Barclays introducing £20 pm charge

IRememberItWell

Just had an e-mail from Barclays regarding 'Premier Banking' customers. They will be introducing a £20 per month fee from 1 Sep 2022. I didn't know that I was such a customer but certainly don't want to pay this charge. I can't reach them today (Sunday) but presume I will be able to opt out by downgrading to a basic a/c. Does anyone know about this? My wife has received the same documentation for her a/cs. Thanks in advance.
IRIW

stclair

Its says you wont be charged the fee if you meet the eligibility criteria

FeeInformation-PremierCurrentAccount.pdf (barclays.co.uk)

eskbanker

IRememberItWell said:

presume I will be able to opt out by downgrading to a basic a/c

It'll be their standard account rather than the basic one that you'd be wanting, i.e. Barclays Bank Account not Barclays Basic Account, which (as with other banks) is the very bottom rung of their current account ladder, the term 'basic' having a particular significance in this market:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/basic-bank-accounts/

mgdavid

stclair said:

Its says you wont be charged the fee if you meet the eligibility criteria

FeeInformation-PremierCurrentAccount.pdf (barclays.co.uk)

what exactly are the eligibility criteria? as the link doesn't provide them

Se1Lad

mgdavid said:

stclair said:

Its says you wont be charged the fee if you meet the eligibility criteria

FeeInformation-PremierCurrentAccount.pdf (barclays.co.uk)

what exactly are the eligibility criteria? as the link doesn't provide them

Are you eligible for Premier?

To join Premier Banking, you’ll need to have

An annual gross income of £75,000 or more paid into a Barclays current account

Or

A minimum of £100,000 saved or invested with us

Se1Lad

I wonder if this could be due to the Barclays Avios Rewards option, which is only available for Premier or Wealth accounts.  It was promoted heavily on headforpoints etc, this could be a way of Barclays generating more revenue from people who want the account (or who already have it) but don’t meat the qualification criteria.

Se1Lad

Some more info now on the Barclays website:

https://www.barclays.co.uk/premier-banking/premier-eligibility/#back=%2Fcontent%2Fbarclaysuk%2Fen%2Fhelp%2Fresults.html%3Fq%3DPremier%26_charset_%3DUTF-8%26offset%3D0%26origin%3Dhelp.barclays.co.uk

Marchitiello

Having looked at this I am a bit confused, as after they basically pulled the Premier Rewards, the only reason to pay for this account would be the Black Premier Debit Card and the large ATM withdrawal limit (which has been useful to me in the past I have to say). I would not want to pay £20 to then pay £12 more  to get Avios… As I still qualify, I will keep the account but would not pay £20 to keep it. The HSBC premier account (still fee free)  at least comes with free Travel insurance, which has been great, albeit their is no way to buy your way in outside of qualifying for it. 

Edit: just to add, I have not received this email/mail shoot, but I guess we all eventually will get the updated terms. Maybe the initial mailing is targeted at people that no longer qualify (previously on this forum some users have discussed having the account but not depositing any money in it) 

Se1Lad

Marchitiello said:

Having looked at this I am a bit confused, as after they basically pulled the Premier Rewards, the only reason to pay for this account would be the Black Premier Debit Card and the large ATM withdrawal limit (which has been useful to me in the past I have to say). I would not want to pay £20 to then pay £12 more  to get Avios… As I still qualify, I will keep the account but would not pay £20 to keep it. The HSBC premier account (still fee free)  at least comes with free Travel insurance, which has been great, albeit their is no way to buy your way in outside of qualifying for it. 

Edit: just to add, I have not received this email/mail shoot, but I guess we all eventually will get the updated terms. Maybe the initial mailing is targeted at people that no longer qualify (previously on this forum some users have discussed having the account but not depositing any money in it) 

Agreed - the only other benefits I am aware of are you get a higher daily limit for online banking transactions - £100k rather than £50k, and that you can apply for Barclays Avios Rewards.  I suppose the annual upgrade voucher could be worth £240 (£20/month) depending on how you used it?

However it would probably be very easy to circumvent the funding requirement anyway - it looks like you could move money out of the account to another bank and then back in to satisfy the monthly/annual requirement of £3,330 / £40,000 paid into the account.  It doesn't say specifically where the funds need to come from:

We appreciate that the income paid into your account can differ quite significantly to your gross income, so we’ll do the following.

