy a quite a lot of fuel at Shell petrol stations (sometimes between £150 and £200 a month, and of the other participants in the scheme I also use Pret a Manger.

Is it really worth my while using a Barclaycard chasing the occasional weasly promotions organised by Shell and Barclaycard for example?

I think I should have left my Barclaycard at home and just used Amex Platinum Cashback as I do for almost evrything else.

I remember being frustrated by the initial very hit and miss implementation of the Barclaycard Freedom scheme. I gave up trying to find out if it had been improved. I guess I just hoped it would.


Apart from the rather weasly promotions I have noticed at Shell (first it involved a minimum £25 purchase, then most recently a minimum 40 litres per purchase to qualify), three things that were not good are:

1. The broken promise that the Reward Balance would always be easily seen at the card terminal at participating merchants. I think they totally over-promised this - I think it requires an investment in new terminals that some (most) merchants/franchisees were not willing to make.
2. The fact that franchises seem to have got in the way of full participation. I believe some (most?) Pret a Manger shops are franchised and many did not participate in Barclaycard Freedom.
3. The Barclaycard website that seems deliberately not to account Rewards properly. It is a new scheme so why can't we see all the transactions?? There was some glitch last year that caused them to fail to report where first few weeks Reward balances were earned but currently I cannot look back beyond part way into the February promotion Shell period. If I change the calendar start date to prior to 9th February 2010, the website throws me right out so I have to login again.

All in all, I feel I have been sucked in by promises of promotions of up to double and treble rewards and in actual fact the accumulated "reward" for me as someone who has tried to take part in promotions, is actually piffling.

The best transaction (I think - because I can't check back any further than the last half of February) looks like I did manage to nab 2% on just one tankful of diesel.

My latest transactions show I that I got 1% on a tankful in early April, but only 0.5% yesterday. I don't remember/understand how that should be so.

It would help to reconcile my Reward account if they at least marked the transactions with a link to the promotion in question.

Meantime, I think I will put my Barclaycard away, and at recent Shell prices I think I may start giving them a miss too :money:

Completely agree what a waste of time freedom is

Venusflytrap

I also have this card and spend minimally on it now that I have an Amex Nectar CC. In my opinion, it is only good to have for the wider acceptance of VISA, which isn't saying very much.

Though if you really looooove pizzas, Pizza Express is offering £5 reward money when you spend £40 in one seating.

chopper78

My Barclaycard is one of the former Morgan Stanley cashback cards, so I get a bit of cashback from that (I haven't worked out how Cashback is earned, it seems very random) - I haven't established what the Freedom rewards are though.

2sides2everystory

Chopper, if you get straightforward (sorry - random !) cashback anyway then I don't think your Barclaycard is one that qualifies for Freedom Rewards. You can check by logging in to the website and seeing if you have a tab for Barclaycard Freedom linked to your account. If you haven't, then you ain't missed much