Barclays Blue Reward no longer taxed

ColdIron · 14 November 2016 at 5:15PM

The Barclays Reward scheme pays you £7 per month less a fee of £3 if you satisfied the prerequisites of 2 direct debits and £800 paid in a month

This gave you £4 a month or £48 a year

However it was a particularly poor deal as tax was applied to the £7 and not the £4 benefit so for most people this meant :
£7 * 0.8 = £5.60 minus the £3 fee = £2.60 or £31.20 a year

It was especially unrewarding for higher rate taxpayers :
£7 * 0.6 = £4.20 minus the £3 fee = £1.20 or £14.40 a year

To rub salt into the wound it was paid gross so accountable to HMRC and as it was a reward and not Savings Income could not be covered by the Personal Savings Allowance

Barclays have now classified it as cashback so it is no longer subject to tax. Still not great but better than it was

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-banking/savings/barclays-customer--you-can-now-get-48-per-year-tax-free/