Tesco Bank credit cards, loans and savings to be bought by Barclays – here's what you need to know

molerat

E-mail received this morning

As announced on 9 February 2024, we’re proposing to transfer our banking business to Barclays Bank UK PLC (Barclays). This includes all our credit card, personal loan, savings and Clubcard Pay+ accounts and products. Our insurance products, travel money, gift cards, and ATMs are not included in this proposed transfer. They’ll remain with Tesco Personal Finance PLC (Tesco Personal Finance) under the Tesco Insurance and Tesco brands.

The proposed transfer is subject to court approval, as required by law. If it takes effect, Barclays will continue to use the Tesco Bank brand on all existing Tesco Bank banking products through a long-term strategic partnership with Tesco. This proposed transfer is due to take effect on 1 November 2024, and if approved your account(s) and product(s) will transfer to Barclays on that date.

There’ll be no immediate changes to your existing product terms and conditions or account details as a result of the proposed transfer (other than to update the details of the legal entity which provides your account(s) and product(s) from Tesco Personal Finance to Barclays in the way we explain in the Customer Booklet).

Which means

Today, if you have eligible deposits with both Tesco Bank and Barclays, you’re covered up to £85,000 with each bank by the FSCS.

If the proposed transfer is approved, any combined eligible deposits held with Tesco Bank and Barclays will be covered by the FSCS up to a limit of £85,000 across all the accounts you hold.

Nasqueron

Interesting to see what happens with the credit cards if you then effectively hold two with Barclays, wonder if they could merge them? Would be a bit of a pain as I was considering a BT from Tesco to Barclays (I hold both, both have 0% balances), I wonder if they will allow it.

WillPS

Nasqueron said:

Interesting to see what happens with the credit cards if you then effectively hold two with Barclays, wonder if they could merge them? Would be a bit of a pain as I was considering a BT from Tesco to Barclays (I hold both, both have 0% balances), I wonder if they will allow it.

It's entirely possible to hold multiple Barclaycards - they just don't currently allow you to apply for multiple; this hasn't always been the case tho, previously it was 1 Barclaycard and 1 partner (IHG or Hilton) card. There are also people who have both a Barclaycard which they applied for and a Barclaycard they now have as a result of an earlier acquisition (Egg, Monument etc).

Their systems all support customers holding multiple cards, it's just a matter of policy that they currently decline applications if a Barclaycard is already held. No reason at all they couldn't roll up Tesco Bank credit cards as they have other acquisitions in the past.

MABLE

WillPS said:

Nasqueron said:

Interesting to see what happens with the credit cards if you then effectively hold two with Barclays, wonder if they could merge them? Would be a bit of a pain as I was considering a BT from Tesco to Barclays (I hold both, both have 0% balances), I wonder if they will allow it.

It's entirely possible to hold multiple Barclaycards - they just don't currently allow you to apply for multiple; this hasn't always been the case tho, previously it was 1 Barclaycard and 1 partner (IHG or Hilton) card. There are also people who have both a Barclaycard which they applied for and a Barclaycard they now have as a result of an earlier acquisition (Egg, Monument etc).

Their systems all support customers holding multiple cards, it's just a matter of policy that they currently decline applications if a Barclaycard is already held. No reason at all they couldn't roll up Tesco Bank credit cards as they have other acquisitions in the past.

Through migration I now hold 4 Barclaycards and with the Tesco card will make it 5.

Nasqueron

WillPS said:

Nasqueron said:

Interesting to see what happens with the credit cards if you then effectively hold two with Barclays, wonder if they could merge them? Would be a bit of a pain as I was considering a BT from Tesco to Barclays (I hold both, both have 0% balances), I wonder if they will allow it.

It's entirely possible to hold multiple Barclaycards - they just don't currently allow you to apply for multiple; this hasn't always been the case tho, previously it was 1 Barclaycard and 1 partner (IHG or Hilton) card. There are also people who have both a Barclaycard which they applied for and a Barclaycard they now have as a result of an earlier acquisition (Egg, Monument etc).

Their systems all support customers holding multiple cards, it's just a matter of policy that they currently decline applications if a Barclaycard is already held. No reason at all they couldn't roll up Tesco Bank credit cards as they have other acquisitions in the past.

I wasn't asking if there was an issued holding 2, sorry if not clear - I was pondering:

1) Could I merge 2x cards?
2) Will this now block Tesco->Barclays BT offer in which case I might as well do it either end of October or November or look at another BT card

WillPS

Nasqueron said:

WillPS said:

Nasqueron said:

Interesting to see what happens with the credit cards if you then effectively hold two with Barclays, wonder if they could merge them? Would be a bit of a pain as I was considering a BT from Tesco to Barclays (I hold both, both have 0% balances), I wonder if they will allow it.

It's entirely possible to hold multiple Barclaycards - they just don't currently allow you to apply for multiple; this hasn't always been the case tho, previously it was 1 Barclaycard and 1 partner (IHG or Hilton) card. There are also people who have both a Barclaycard which they applied for and a Barclaycard they now have as a result of an earlier acquisition (Egg, Monument etc).

