Barclaycard - rang to close account & they gave me £50!

dw011

Hi, new to the forum but have been receiving Martin's weekly email for some time and swapping my banking & credit cards around to make sure I'm getting the best deals and taking advantage of any incentives.

I've been reviewing all my accounts again today, which led to me ringing up to close my Barclaycard World MasterCard account which I don't use any more (doing a bit of stoozing with a Tesco card instead). As expected I got the usual spiel with them trying to convince me to keep the account open and questioning why I wanted to close it.

I wasn't going to fall for it... until they said they'd stick £50 in my account at the next statement, no interest or charges.

It seemed silly to refuse a free £50... but once I've spent it I'll be ringing up to close the account again

Just thought I'd share this in case anyone else is in a position to take advantage as well.

YorkshireBoy

dw011 wrote: »

Barclaycard World MasterCard

Was this a replacement for an old Egg Money card?

And if so, how long had it been dormant prior to the closure request?

dw011

Yes, it was. Dormant since about March when I switched to Tesco

mrchagle

How long have you had the account?

thomasfaith

dw011 wrote: »

Yes, it was. Dormant since about March when I switched to Tesco

I wish I had had similar service! I phoned up Barclaycard because I noticed that I was paying far more as an APR than any of their current offers - being that I have had my account for 10 years since I was a poor student only qualifying for the highest rates and desperate enough to accept them!

I asked if I could change my account to a different one as I was paying over the odds - I have a good credit rating these days and it shouldn't have been a problem - or so I thought... I was told that I could not change between cards and was only permitted to do so if Barclays deemed to make the offer to me not if I requested it... very strange! I persisted and spoke to a couple of people all insisted that I could not change deals and had to live with my current one. I was mildly insulted and a bit fed up.

I phone Natwest (after checking deals on MSE of course) got 18 months interest free on transfers 6 months on purchases and a far better rate promised thereafter. All of that on a platinum card (not sure what the deal is with the colour is nor do I care too much)

Barclays have needlessly cost themselves quite a bit of cash... very confusing attitude to customers in my book!

YorkshireBoy

dw011 wrote: »

Yes, it was. Dormant since about March when I switched to Tesco

Hmmm...I've never used my EM replacement card (and still have a small +ve balance from way back). I prefer to slow-stooz instead of going for cashback, as it's better for my cashflow and allows me to do other things with the CC's money now, rather than wait a year for 1%.

Maybe I'll make a phone call?

mrchagle

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Hmmm...I've never used my EM replacement card (and still have a small +ve balance from way back). I prefer to slow-stooz instead of going for cashback, as it's better for my cashflow and allows me to do other things with the CC's money now, rather than wait a year for 1%.

Maybe I'll make a phone call?

Slow-stooz? What do you mean?

YorkshireBoy

mrchagle wrote: »

Slow-stooz? What do you mean?

0% on purchases, 'fast-stooz' being 0% on BTs...or even better 0% on MTs (money transfers) with MBNA et al).

mrchagle

I see. I in that case slow-stooz, 0% on new purchases, max the cards.. but stick the money into a high int account and take the interest. Currently using the Lloyds Vantage 4% ..

Never had the option to MT's from any card...

obay

I just paid my full and final account off with them today.. they gave me £3.82... ;-/

Jaxer

Same here when I called to close my Barclay Platinum Cashback card (the old Morgan Stanley one). I have a £6K limit on it (after declining a proposed increase to £6.5K a few months ago).

I haven't used it since June this year and now I have a combination of the Aqua cashback and Halifax Rewards card, I called them up to close it.

They offered £50 in recompense for past interest charges (no strings attached) and he also said I'd get a letter confirming my standard APR was going down to 12.9% from the 19.9% it was on before (although I never carry over purchases so that was irrelevant to me).

So, I've now got a £50 credit balance which I'll use and then call up to close next month. Seems a bit of a misguided marketing campaign (not that I'm complaining).