Barclaycard

Johnny-Cage

Just contacted Barclays regarding my Barclaycard that I’ve held over 15 years. I asked if I have any purchase offers available. It was a firmly no just balance or money transfers.

He basically said if the card isn’t suitable for me any more he can cancel it.

Don’t really want to cancel the card with it being a reward card that gets used a lot when abroad with a 13k limit. It’s always paid off in full every month as well. 

Is there any way to get a 0% offer from them, If do threaten to cancel do they put you through to any retention department first to see why your cancelling it

TIA 

CliveOfIndia

If the card suits your needs and you get some rewards from it, then just keep it.  Threatening to cancel it will be highly unlikely to achieve anything - the phrase"cutting off your nose to spite your face" comes to mind.

Look at it from their point of view - you're a profitable customer who's been with them a long time, what real incentive do they have to offer you free credit?  And bear in mind that most lenders have been tightening their belts recently anyway, so offers of any kind are becoming harder to come by.

You've done the logical thing already, phoned up and asked.  If they said no, then there's not a lot more you can do.

You could of course cancel the card, then reapply again in 6 or 12 months time, see if they've got any "new customer" deals to tempt you back.  But that's probably going to hurt you more than them.

Also remember that long-established, well-managed lines of credit are very good for your credit history, so do you really want to spoil that?

If you want/need a purchase offer, the simplest thing is probably to just open another card with a different provider that gives you what you want.

born_again

Credit card co's do not have retention dept's 

So you could take out a new card, spend on it & then do a balance transfer to Barclaycard.

WillPS

born_again said:

Credit card co's do not have retention dept's 

So you could take out a new card, spend on it & then do a balance transfer to Barclaycard.

They kind of do actually, at least they have things which they offer customers to avert cancellation. For example, I rang to cancel my Barclaycard back in 2016ish and was offered a move to the 'not open to new customers' Cashback Barclaycard Amex/Visa.

When I called to cancel my Amex Platinum Card in 2020 I was offered a straight forward bung of MR points if I decided to stay (accepted and then cancelled a few days later once they were spent; I'm sure they were gutted to lose me with behaviour like that!). 

0% Balance transfer/purchase promotions are not something I have been offered however.

badmemory

I have trouble keeping my cc limit with them but them as I only spend about once every 2 years to keep it active I can't say I am exactly surprised.  I do like to make sure that if I need to spend that much on a card then I can.  Oh the pressure, well not really.  I factor it in to my spreadsheet - it is what it is & is a back up.  Not a problem.