Barclays introducing £20 pm charge

trient

Se1Lad said:

Good point - I forgot about the extra £12!  Depending on the upgrade it could still be worthwhile though.

It's really simple though, £12 is exactly the value of the 1500 avios if converted to Nectar points and spent at their lowest cash value, at Sainsbury's/Argos/Ebay.  So absolute worst case scenario the rewards fee is net 0.

And as mentioned by others the £20 is waived provided the funding requirement is fulfilled (which shouldn't be difficult and is in line with other bank accounts requirements), so again the cost would be 0.

So the value proposition is quite simple - the premier account with avios rewards is free and includes the black debit card, higher atm limit, and an upgrade voucher every 12 months.

WillPS

trient said:

Se1Lad said:

Good point - I forgot about the extra £12!  Depending on the upgrade it could still be worthwhile though.

It's really simple though, £12 is exactly the value of the 1500 avios if converted to Nectar points and spent at their lowest cash value, at Sainsbury's/Argos/Ebay.  So absolute worst case scenario the rewards fee is net 0.

Net 0 presuming you have no way of paying less than face value otherwise in the case of Sainsburys/Argos (e.g. Perks at Work or similar giftcards or Spree/Ode).

Ebay is a genuine LFL (as long as you can use promo codes in conjunction with Nectar payment, I've never checked).

trient

Net 0 presuming you have no way of paying less than face value otherwise in the case of Sainsburys/Argos (e.g. Perks at Work or similar giftcards or Spree/Ode).

A baseline can only assume no other (external) factors. On that basis you can argue the corporate rewards schemes are mostly worthless when you can buy the same giftcards at 20% off with Monese. Where do you draw the line then?

My point was that with Barclays Premier + Avios rewards, looking at its benefits and costs alone, the former outweigh the latter and you're not losing any money. Just a bit more convoluted (and arguably less effective) than say RBS/NatWest rewards.

Marchitiello

trient said:

Se1Lad said:

Good point - I forgot about the extra £12!  Depending on the upgrade it could still be worthwhile though.

It's really simple though, £12 is exactly the value of the 1500 avios if converted to Nectar points and spent at their lowest cash value, at Sainsbury's/Argos/Ebay.  So absolute worst case scenario the rewards fee is net 0.

And as mentioned by others the £20 is waived provided the funding requirement is fulfilled (which shouldn't be difficult and is in line with other bank accounts requirements), so again the cost would be 0.

So the value proposition is quite simple - the premier account with avios rewards is free and includes the black debit card, higher atm limit, and an upgrade voucher every 12 months.

Obviously, within the scope of this thread, we were discussing the value proposition of having to pay the £20 for Premier and when the Avios rewards was factored in as a rewards, we discussed the extra £12, so overall £32

at £12, especially for those like me that get even extra avios for other Barclays products, it is surely convenient .. 

with regards to the upgrade voucher, as it is virtually a clone of the old Lloyds Avios one, I do not think that by itself it is worth the extra £240 per year as it is a bit restrictive (in effect is simply worth the avios difference between the class you want to book in and the one below). The 2-4-1 with the Amex BA PP is a much better value at £250 per annum.