Barclays Current Account and Blue Rewards

xlnc99

Ive just been upgraded to a Barclays Current Account after having a Basic for so long. I had a quick look at some benefits and they do have a blue rewards scheme. Does anyone have this or have experience of using this

afis1904

It's quite straightforward. If you pay in £800 during a month and have two outgoing direct debits, they'll pay you £7 into your rewards wallet at the beginning of the month which you can withdraw into any Barclays account. They usually take the £4 from your account at the same time.

Gray001

It's also worth having a donor account on standby as they are known to advertise a switch incentive at times - double rewards for 12 months - while still paying the four pound fee - so £10 easy month per month! My 12 months run out around June. Since TSB are cutting interest from May - this will be my new do it account for when this offer hopefully comes back! 

xlnc99

Thanks for that. are these pretty much the only benefits? In essence its a bit misleading from them. Two direct debits = 7 pound but as you are paying 4 pound for the fee you are only getting 3 pound per month, not really the 7 pound. They should just cancel the fee and say you are getting 3 pounds for your DD.

I would haev thought upgrading to a barclays current would give me more benefits. As for the 800 per month - i assume you can just a transfer from one account to your barclays and then transfer it straight back out?

afis1904

I think they have the fee just in case someone doesn't fulfill the conditions as well as making it easier to class it as cashback for tax reasons.

And yeah you can just transfer the money in and out in the same day.

Se1Lad

If you qualify for Barclays Premier Banking then you can get their Premier Rewards account.   If you switch in from another account during one of their promotions you get an extra £14 a month in reward cash for the first year.  The account also comes with Gourmet Society Membership, plus free access to English Heritage sites.  You also get a free bottle of wine or fizz once or twice a year from Laithwaites.  There is also a £500 interest free overdraft (was £1,000 but goes down this month along with the other overdraft changes.)
It's a bit easier to qualify for than some of the other premier/private bank accounts, gross salary of £75K is required.

Se1Lad

xlnc99 said:

Thanks for that. are these pretty much the only benefits? In essence its a bit misleading from them. Two direct debits = 7 pound but as you are paying 4 pound for the fee you are only getting 3 pound per month, not really the 7 pound. 

They do mention the £4 fee on the blue rewards website (https://www.barclays.co.uk/current-accounts/blue-rewards/) though it's in a smaller font than the £7 cashback bit.

markymark355

i have blue rewards..pay £4.per each month.
i get back mortgage reward, £5.00- loyalty £7.00, loan reward-£1.00
£13.00 back-  not been doing for to long, but i have £200 in my wallet.

db2016

i asked in branch about this - coming from basic account (coz of BR in 2016) even though i have an ok balance (obviously they know that) they say i couldnt have that account because my income into account is benefits..

xlnc99

i did the appllication online. I always prefer trying online before going in branch. Sometimes online is better then inbranch, sometimes in branch is better then online. I usually leave in branch to last resort

bricoleur

Barclays is generous with its existing customers on the Blue Rewards scheme. They made their "switch bank" offers of multiple (double/triple) rewards available not only to new customers, but also to existing customers. They also did not limit the amount of times one can benefit from the switch offers. I'm not aware of other banks doing that (there might be). 

I've been a customer of Barclays since 2011 and I have a mortgage with them as well. I'm currently getting £36 in blue rewards per month (less the £4 account fee). I used to get £12 before this, but I've switched an account to them in October 2018, and switched another bank account to them in October 2019 - so I've been getting triple rewards since Oct 2018. I cannot remember when I signed up to the blue rewards scheme (must've been post 2015?) but I've earned £1,137 in blue rewards since joining.