When to cancel Barclays Blue Rewards?

WillPS

granta said:

Barclays Premier

I'm thinking of signing up to Premier once I cancel Rewards on 29 September. I'll likely meet the Premier criteria for a few months before I transfer out some investments. Does anyone how long the grace period is before they downgrade you and does the Rainy Saver get downgraded immediately?
Ideally, I also don't want any interruption to my free Apple subscription!

Apple TV+ sub will end very quickly, perhaps straight away (perhaps someone who's cancelled recently can confirm)

Rainy Day Saver you get at least 2 months notice that the account will downgrade unless you become eligible again by the date.

Just an idea - but you could try applying for Premier before leaving Blue Rewards. You might even find that being accepted automatically closes Blue Rewards since it's no longer possible for Premier customers to be members of Blue Rewards.

Premier give you a year to fulfill requirements after joining. In reality it's more like 2-3 years before you actually get downgraded from what I read.

YMMV of course.

granta

WillPS said:

granta said:

Barclays Premier

I'm thinking of signing up to Premier once I cancel Rewards on 29 September. I'll likely meet the Premier criteria for a few months before I transfer out some investments. Does anyone how long the grace period is before they downgrade you and does the Rainy Saver get downgraded immediately?
Ideally, I also don't want any interruption to my free Apple subscription!

Apple TV+ sub will end very quickly, perhaps straight away (perhaps someone who's cancelled recently can confirm)

Rainy Day Saver you get at least 2 months notice that the account will downgrade unless you become eligible again by the date.

Just an idea - but you could try applying for Premier before leaving Blue Rewards. You might even find that being accepted automatically closes Blue Rewards since it's no longer possible for Premier customers to be members of Blue Rewards.

Premier give you a year to fulfill requirements after joining. In reality it's more like 2-3 years before you actually get downgraded from what I read.

YMMV of course.

Thanks, that's a good idea to apply for Premier a few days before end of September and hopefully that will keep the Apple sub going. 

So if they give you a year to meet the criteria, then in theory I could keep the Rainy Day for at least a year. I'll meet the Premier criteria immediately but my investment balance will drop around November/December so hoping I can stay Premier/Rainy Day for a year at least.

AyJaydee

I rang up Barclays a couple of days ago, having got no satisfaction from messaging them.
Said that I was not happy as to their change of terms, not interested in Apple TV.
It was a fairly lengthy conversation which I managed to keep polite as this young lady had to keep putting me on hold as she consulted with her supervisor.  But in the call I pointed out that this change was a really bad idea and that they were going to lose a lot of customers over it. 

"You don't know who Martin Lewis is?" I said, "You are clearly not in the UK.  Well I just want to know if Barclays have had a rethink about this?"
She did say that she was sorry to hear how I felt and that she could offer me a £5 goodwill payment. I declined, saying that this did not answer my concern.

Well having ended the call, I decided to set up the switch away to another provider. My Blue Rewards has already been emptied and the Cashback Rewards has been redeemed. I'm now emptying the Rainy Day Saver in stages and this time next week its 'Bye Bye Barclays'.

WillPS

AyJaydee said:

I rang up Barclays a couple of days ago, having got no satisfaction from messaging them.
Said that I was not happy as to their change of terms, not interested in Apple TV.
It was a fairly lengthy conversation which I managed to keep polite as this young lady had to keep putting me on hold as she consulted with her supervisor.  But in the call I pointed out that this change was a really bad idea and that they were going to lose a lot of customers over it. 

"You don't know who Martin Lewis is?" I said, "You are clearly not in the UK.  Well I just want to know if Barclays have had a rethink about this?"
She did say that she was sorry to hear how I felt and that she could offer me a £5 goodwill payment. I declined, saying that this did not answer my concern.

Well having ended the call, I decided to set up the switch away to another provider. My Blue Rewards has already been emptied and the Cashback Rewards has been redeemed. I'm now emptying the Rainy Day Saver in stages and this time next week its 'Bye Bye Barclays'.

I don't think giving call centre staff a hard time over it is particularly fair to them nor a particularly good use of your time. A complaint in writing is probably the way to go, if you feel strongly enough that you want your comments to be recorded.

The strongest message you can send is to vote with your feet.