Barclays Bank Travel Pack and Tech Pack - Worth it?

puffypowers

Hi, I am currently paying £25 in total including a multipack discount per month for Barclays Travel Pack £12.50 per month and Barclays Tech Pack £14.50 per month plus a £2 discount so £25 all in. 

The Tech Pack covers mobiles up to £1500 value and gadgets up to 5 years old at £1500 value
Travel Pack includes RAC breakdown cover attached to me as driver or passenger and also Worldwide Travel Insurance for me.

At the moment obviously things are quiet here in England on the travel front but I wanted to work out a way if they are worth keeping or there are better and cheaper products out there on the market.  I know it varies depending on my needs. 

Thank you for your feedback!

PRAISETHESUN

There's no point paying for these "benefits" IMO if you don't actually use them. I'd do a few searches for these insurances using comparison sites and see if the cost of buying policies with alternate providers separately is cheaper than the £300/year you pay Barclays. Odds are it probably is.

eskbanker

puffypowers said:

I wanted to work out a way if they are worth keeping or there are better and cheaper products out there on the market.  I know it varies depending on my needs.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/best-packaged-bank-accounts/ summarises the market if you want to go down the all-inclusive route rather than buying policies that fit your needs exactly....

born_again

Made any claims since you started paying £25 a month?

Travel abroad a lot?
Have expensive Mobile phones?

mab3000

It really depends on your own personal circumstances as to wether having these packs is worth it or not.

For me I need fully comprehensive car breakdown cover. Looking at the RAC website the closest package that is to what the Barclays travel pack offers is £18 per month by itself (the account I have with Barclays is joint so the joint account holder is also covered equally at no extra cost.) And even that doesn’t look as comprehensive as the Barclays product. And the fact that it includes worldwide travel insurance as well for when we can eventually travel for £12.50 a month makes having the Barclays travel pack a no brainer for me. 

The tech pack seems very family friendly in terms of it can cover 4 phones and an unlimited amount of gadgets for 1 price. If you just have the 1 phone to insure then it probably isn’t worth it. I did have the tech pack up to a few months ago, however I was not happy with the upcoming changes they are making with them switching their cover provider, and on reflection I didn’t feel I needed to have phone insurance anymore. I’d rather take the risk. 

Barclays have made some different changes to their insurance packs recently. If you decide to remove one or both packs now, then decide to add them back on in the future, you will no longer get a multi pack discount as they have stopped that now for new packs added. Also joint account holders no longer automatically qualify for the pack benefits, you nominate 1 other person in your household to share the pack benefits with. The changes don’t affect any packs purchased before these changes were made. 

jimjames

Nationwide offer similar for only £13 a month. Used a number of the services before and been happy with them

EssexExile

Read the terms and conditions and make sure they are actually useful. Some of these things look great until you claim and are advised of the small print that you should've read.

Make sure you don't have any of this cover elsewhere.