MSE News: Barclaycard Freedom scheme to be scrapped

Abetorius

udydudy wrote: »

Were you morgan stanley i24 customer? this used to be(and still is) a card with an annual fee and 1% Cashback. the freedom reward change has nothing to do with this as per as I know. A colleague has the same card and his cashback has not changed.

Wasn't an i24 one no, it was a black card 1% cash back no anual fee.

Froggitt wrote:

It reminded me of the reward scheme TSB had about thirty years ago......toasters, kettles etc.

The Trust Card, my mother still has hers

TadleyBaggie wrote:

You are mistaken, I still get a monthly cashback figure on my online statement in a section called "Your Cashback". The Freedom award shows up on the summary page and in my case hasn't changed for at least a year.

And now suspiciously my cash back section has returned to my online statement. Oh well, if this truly is unaffected then I'll keep plodding on with the card, until the next time it calls me on my mobile at 3 in the morning to verify a recurring charge that I've paid every month for the last 6 months... yeah, really.

chris-j

callum9999 wrote: »

Ah, in that case you lose the cashback. And as I said above, Barclays have absolutely zero obligation to continue offering cashback so are doing nothing wrong (legally).

You can either close it down, or hang on for a few months to see if their replacement is going to be any good.

My email suggests spending by 26th July but then adds that if you have not spent money by then it will be credited to your account by end of September.

simonhunter87

i thought they might scrap this scheme seeing as barclaycard are keen on contactless and seem to be trying to do away with cards yet this system requires chip and pin machines - doesnt work with contactless. im very happy about this. i didnt particularly look at the scheme but i had earnt some points. now this will just be credited to my statement and pay off some of my bill. much better than me having to shop in particular shops.

gglaze

Hi guys, I posted on the other thread but I'll post on this one too. I have 2 barclaycards, and I've received this email notice for both of them now. One is a straight up Barclaycard which I had for a few years, and converted to Barclaycard Onecard or whatever it is called, the one that incorporates an Oyster pass as well; the other was the old (black) Morgan Stanley card, which was then briefly "GoldFish", and then "Barclaycard Cashback" or Rewards or whatever it is.

From reading what various people have on here, I deduce that my Barclaycard Cashback (the old black Morgan Stanley one) should be getting 1% cashback on my spending (at least until these changes are in effect next month). Is that across the board spending, or is it restricted to only some spending? I have never really had the time to look into it, but although I spend 1K or more consistently every month on this card. I can see on my latest statement a "reward balance" of £0.64, which seems quite low to me if I'm spending 1K per month or more. Is this "reward balance" separate from the actual cashback? Or am I not actually getting the cashback I should get, or that everyone else is getting? I really don't get it. Since it's already highly confusing, I'm not too stressed about the change to terms. But I can't help feeling I'm missing out somehow..

bob_a_builder

Seems to me "2sides2everystory" has it right to my understanding (as an ex Goldfish cardholder myself)

"Before we can launch our new programmes, we need to make some changes that will impact how you earn and redeem Freedom Reward Money today."

Why does it have a "use 'em or lose em' ultimatum re the existing points balance - they clearly could could just transfer them to the new scheme or pay a cash value but no they prefer to monitise them for their benefit not the card holder.

Not that the current redemption possibilities are much use to normal people - unlike the original Goldfish scheme.

As someone else said, let me donate them to charity - I'd rather that than be 'robbed' by Barclaycard

As a Goldfish'er I never chose to be a Barclay card customer in the 1st place , but now seems a good time to actively chose not be one

gglaze

Is the "points" everyone is talking about the same as this £0.64 "rewards balance" I can see when I log in to my account? Does everyone else have such a ridiculously small balance, or have I missed something?

TadleyBaggie

I still think a number of posters on this thread are confusing "Cashback" and "Rewards", they show up as different totals on my account. My Cashback amount gets added to every month (not by 1% of my spending however). My Rewards balance sits at £3 odd and has done for at least 18 months when is that last time I used the card at a participating retailer.

chris-j

2sides2everystory, you have real anger about Barclaycard but despite this you have had 4 of them and are not interested in the topic of this thread yet you have the longest posts on it

I agree that the wording is terrible and on reading it you are likely to think they are just going to steal the rewards but I have pasted the key info from my Email below -
As we move forward with these programmes you will no longer be able to earn Reward Money after 21 June 2012 and you will have until 26 July 2012 to redeem any you've saved up.
Currently, you have £21.27 worth of Reward Money. This includes all Reward Money balances on any authorised user cards you may have on your account.
If you don't redeem your Reward Money by 26 July, don't worry - we'll credit the outstanding balance to your Barclaycard by the end of September 2012. This means you won't lose out on the value of qthe Reward Money you will have earned.

Shame they don't offer anger management sessions with the rewards

chris-j

Good for you but the thread was about Freedom, not the other cashback schemes and you stated that you honestly don't care.
I think Barclays are completely useless in respect of Freedom Scheme, they clearly hoped retailers would sign up in droves and it didn't happen. I am certainly not here to smooth out anything, but as this thread was about freedom points and Barclaycard email was written in a way to annoy customers, I thought it worthwhile to point out that those with freedom rewards will finally get their money later in the year.
I think you on the other hand almost hijacked the thread to vent about Barclays.
As you say, each to his own.

izools

Abetorius wrote: »

Not wrong, but certainly a grey area. Since I didn't at any point take a service with Barclaycard, they bought my custom from another company and are now ceasing to support the service that they bought after telling me that they would continue to support it.
It's just another in a long chain of issues I have with Barclaycard, had they not upheld the cashback when buying out goldfish I would have jumped ship then.

You had / have the choice to stop using the product at any time. Non one is forcing you to keep the Barclaycard.

Besides which, there are much better products on the market now anyway. Santander 123 current account / credit card, Capital One Aspire World, AMEX Platinum, Creation Cashback, all of these offer better deals that you will have been getting from Morgan Stanley.

Just take advantage of what's on the market.

Same as you would with any other utility. If your energy or telephony provider change their tarriff, you change to a better value provider. Same applies here. Simples