Barclaycard Interest Rate

Joe555

In 2015 I took out a Barclaycard Platinum card which offered an interest rate for purchases of 6.5% for as long as you had the card.  Hard to believe now, but that was the deal.

It appears that a couple of years ago they’ve started slowly increasing this and it’s now up to 20%.

I accept that I have been a bit slow to spot this, but in my defence I expected the interest rate to stay at 6.5% as per the deal at the time, and as it had done for the first 7-8 years.

How are they able to renege on a deal in that way?  Is it most likely they’ve withdrawn the product and reissued me a new card under new T&C’s, and I’ve just missed some correspondence somewhere?  Is there any point complaining about this to Barclaycard?

MyRealNameToo

Have you looked at your terms and conditions?

Do you have a trailing balance?

I would expect their terms to state that they can alter the terms with sufficient notice however I would expect that they would probably then split your balance so anything raised under the old terms would stay at 6.5% as promised but any new transactions would have the higher interest rate applied. 

I could be they simply retired the old product and transferred you onto the new one with the new terms. Often with these scenarios there is the option to not be transferred, the account is then effectively frozen and you are left to pay off the outstanding balance at the old rate. 

MattMattMattUK

Joe555 said:

In 2015 I took out a Barclaycard Platinum card which offered an interest rate for purchases of 6.5% for as long as you had the card.  Hard to believe now, but that was the deal.

It appears that a couple of years ago they’ve started slowly increasing this and it’s now up to 20%.

I accept that I have been a bit slow to spot this, but in my defence I expected the interest rate to stay at 6.5% as per the deal at the time, and as it had done for the first 7-8 years.

How are they able to renege on a deal in that way?  Is it most likely they’ve withdrawn the product and reissued me a new card under new T&C’s, and I’ve just missed some correspondence somewhere?  Is there any point complaining about this to Barclaycard?

Fairly unlikely that they are reneging on any deal, just that it will have had terms and conditions that there was an initial rate and then they can raise that over time, which they will have written/emailed you telling you they were doing. They may have cancelled and reissued but more likely they just varied their rate which their terms and conditions allow them to do, with proper notice. 

Joe555

Maybe renege was a poor choice of word.

I haven’t paid a huge amount of attention to the T&C’s - which I appreciate is my own fault - as I had assumed that 6.5% for as long as you have the card/account meant just that.  There was no specified end date or anything, after which it reverts to the standard rate.  

I’m not expecting there to be any avenue to object, no doubt they’ll have followed the rules and I’ve just not been paying proper attention - but you never know.

ColdIron

Why not get a 0% purchase card? No fees at all as long as you make the minimum payments and clear the balance after the introductory offer ends in a year or two

anoukis

I had the same deal with Barclaycard Platinum and it's increased to 19.6% over the years, but I've always paid it in full. Make a habit of checking monthly statements, the most up to date interest rate is always on there...