Barclays Premier Account Blackmail?

Primrose

Just been advised by Barclays that from 9 November they're going to charge £17.50 for our premier account provided we have income of £75K or £50,000 in savings. Otherwise it will cost £25 p.m. or we'll have to transfer to an ordinary account.

If we go somewhere else, are there any other options which don't charge similar fees. We don't use any of the Premium facilities like overdrafts, etc.?

MoneySaverLog

If you don't use the facilities, why have it?

pinkdalek

Most high street banks do a packaged current account and they tend to offer similar services eg travel insurance, breakdown cover.

Have a look at Halifax's Ultimate Reward, costs £15 per month, however if your fund it with £1000 per month they give you a £5 reward back, so technically all the benefits for £10!

The main benefits on that one are Worldwide travel insurance, AA breakdown (inc home start), mobile phone insurance, card protection, Home Emergency cover and £300 free overdraft.

2sides2everystory

...or we'll have to transfer to an ordinary account.

You can do that immediately without affecting the account number i.e. with not a blind bit of difference to the working of your account apart from the interest rate charged on overdrafts. They can do it in moments just by altering a code on their computer record for your account. And they really won't treat you any differently after they have changed the account type on their computer except that the next staff member you speak to might constantly be trying to upgrade it again every time you call or visit the branch

It really is just a question of asking yourself why on earth were you ever paying the £17.50 in the first place.

Hopefully you had a good reason once ... maybe it was the fact that the breakdown cover included European Breakdown, or maybe because you ski every year in North America? Maybe it was the Gadget Insurance you liked or the use of VIP lounges at airports? Please do not however tell us you took Premier Life to get a shiney stylish black debit card :rotfl:

If you really need some of those benefits, you can apply the same reasoning again to consider downgrading to one of their accounts in between Premier and Ordinary, or starting a new account with someone else to run alongside your existing main (downgraded to ordinary) account. There's no definite rule that says you have to use a fee paying account for anything much. It might simply just be worth flushing it through each month with a standing order from your main account and another one back again. The new bank might even decide you are a valued customer on the basis of such account "turnover" and the old bank might even count the new money coming in each month as extra turnover that qualifies you for the special £17.50 Premier rate next year

Currently I am using the benefits of an HSBC Advance account, but only because they had a discounted deal earlier this year, the deal also qualified me for their 8% or 10% regular saver deal (I forget which) and the Worldwide travel cover and the UK only breakdown cover suited me this year. I expect I shall downgrade it again next year.

Horses for courses ... but don't be afraid to walk if you get thrown by it all

mikesten

Just out of curiosity, and tell me to mind my own business, but how much have you been paying monthly for your Barclays Premier Account? I pay £17.50, and get good usage out of the benefits associated with the account.

As a previous poster said, why pay for benefits you don't use?

Primrose

Well, actually we have never paid a penny for having a Barclays Premier Account (two actually) so I supposed we shouldn't be complaining. Some years ago they simply decided to upgrade us from Ordinary accounts to Premier. I don't think they actually ever told us about it. We just noticed that we had a different type of Account Heading on our bank statements.

mikesten

Do have a debit card that is black and says Premier on it?

Chorlie

Barclays do a standard A/c without any benefits (Travel Insurance, Breakdown Cover, Mobile Insurance etc) which has no monthly fee, but doesn't have a free Overdraft.

Than there is a Additions Active which has a £15 a month fee and comes with Travel Insurance, European Breakdown Cover, Mobile Insurance, Gadget Insurance, Will Writing, Card Protection etc

And lastly there is the Premier Life A/c with a fee of £25 a month, which offer all the same as Additions Active but with a higher age limit and winter sports on the Travel Insurance, plus VIP Airport Lounge Access, Stockbrokers, Lifestyle Manager and a Black Debit Card.


If you don't use any of the benefits than ask for you A/c to be downgraded to a standard A/c, if you use some than look at the Additions or as others have said look at other Banks, Lloyds have a Silver A/c at £7.95 with European Travel Insurance or the Halifax one for £15

2sides2everystory

Primrose, you may find that you have actually very little benefit in real terms for your zero fee "Premier" tag. It is more or less just an account title you've got. It is not the fee paying "Premier Life" account they have been flogging for maybe 5 years and which they have re-introduced to you and written to you about wrapped up by their latest moving of the goalposts with regard to "Premier" eligibility, and it is not some £10 a month Premier (no "Life") alternative they may have introduced confusingly in the same letter.

That "Premier" message has been messed about with for years and sometimes even the staff have been unable to identify what the words mean in the title on the bank statement. I had a gold Premier card once which had an annual fee offset by decent annual travel insurance. It went with the current account but was not a debit card nor a credit card. It was a charge card a bit like an old Amex account. Then they downgraded the colour a bit to a funny orange colour and converted it into a kind of Barclaycard but it wasn't. The annual fee went up. Branch staff eventually hadn't a clue what it was and I cancelled it.

I actually think I may have received the same letter as you. I gave it only glancing attention. I have no intention of paying them any fee right now and they can't make me unless I agree to a new contract - I think my letter went into the pile that moves fastest to the bin I might dig it out and have a better look just out of curiosity since I am now concerned that they may be trying a bit of cheeky inertia selling. I am sure they wouldn't dare, eh? :eek:

Primrose

Yes, we have a black Premier debit card for both accounts.

I agree with 2sides2every story that the whole classification of this type of account has become very confusing, and we have free overdrafts on both accounts which we've never used, and hopefully are not likely to need in the future. So as we no longer quality under their new criteria, we're not going to pay £25 after Nov 9th for the privilege of getting nothing. I think we'll just downgrade to an ordinary account, although what an 'ordinary' account is now, I'm beginning to wonder. The banks have wrapped everything up with so much smoke and mirrors that even if we go into the branch to discuss options I'm not confident the staff in there will be any the wiser than we are.

grizzly1911

There is absolutely no reason you can't have a "basic" account that still allows you the same basic services you already use at no cost.

If you had the need for an overdraft I am sure you would still get one at a "fair" price.

On the fee paying accounts a number of the perks have limitations should you need to "claim". For travel insurance there are many online services that will undercut them anyway.

Providing your account is run well I am sure you will notice little if any difference in service for day to day transactions.

Premier was/is a branding exercise. It was originally set up to target "high" net worth cutomers to be marketed premium services with the benefit of a named point of contact and a bit of glue to sort out processing issues from the standard service.

Yes you can get extra attention but if you don't need it why pay for it. I am sure if you went in looking to invest more than £50k or ask for a substantial loan/overdraft then they would still fall over themselves.