• On the first of each month we’ll look back at the previous month to see if at least £3,330 has been paid into your current account or if you had a combined average balance of at least £100,000 in all savings and investment accounts you have with us.
• If not, we’ll look back at your accounts with us over the last 12 months to see if at least £40,000 has been paid into your current account.

Marchitiello

Se1Lad said:

Marchitiello said:

Having looked at this I am a bit confused, as after they basically pulled the Premier Rewards, the only reason to pay for this account would be the Black Premier Debit Card and the large ATM withdrawal limit (which has been useful to me in the past I have to say). I would not want to pay £20 to then pay £12 more  to get Avios… As I still qualify, I will keep the account but would not pay £20 to keep it. The HSBC premier account (still fee free)  at least comes with free Travel insurance, which has been great, albeit their is no way to buy your way in outside of qualifying for it. 

Edit: just to add, I have not received this email/mail shoot, but I guess we all eventually will get the updated terms. Maybe the initial mailing is targeted at people that no longer qualify (previously on this forum some users have discussed having the account but not depositing any money in it) 

Agreed - the only other benefits I am aware of are you get a higher daily limit for online banking transactions - £100k rather than £50k, and that you can apply for Barclays Avios Rewards.  I suppose the annual upgrade voucher could be worth £240 (£20/month) depending on how you used it?

However it would probably be very easy to circumvent the funding requirement anyway - it looks like you could move money out of the account to another bank and then back in to satisfy the monthly/annual requirement of £3,330 / £40,000 paid into the account.  It doesn't say specifically where the funds need to come from:

We appreciate that the income paid into your account can differ quite significantly to your gross income, so we’ll do the following.

• On the first of each month we’ll look back at the previous month to see if at least £3,330 has been paid into your current account or if you had a combined average balance of at least £100,000 in all savings and investment accounts you have with us.
• If not, we’ll look back at your accounts with us over the last 12 months to see if at least £40,000 has been paid into your current account.

Just to be clear, in your calculation about the upgrade voucher: it would be £20 + £12, so £32 per month, £384 per year.. 

as it stands and for people that continue to qualify  Barclays Premier Avios Rewards cost just £12 per month £144 per year, that for me (with the extra Avios for the Mortgage and Home insurance, plus the upgrade voucher), it is worthy 

Se1Lad

Marchitiello said:

Se1Lad said:

Marchitiello said:

Having looked at this I am a bit confused, as after they basically pulled the Premier Rewards, the only reason to pay for this account would be the Black Premier Debit Card and the large ATM withdrawal limit (which has been useful to me in the past I have to say). I would not want to pay £20 to then pay £12 more  to get Avios… As I still qualify, I will keep the account but would not pay £20 to keep it. The HSBC premier account (still fee free)  at least comes with free Travel insurance, which has been great, albeit their is no way to buy your way in outside of qualifying for it. 

Edit: just to add, I have not received this email/mail shoot, but I guess we all eventually will get the updated terms. Maybe the initial mailing is targeted at people that no longer qualify (previously on this forum some users have discussed having the account but not depositing any money in it) 

Agreed - the only other benefits I am aware of are you get a higher daily limit for online banking transactions - £100k rather than £50k, and that you can apply for Barclays Avios Rewards.  I suppose the annual upgrade voucher could be worth £240 (£20/month) depending on how you used it?

However it would probably be very easy to circumvent the funding requirement anyway - it looks like you could move money out of the account to another bank and then back in to satisfy the monthly/annual requirement of £3,330 / £40,000 paid into the account.  It doesn't say specifically where the funds need to come from:

We appreciate that the income paid into your account can differ quite significantly to your gross income, so we’ll do the following.

• On the first of each month we’ll look back at the previous month to see if at least £3,330 has been paid into your current account or if you had a combined average balance of at least £100,000 in all savings and investment accounts you have with us.
• If not, we’ll look back at your accounts with us over the last 12 months to see if at least £40,000 has been paid into your current account.

Just to be clear, in your calculation about the upgrade voucher: it would be £20 + £12, so £32 per month, £384 per year.. 

as it stands and for people that continue to qualify  Barclays Premier Avios Rewards cost just £12 per month £144 per year, that for me (with the extra Avios for the Mortgage and Home insurance, plus the upgrade voucher), it is worthy 

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