Is there anything Halifax Clarity does better than Barclays Rewards?

vikkiew

I have a Clarity and I only use it when abroad to avoid foreign exchange fees. I get a fair currency rate which is important for larger purchases and no silly fixed fees which is essential on small purchases. If I get a Barclays Rewards card I will get all this and cashback to boot. Is that right? I know the cashback is only 0.25% so not the best when in UK but this looks best when away. Any warnings against Barclays Rewards or should I get it?

zagfles

Clarity is MasterCard which gives (or at least used to give) slightly better rates than VISA. But there's not much in it. Article about 5 years old so not sure if anything's changed:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2015/05/mastercard-vs-visa-for-using-abroad-which-wins/

jadex

Barclaycards also do not charge daily interest for cash withdrawals abroad and treat them the same way as purchases (i.e. you pay the whole statement balance on time and withdrawals cost you nothing).
The warning with Barclaycards is you may get your limit slashed substantially, like from £20k to £500...
Apply for Rewards, keep the Clarity = have both systems (Visa and Master) in your wallet when abroad

NewLeaf1986

I think the greatest benefit of having a Clarity card is that you don't have a Barclaycard.

Barclaycard exercise some fairly sharp practices, like unpredictable limit slashing, and catastrophic customer service. Woe betide you if anything were ever to go awry with your Barclaycard. 

Neither OH nor I will ever hold one with the stories I read on here. 

dr_adidas01

NewLeaf1986 said:

I think the greatest benefit of having a Clarity card is that you don't have a Barclaycard.

Barclaycard exercise some fairly sharp practices, like unpredictable limit slashing, and catastrophic customer service. Woe betide you if anything were ever to go awry with your Barclaycard. 

Neither OH nor I will ever hold one with the stories I read on here. 

You're basing your decision on not having a Barclaycard based on stories on this forum, where most people only post about about complaints and problems?

I've had a Barclaycard for nearly 20 years and I can count on one had the amount of times I've had to speak to customer services and each time they have been great and dealt with my issue very quickly and correctly.  The most recent one being my card was used for Deliveroo when I don't have an account with deliveroo or have ever used them.  They cancelled my card immediately and refunded the deliveroo amount on the same day and a replacement card arrived in 2 days.

My limit on my Barclaycard is £16k not my largest credit limit by any means and so far I've not had it slashed, which if they do I'm not to bothered about as they are well within there rights to do so.

So from my experience Barclaycard are actually very good and I would recommend them.

EarthBoy

NewLeaf1986 said:

Neither OH nor I will ever hold one with the stories I read on here. 

If you search the forums you'll find complaints and bad comments about every credit card provider and every single bank in the UK.  Are you going to avoid them all?

jbrassy

I've had the Barclaycard Rewards card for just over a year and never really had any problems with it. Before I applied, I did an eligibility checker for it as well as the Halifax Clarity. The only major plus was that the Halifax Clarity had a much higher credit limit (£11k vs £3.5k). However, this wasn't enough to tip me towards Halifax as I only intend to use it for foreign transactions. 

Someone else mentioned above about Mastercard rates being slightly better than Visa's, which may be true, but the difference is a matter of pennies. What matters more is using one of these cards rather than a card which charges extra fees for foreign transactions. 

md258

I have both, but I was only given a limit of £260 on the Barclaycard which makes it quite difficult to use as I have to be really careful not to go over the limit (an Amex is my "main" credit card).

I found having both useful on holiday- I could use the Clarity for most abroad spending and the Barclaycard for withdrawing cash, which I can pay off and withdraw again if I need to.

pjread

jbrassy said:

Someone else mentioned above about Mastercard rates being slightly better than Visa's, which may be true, but the difference is a matter of pennies. What matters more is using one of these cards rather than a card which charges extra fees for foreign transactions. 

Depends what you're using it for of course.  I tend to agree if it's incidental spending on on a holiday or two a year, but it may get more important if you either travel a lot or make big foreign currency purchases

Andy7856

vikkiew said:

  Any warnings against Barclays Rewards or should I get it?

Little between them, Barclay dont charge interest on the non-sterling withdrawals but offer a slight worse exchange rate.    I have both simply for the convenience of having a master AND visa when travelling.  Either card will save your money overseas (compared to normal cards), which is the best way to view it.    I think Barclay offer a slightly better emergency service if you lose a card overseas and need cash quick.   I  use them in the UK to keep them live, and never had any threats to dropping the credit limit.    

[Deleted User]

Last time I used Barclaycard, they used  overseas call centres, definitely not my cup of tea with a financial service product.

Halifax/Lloyds customer service tends to be generally better than Barclays in my experience too.