Barclaycard Gold

Southend1

Hi All

I have had a Barclaycard for around 13 years. I haven't used it since approx 2006, but kept it just in case of emergencies.

Yesterday, out of the blue, I received in the post a Barclaycard Gold. My old card was not due to expire for a couple of years yet.

The letter said this was because they think Barclaycard Gold is more appropriate for my circumstances now. However, there are no differences or change to T&Cs over the old normal Barclaycard.

So my question is.... why have they sent me a new card? Is this just a marketing gimmick? I.e. they think I will feel "special" because I have been selected to receive a Gold card. Or is there a difference between the two? Do they really keep an eye on my circumstances/credit report to see which card is best for me?

I'm just curious to know really. Practically speaking, it won't make a difference to me as I only keep the card for unforeseen emergencies.

Thanks in advance for any answers.

InsideInsurance

1) Marketing, as you say, your gold, special, want to show off your new card so spend more etc

2) Retiring old cards - if the old card is no longer offered it is expensive having to maintain the stationary for it etc and therefore once the number of customers drop below the critical mass they are migrated to a current card type so they can lose the maintenance costs

3) Higher max limits etc - whilst your terms, limits etc havent changed the min/ max limits etc of different products may be different. If you were butting up against the max limit of your current product they could move you onto a higher one to give you more room to "grow"


What was your actual card? Looking on the Barclaycard website there is nothing simply called a Barclaycard any more, there is Initial, Freedom, Gold, Platinum, Premier etc. It could be a combination of 1 & 2 from what you say

Southend1

It was just a "Barclaycard" as far as I know. It never had any special name or sub-brand that I was aware of. Maybe it was replaced with Barclaycard Initial but they didn't want to give me that one as it sounds like the one you get when you first apply.

InsideInsurance

Things have changed in recent years.... not that I am that old anyway but "back in my day" everyone had their Natwest CC or Barclaycard CC. You'd know a few managers etc who had a Gold card. Platinum was almost unheard of for people to have and Black was literally unheard of for most people.

Fast forward 15 years and now Gold is the card for those with OK scores and Platinum is "only" requiring a £20k salary and a good history.

Barclaycard Initial is their sub prime offering and I'd argue that the original standard card would be split between Gold and Platinum. If you had a well managed account, no bad history but a low limit it would make sense to migrate you onto Gold

Southend1

Yes that makes sense, I think the limit is only about £2500.