When to close Barclays account so as to not get billed (blue rewards) for April?

JustAnotherSaver

Doing it today should do it, BUT I want to get the April payment too.

I believe the rewards is essentially coming to an end from 4th April.

I've had my previous blue rewards paid out:

3Mar

2Feb

5Jan

2Dec

2Nov

4Oct

So it's cutting it close with the 4th April date.

Or are we all just waiting for the payment and billing in April and then closing/switching?

refluxer

Do you have two direct debits coming out of your current account ? If so, the £5 you'll get for those under the new T&C's will just cancel out the new £5 charge so you shouldn't lose anything if you get the timing wrong.

beefturnmail

No need to close the account, just turn off blue rewards

JustAnotherSaver

beefturnmail said:

No need to close the account, just turn off blue rewards

Does that also stop the £5 charge?

changearound1

If you turn off Blue Rewards at any point in March you won't pay the fee in April.

refluxer

From the email I received from Barclays in February...

"You can cancel your membership with us at any time in the app* or in Online Banking. If you want to do this before paying the new monthly fee of £5, you’ll need to cancel by 5pm on 31 March 2022. If you also have a Blue Rewards Saver account, we’ll change it to a Barclays instant access savings account – we’ll contact you about this separately."

...so if you don't cancel your Blue Rewards membership before that deadline, the new £5 fee will be taken and reward paid on 4th April.

Why do you want to continue into April ? Do you have other qualifying Barclays products (loans, life insurance etc) besides the two direct debits ? I was presuming you didn't, otherwise it presumably still makes sense to continue with Blue Rewards.

JustAnotherSaver

I was asking because obviously I've received March's reward payment... along with March's fee. 

Is March the final payment where you make profit then? Starting and including April you get net £0 (so may as well close account / deactivate blue rewards now?) 

Emmia

You can just deactivate the rewards, and have a fee free account - great for a backup.

phillw

Emmia said:

You can just deactivate the rewards, and have a fee free account - great for a backup.

Or for switching to say halifax, if you haven't had cash back from them for a while.

JustAnotherSaver

phillw said:

Emmia said:

You can just deactivate the rewards, and have a fee free account - great for a backup.

Or for switching to say halifax, if you haven't had cash back from them for a while.

That's what TSB is for, since their system is carp & Barclay's isn't too bad

phillw

JustAnotherSaver said:
That's what TSB is for, since their system is carp & Barclay's isn't too bad

I only had Barclays for the money, they wouldn't even give me an overdraft unless I went into a branch (I opened it during pandemic, so no thanks...)

I already switched my two TSB anyway. I got a Santander that is doing nothing right now, though with energy going up I'm tempted to turn it into a 123 lite.