Barclays switch incentive?

7sefton

Any idea if Barclays are likely to offer a switch incentive? They don’t seem to be very keen on them. I am going to switch my Virgin Money account to them (absolutely shocking app - unusable), but don’t want to miss out on any bonus. 

changearound1

I've no idea what Barclays future plans might be. I'm guessing their Rainy Day Saver account is doing a pretty good job of attracting new customers and holding on to them.

Have you considered opening a Barclays account but keeping the Virgin Money as a possible future donor account for a possible future switch offer from anybody. 

Katiehound

Well Barclays have had 2 switch deals in the past, now a few years ago so maybe they no longer indulge in such things!

EarthBoy

I've had a couple of switching bonuses from Barclays, the last one about three years ago.  They were both double Blue Rewards for 12 months. I don't recall them offering a lump sum switching bonus, but if they have done it must have been before 2018 when I joined them. 

eskbanker

7sefton said:

Any idea if Barclays are likely to offer a switch incentive? They don’t seem to be very keen on them. I am going to switch my Virgin Money account to them (absolutely shocking app - unusable), but don’t want to miss out on any bonus. 

Why don't you switch to a bank that does offer a switching incentive?

WillPS

Barclays are doing probably the most generous incentive I've ever seen for customers eligible for their Premier service, potentially 150,000 Avios (== £1200 to spend at Sainsburys/Argos/Ebay!):
Get 100,000 Avios with amazing new Barclays and Barclaycard offers (headforpoints.com)

(Although only 25,000 Avios/£200 of that is an actual switching bonus.)

Previous mass market switching incentives have involved doubling Blue Rewards, and those previous offers allowed existing customers to take part, even if they'd had the incentive before. The last one was in 2019 though, no guarantee it'd be the same if they did one now, if indeed they do one at all.

Band7

WillPS said:

Barclays are doing probably the most generous incentive I've ever seen for customers eligible for their Premier service, potentially 150,000 Avios (== £1200 to spend at Sainsburys/Argos/Ebay!):

Is there an easy to digest summary for how this offer works, who is eligible, and what is the net benefit after charges?

Band7

Band7 said:

WillPS said:

Barclays are doing probably the most generous incentive I've ever seen for customers eligible for their Premier service, potentially 150,000 Avios (== £1200 to spend at Sainsburys/Argos/Ebay!):

Is there an easy to digest summary for how this offer works, who is eligible, and what is the net benefit after charges?

I now understand you must be a Barclays Premier customer before you can even think about applying for this offer. Barclays premier requires an income of £75,000 paid into the premier account, or at least £100,000 in savings or investments with Barclays. I would be surprised if more than a minority of MSE members would qualify. I certainly don't.

Zanderman

Why are you going for Barclays?

7sefton

Because I qualify for a premier account and want the Rainy day saver. Didn’t realise about the Avios deal on premier - will take a look!

WillPS

Band7 said:

WillPS said:

Barclays are doing probably the most generous incentive I've ever seen for customers eligible for their Premier service, potentially 150,000 Avios (== £1200 to spend at Sainsburys/Argos/Ebay!):

Is there an easy to digest summary for how this offer works, who is eligible, and what is the net benefit after charges?

It's complicated but in essence:
You get 25,000 Avios for opening an Avios Plus Credit Card and spending £3k inside the first 3 months
You get 25,000 Avios for opening a Premier Current Account as a brand new customer and following the switching incentive instructions

In addition to both of the previous you get 100,000 Avios after opening a new Avios Plus Credit card, activating Premier Avios rewards and keeping both open for 4 months.

This assumes no current accounts with Barclays and no Barclaycards currently. There are lower rewards available to some existing customers (I'm getting 5k for upgrading my Barclaycard, 2.5k for upgrading to Premier + Avios Rewards and 100k). Follow the link above and click 'apply or find out more' and there is a wizard which tells you exactly what you can get.

7sefton said:

Because I qualify for a premier account and want the Rainy day saver. Didn’t realise about the Avios deal on premier - will take a look!

If you want the Rainy Day saver, open Blue Rewards first then open Avios Rewards - I've seen reports that Avios Rewards holders aren't able to open the account but I was certainly allowed to keep mine as an upgrading account holder. This might mean that you aren't eligible for the 25k Avios switching incentive though, so you might want to wait and switch to Blue Rewards after the 100k pay out.

Band7 said:

Band7 said:

WillPS said:

Barclays are doing probably the most generous incentive I've ever seen for customers eligible for their Premier service, potentially 150,000 Avios (== £1200 to spend at Sainsburys/Argos/Ebay!):

Is there an easy to digest summary for how this offer works, who is eligible, and what is the net benefit after charges?

I now understand you must be a Barclays Premier customer before you can even think about applying for this offer. Barclays premier requires an income of £75,000 paid into the premier account, or at least £100,000 in savings or investments with Barclays. I would be surprised if more than a minority of MSE members would qualify. I certainly don't.

It's certainly not a mass-market product, as I suggested in my original post!