Barclay's Blue Rewards Removing £5 Reward

jameseonline

WillPS said:

jameseonline said:

MasterplanC said:

Is there any way to set up leaving Barclays Blue Rewards by the end of August now? On the app it seems I can only cancel immediately, which is not what I want to do. (The DD & mortgage bonus is still worth it for now and I might as well use Apple TV for July & August.) A bit sucky they are changing the rules and it's not possible saying I don't agree with the rule change and hence want to leave when they take effect.

Not aware of any bank scheme where you can schedule your leaving date.

Club Lloyds you cancel/downgrade your account.
Santander you cancel/downgrade your account.

So when you want to leave Barclays Blue you literally just select the cancel option and it's done, if you have the rainy day it won't instantly get downgraded but you will not be eligible for the rate of it either, for some unknown reason they haven't changed mine to a poorer rate account even though they said they would, months ago.

You get about 6 month's grace with the Barclays Rainy Day Saver, then they give you a fair bit of notice they're going to change it to a 'normal' savings account.

The only way I can think of to 'schedule' to leave is to CASS away - which you can normally schedule up to about 40 days in the future.

6 months can't be right, either way I stopped using blue rewards ages ago, so they've had plenty of opportunity to downgrade the savings account, they even contacted me saying sorry for the delay and they had to send me updated communication about it because they messed up, I emptied the thing twice, once to get rid of all the balance then again because of an interest payment, been 0 balance for a while now too 

vacheron

boingy said:

I'm chuckling at the thought of Major League Soccer being considered a popular thing in the UK. 
As for the Apple TV, we had three months of it for free with a TV purchase and I have to say that it's way behind Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime. I was genuinely surprised at Apple getting it so wrong. They normally have a knack of hitting the spot.

I imagine Barclays will lose loads of customers to this change, but maybe it will boost their profits. All those fivers add up.

Me too. Sounded like a fairly lame alternative to money. I'm sick of being offered Apple TV at the moment. I have a 3 months free due to my wife's iPhone purchase, another 3 months free from my phone purchase, another from some other product I took out and now Barclays offering me it for free.  I agree that I really wasn't impressed the first time I tried it (LG tv purchase IIRC) and have no interest in having it again (and I don't even have any other streaming service that could be superior to it!)

But, that's not all though, you can also watch all the "American soccer"! you could want!

Way to read the room Barclays 🤦‍♂️ 

WillPS

jameseonline said:

WillPS said:

jameseonline said:

MasterplanC said:

Is there any way to set up leaving Barclays Blue Rewards by the end of August now? On the app it seems I can only cancel immediately, which is not what I want to do. (The DD & mortgage bonus is still worth it for now and I might as well use Apple TV for July & August.) A bit sucky they are changing the rules and it's not possible saying I don't agree with the rule change and hence want to leave when they take effect.

Not aware of any bank scheme where you can schedule your leaving date.

Club Lloyds you cancel/downgrade your account.
Santander you cancel/downgrade your account.

So when you want to leave Barclays Blue you literally just select the cancel option and it's done, if you have the rainy day it won't instantly get downgraded but you will not be eligible for the rate of it either, for some unknown reason they haven't changed mine to a poorer rate account even though they said they would, months ago.

You get about 6 month's grace with the Barclays Rainy Day Saver, then they give you a fair bit of notice they're going to change it to a 'normal' savings account.

The only way I can think of to 'schedule' to leave is to CASS away - which you can normally schedule up to about 40 days in the future.

6 months can't be right

What are you basing that upon?

I closed Blue Rewards on October 25th 2022 (in order to sign up to Premier Avios Rewards). At the time the only way to be eligible for Rainy Day Saver was to have Blue Rewards, there was no exemption for Premier customers until late last year. Despite that, the Rainy Day Saver remained open

Then, on April 18th 2023 (just shy of 6 months later!) they gave notice the Rainy Day Saver would change in to an Everyday Saver on June 19th 2023 (so 8 months since I was last eligible) unless I reopened Blue Rewards in the meantime.

So, yes, it can be right - whether or not that remains the timescale is anyone's guess, but I'm not pulling figures out of nowhere.

NedS

Any good options to replace the Rainy Day Saver, as a 5% instant access savings account?

I'm going to open a Club Lloyds Monthly saver at 6.25% to feed in a maturing NS&I bond, but their instant access Club Lloyds saver only pays 2.2%.

WillPS

NedS said:

Any good options to replace the Rainy Day Saver, as a 5% instant access savings account?

I'm going to open a Club Lloyds Monthly saver at 6.25% to feed in a maturing NS&I bond, but their instant access Club Lloyds saver only pays 2.2%.

Chase is [base rate] - [1.15%] + [1% until January]. Right now that means they're paying 5.1% but it'll probably drop to 4.85% from next month.

Cahoot (owned by Santander) pay 5.2% up to £3k on their Sunny Day Saver.

EarthBoy

NedS said:

Any good options to replace the Rainy Day Saver, as a 5% instant access savings account?

I'm going to open a Club Lloyds Monthly saver at 6.25% to feed in a maturing NS&I bond, but their instant access Club Lloyds saver only pays 2.2%.

One advantage to the Club Lloyds Monthly Saver (as well as the ordinary Lloyds Monthly Saver) is that you can make as many withdrawals as you like, without affecting the interest rate. 

Calidad

I haven’t received the £5 payment this month, but have received £3 for the mortgage. It looks like one of my two usual DD’s was taken yesterday as the 29th that it’s set up for fell on a weekend. Is it worth me complaining? 

surreysaver

Calidad said:

I haven’t received the £5 payment this month, but have received £3 for the mortgage. It looks like one of my two usual DD’s was taken yesterday as the 29th that it’s set up for fell on a weekend. Is it worth me complaining? 

That's why I make sure my direct debits aren't set up at the very beginning or end of the month, to allow for this.
They might make a goodwill payment to make your complaint go away, although they haven't broken any T&Cs

kaMelo

Calidad said:

I haven’t received the £5 payment this month, but have received £3 for the mortgage. It looks like one of my two usual DD’s was taken yesterday as the 29th that it’s set up for fell on a weekend. Is it worth me complaining? 

Did two direct debits leave your account in June? If not, irrespective of why, there is nothing to complain about.

On a wider point, having a DD so late in the month will always cause problems like this, change it to sometime earlier in the month.

Calidad

Thanks both. I’ve now amended the collection date, though I will be closing the Blue Rewards account at the beginning of September anyway. 

Barclays have credited my account now as a “goodwill gesture”. So was worth dropping them a line in the end.