Barclays Blue Rewards fee increasing from £3 to £4

fiat_lux

Just got an email from Barclays.

Dear Mrs X,

Thanks for being a valued customer and member of Barclays Blue Rewards. Since its launch 4 years ago, we’ve introduced new cash rewards for taking out more products with us, such as Life Insurance, and have kept the fee the same.

We’re also planning to add even more benefits to Blue Rewards very soon, including helping customers feel more rewarded for their savings. More details will be available nearer the time.

As a result, the monthly fee you pay for Blue Rewards is increasing from £3 to £4, and will apply from 2nd August 2019.

A reminder of the cash rewards available to you each month

Provided you meet the current eligibility criteria of having £800 paid into your Barclays current account and pay the £4 fee from the same account each month, you could earn the following monthly rewards:
• Loyalty Reward - £3.50 for each of your first 2 direct debits paid from your nominated current account.
• Mortgage Loyalty Reward - £5 for a residential mortgage held with us.
• Home Insurance Loyalty Reward - £3 for a combined Building & Contents policy or £1 for standalone Building or Contents, when you take out or renew your policy.
• Life Insurance Loyalty Reward – £1.50 when you take out Life Insurance, and £5 if you opt for Life Insurance with Critical Illness cover, paid for 12 months.
• 1% Enhanced Cashback – As a Barclays customer, you already have access to cashback offers, but with Blue, you get an extra 1% cashback.
• Other rewards are available. Please visit barclays.co.uk/bluerewards to find out more.

What you need to do

You don’t have to do anything to continue to benefit from Blue Rewards and all of your monthly cash rewards will continue to be paid into your Rewards Wallet. You’ll see the fee change in your August statement.

Should you decide you no longer wish to be part of Blue Rewards you can opt out free of charge, at any time, in online banking, through your banking app in the Your Rewards section or in a branch.

Your Barclays Team

colsten

I just noticed, I never got £3.50 each for my first 2 DDs on this account. Has anyone else got theirs?

Zanderman

colsten wrote: »

I just noticed, I never got £3.50 each for my first 2 DDs on this account. Has anyone else got theirs?

You mean this month? The £7 that has been arriving mid-month has, reportedly, been late for many this month. I think that's the extra £7 (from the doubling offer last year) or maybe it's the basic £7 and it's the extra one that appears at the start of the month, but whichever it is some have been delayed. Mrs Z-man's appeared today, just in time to move it into the main account before it's switched to Santander in a couple of days time.

There's a thread discussing it - a fairly recent one.

Edit: Correction - there's discussion on the tail-end of the old thread at https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5837228/mse-news-barclays-offers-switchers-double-rewards-for-a-year&page=15

colsten

No, I meant ever. But ignore me, I am having a very, very bad day. I thought I'd get £7 a month just for having the account, and then another 2 x £3.50 for having 2 DDs. I always did get the £7/mth, without fail..... DOH.

Perhaps I should switch this account to Santander, too. I can always open another Barclays again later.

Zanderman

Ah, I see, or perhaps I don't!?

The deal was £3.50 each for the first 2 DDs, paid as £7. Plus an extra £7 each month (if you had the 2 DDs) for 12 months if you switched in during the offer a year ago. More if you had other Barclays products. But it was never £7 just for having the account (iirc - happy to be corrected).

But if you did have 2 DDs, were getting the £7 and did switch in at the right time, you should have had the £7 doubled each month since last May/June but with that doubling expiring soon..

Edit: PS hope your day gets better soon, the sun's shining! (well, it is here)

PRAISETHESUN

IMO if you're an existing customer and already meet the requirements then its obviously a no-brainer for some free extra cash, but outside of that the effort for an extra £36/year is almost gone at that point. Thanks OP for the heads up - it'll likely get reported in a MSE news thing at some point soon I'd imagine though

quirkydeptless

I switched during the offer period and have 2 DD which earn £7 per month each - total £14, for a £3 fee, so £11 a month.


This will drop to £7 total (after my switch offer ends), so with a £4 fee, that's down to £3 a month :-(


I'm willing to stick with Halifax for £2 a month, so I'll be sticking with this. I also wonder if the email is alluding to adding interest on the current account?


I think it's a cunning use by Barclays to get me to log in twice a month to transfer from my Rewards account, and then to something that earns interest.


That being said, I have found Barclays customer service excellent, and they have a very swanky branch near me which feels like a Hotel lobby!

colsten

£36 buys a lovely bottle of wine for :xmastree:

MDMD

Think I’ll dump my a Barclays account for my last Santander £50 Amazon voucher . I’ll see what the offering from Barclays is like in August as the Santander account will be surplus to requirements when my 5% reg saver ends and the 0% CC is paid off so I can always switch back

Flobberchops

It's a bit disappointing, but not really a dealbreaker for many I suspect - if the £48 a year wasn't enough to tempt you in before then the £36 a year won't be now, and conversely if you're already getting Blue Rewards then the loss of a pound a month isn't likely to be enough to make you leave. Still beats Halifax's £24 a year at any rate.


The bit that piques my interest is the prospect of "feeling more rewarded for their savings" - I'm almost certain this won't be in the form of an interest paying current account, quirkldeptless, but it suggests some kind of Blue Rewards-linked benefit for savings. "Feeling" more rewarded, as opposed to actually being rewarded? Could this be some non-monetary benefit? I do hope it's not some knockoff Premium Bonds Prize, like Halifax offer. Wait and see, I suppose.

TREVORCOLMAN

MDMD wrote: »

Think I’ll dump my a Barclays account for my last Santander £50 Amazon voucher . I’ll see what the offering from Barclays is like in August as the Santander account will be surplus to requirements when my 5% reg saver ends and the 0% CC is paid off so I can always switch back

Hi do you have a link to the Santander £50 Amazon Voucher Offer please?


Thanks