Their systems all support customers holding multiple cards, it's just a matter of policy that they currently decline applications if a Barclaycard is already held. No reason at all they couldn't roll up Tesco Bank credit cards as they have other acquisitions in the past.

I wasn't asking if there was an issued holding 2, sorry if not clear - I was pondering:

1) Could I merge 2x cards?
2) Will this now block Tesco->Barclays BT offer in which case I might as well do it either end of October or November or look at another BT card

Depends entirely on

(a) if Barclays run Tesco Bank as a separate entity (like HSBC do with First Direct for example)

(b) Barclaycard policy

Too early to know in either case - but if you're needing to transfer a Tesco Bank balance to Barclaycard I wouldn't be hanging about to find out.

Nasqueron

WillPS said:

Nasqueron said:

WillPS said:

Nasqueron said:

Interesting to see what happens with the credit cards if you then effectively hold two with Barclays, wonder if they could merge them? Would be a bit of a pain as I was considering a BT from Tesco to Barclays (I hold both, both have 0% balances), I wonder if they will allow it.

It's entirely possible to hold multiple Barclaycards - they just don't currently allow you to apply for multiple; this hasn't always been the case tho, previously it was 1 Barclaycard and 1 partner (IHG or Hilton) card. There are also people who have both a Barclaycard which they applied for and a Barclaycard they now have as a result of an earlier acquisition (Egg, Monument etc).

Their systems all support customers holding multiple cards, it's just a matter of policy that they currently decline applications if a Barclaycard is already held. No reason at all they couldn't roll up Tesco Bank credit cards as they have other acquisitions in the past.

I wasn't asking if there was an issued holding 2, sorry if not clear - I was pondering:

1) Could I merge 2x cards?
2) Will this now block Tesco->Barclays BT offer in which case I might as well do it either end of October or November or look at another BT card

Depends entirely on

(a) if Barclays run Tesco Bank as a separate entity (like HSBC do with First Direct for example)

(b) Barclaycard policy

Too early to know in either case - but if you're needing to transfer a Tesco Bank balance to Barclaycard I wouldn't be hanging about to find out.

I don't need to, just fancied stringing along the stoozing a bit longer rather than paying off the balance next year. Might as well try in December and see as I planned to, else apply for another 0% card, Santander do one with a lower fee. Will see what their policy is, I guess with these things always taking time it might be a fair while before they actually do their full checks

DullGreyGuy

I was a little surprised that they are including the credit card customers in the FSMA Part VII, when both the PostOffice and JL/HSBC transferred their book of business to another provider neither did a Part VII. 

Current accounts etc would need a Part VII but you could have kept the CCs out of it and just made their transfer conditional on the Part VII in case Tesco's only wants to move it on mass and not in pieces if it goes wrong. Just increases the costs etc from what I can see

WillPS

DullGreyGuy said:

I was a little surprised that they are including the credit card customers in the FSMA Part VII, when both the PostOffice and JL/HSBC transferred their book of business to another provider neither did a Part VII.

JLFS (HSBC) didn't transfer their book at all, the JLFS card was closed down, and then JLFS itself was closed down with the legacy account responsibilities moved back to the HSBC mothership.

Bank of Ireland perhaps didn't need to do a Section VII at all when they sold their credit card books to Jaja because no savings/deposits were transferred as part of the transaction; so no need to inform customers of reductions in FSCS protections etc. (Bank of Ireland still offer Post Office branded savings products today.)

GeoffTF

WillPS said:

Nasqueron said:

WillPS said:

Nasqueron said:

Interesting to see what happens with the credit cards if you then effectively hold two with Barclays, wonder if they could merge them? Would be a bit of a pain as I was considering a BT from Tesco to Barclays (I hold both, both have 0% balances), I wonder if they will allow it.

It's entirely possible to hold multiple Barclaycards - they just don't currently allow you to apply for multiple; this hasn't always been the case tho, previously it was 1 Barclaycard and 1 partner (IHG or Hilton) card. There are also people who have both a Barclaycard which they applied for and a Barclaycard they now have as a result of an earlier acquisition (Egg, Monument etc).

Their systems all support customers holding multiple cards, it's just a matter of policy that they currently decline applications if a Barclaycard is already held. No reason at all they couldn't roll up Tesco Bank credit cards as they have other acquisitions in the past.

I wasn't asking if there was an issued holding 2, sorry if not clear - I was pondering:

1) Could I merge 2x cards?
2) Will this now block Tesco->Barclays BT offer in which case I might as well do it either end of October or November or look at another BT card

Depends entirely on

(a) if Barclays run Tesco Bank as a separate entity (like HSBC do with First Direct for example)

(b) Barclaycard policy

Too early to know in either case - but if you're needing to transfer a Tesco Bank balance to Barclaycard I wouldn't be hanging about to find out.

Barclays have said that they will keep the Tesco brand, so I expect that you will still be able to hold a Tesco credit card and a Barclaycard. I have also read that Tesco's IT systems are part of the deal, so perhaps the Tesco and Barclays credit cards will be on different systems. It is also possible that Barclays will move some of their operations over to the more modern Tesco system.