Barclays Blue Rewards direct debits

gentlewoman

Hi, I have an account with Barclays and also signed up for Blue Rewards a while ago. Barclays used to be my main bills account but I now use HSBC Advance as my main bank account, and most of my direct debits are on that one. I left 3 direct debits on the Barclays account, the problem is that 2 of those are direct debits for credit cards which have a £0 balance so no payment is actually taken each month. Does that matter? The Blue rewards program has a condition - to have 2 direct debits for the account. The direct debits are active it's just that the credit cards are at 0 balance so there is no payment being taken, well not regularly anyway.

Thanks.

polymaff

gentlewoman wrote: »

Hi, I have an account with Barclays and also signed up for Blue Rewards a while ago. Barclays used to be my main bills account but I now use HSBC Advance as my main bank account, and most of my direct debits are on that one. I left 3 direct debits on the Barclays account, the problem is that 2 of those are direct debits for credit cards which have a £0 balance so no payment is actually taken each month. Does that matter? The Blue rewards program has a condition - to have 2 direct debits for the account. The direct debits are active it's just that the credit cards are at 0 balance so there is no payment being taken, well not regularly anyway.

Thanks.

Open a Tesco Internet Saver and set up a monthly payment to it from the Barclays account. It will be collected by Direct Debit.

eskbanker

gentlewoman wrote: »

I left 3 direct debits on the Barclays account, the problem is that 2 of those are direct debits for credit cards which have a £0 balance so no payment is actually taken each month. Does that matter? The Blue rewards program has a condition - to have 2 direct debits for the account. The direct debits are active it's just that the credit cards are at 0 balance so there is no payment being taken, well not regularly anyway.

Yes, it matters, the condition is that at least two DDs must pay out each month, so occasional CC ones won't help for this.

See this thread for ideas about DDs that allow compliance with conditions like this: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5126573

planteria

i bought a lottery ticket using my MBNA card this afternoon, for this purpose gentlewoman:A

gentlewoman

Thank you all. Looks like I will have to move some direct debits back to Barclays, will move Sky and Vodafone, but for this month it might be too late and I might not get the reward from Barclays.

grumbler

What's wrong with Tesco?
You can get 3% cashback on Sky and Voda with Santander 123.

polymaff

Why did I bother?

gentlewoman

@polymaff and @grumbler: thank you! but I don't like opening accounts I don't actually need/use. It complicates my life

I don't mind moving Sky and Vodafone back to Barclays, they are direct debits but they're the only ones that are not fixed amounts, so it's actually better for me for money management - all bills/direct debits with fixed amounts are on HSBC Advance, and all spending and variable direct debits (Sky, Voda, credit card ones) would be on Barclays (nb. on Barclays I have fee/interest-free ovedraft up to £300 which I occasionally dip into).

polymaff

gentlewoman wrote: »

@polymaff and @grumbler: thank you! but I don't like opening accounts I don't actually need/use. It complicates my life ... on Barclays I have fee/interest-free ovedraft up to £300 which I occasionally dip into).

MSE is about money saving. Saving money requires effort - and the Blue Reward account feature probably requires more effort per £ earned than any other.

Your "fee-free" overdraft account has fees of at least £78 per annum?

gentlewoman

Thank you, but I had the Barclays account (and Barclays contents insurance) for many years (it's my oldest account in the UK) and it was very easy to sign up for the Blue Reward.

Effectively I pay Barclays £8.5 per month (£6.5+£3+£9-£7-£3). For this, I get home contents insurance, mobile phone insurance (which I claimed for), tablet insurance, and a fee-free overdraft. I think it's a good deal but then of course, I might be wrong :-)

polymaff

gentlewoman wrote: »

Thank you, but I had the Barclays account (and Barclays contents insurance) for many years (it's my oldest account in the UK) and it was very easy to sign up for the Blue Reward.

Effectively I pay Barclays £8.5 per month (£6.5+£3+£9-£7-£3). For this, I get home contents insurance, mobile phone insurance (which I claimed for), tablet insurance, and a fee-free overdraft. I think it's a good deal but then of course, I might be wrong :-)

OK, it is just that you seemed to be stressed by the (unexepected? complexity of the) DD requirement. Grumbler and I offered a complete solution - not a zero-effort one. The latter rarely exists. Barclays have, no doubt, factored into their strategy that people will not make the effort to do all that is necessary to satisfy Blue Reward payment requirements - yielding an extra £3 per month to their coffers.

Don't forget that that £7 is income paid gross and so is liable to declaration and, possibly, tax. Another complication for you to address.

Truly, there is no such thing as a free lunch