Barclaycard Customers: Possible Cashback up to 5%

Former_MSE_Dan

What's the deal?

Existing Barclaycard customers are being offered 2%, 3% or in some cases up to 5% 'cashback deals' by calling up and threatening to cancel their card. You may be able to get it too...

How to do it.

• The Strong Method:
  
  Phone customer services, and tell it you want to cancel your card, provided you're debt free this isn't an issue. And if it won't give you the cashback considering that other people have got it, it's worth thinking about following through with it. Providing you don't need the credit, cancelling a card can improve your credit rating (see the counter argument later).
  
  This will almost certainly lead to an attempt to convince you to keep your Barclaycard, either by the customer representative you speak to, or they'll patch you through to the 'Customer Retentions' department.
  
  Reports from this forum suggest the current lure to keep your custom is short term cashback deals of 2%, 3% or even 5% (these even compare well to the very best 'new customer' deals on the market - read Top Cashback Cards) lasting three to six months.
  
  If you have said you want to cancel, not got the cashback and are having second thoughts; don't feel obliged to go through with. Simply say you want time to think about it and you'll call 'em back.
• The less strong method.
  
  If you wouldn't consider leaving. Just call it up and say "I've heard other people are being given this cashback, I'm a loyal customer I want it too" and test your luck that way.

How does cashback work?

Cashback deals are a great boon; you get paid back a small percentage of everything you spend e.g. 5% cashback means you receive £5 for every £100 spent. The key is to ensure you spend as much as you can on the card, to maximise the cashback earnt, then ALWAYS repay it in full at the end of every month, otherwise the interest cost will dwarf the cashback benefit.

Is it worth keeping a Barclaycard if I won't use it?

If you're ever going to need a balance transfer deal, Barclaycard is one of the credit cards it's always worth keeping open, it has a permament 'cheap balance transfer deal for existing customers (read Barclaycard Loophole) and other regular offers like this.

Will this technique work for anything else?

Companies who get your cash on a regular basis are desperate not to lose it. By phoning up customer services and threatening to take your business elsewhere, you can often save wads of cash. Read Batter down your mobile phone bill and Beat your Car Insurance renewal for good places to start your haggling.

PS thanks to all forumites who've given feedback on this below.

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StevieJ

The banks must hate you guys .

Milarky

I was offered 1 percent cashback on a Citicard when phoning up to cancel - and was quite surprised. That would be back in 2006 though.

red_bertie

I tried this last month - didn't work for me and I was quite polite, maybe I'll try again and not be so polite.

RB

Astraeus

I just soft-touched Halifax to see if they'd reinstate my 0% rate for a few months and they said no. So tomorrow I call and play hardball. :-D

Treadmill

Is the amount of cashback capped ?

flyingflea

I just tried phoning them up and they said they don’t offer cashback as high as 5% and they couldn’t give me any cashback because I have a student Barclaycard credit card. However, they did offer to upgrade my card to a standard one and said I could ask in a month’s time if I was eligible for cashback.

By the way, use this number and keep pressing 0 until you get put through to a customer manager: 01604 230 230

Malcmandy

Rang through, was put through to Barclaycard Cancellations, and a very pleasant girl offered me 2% straight away. No chance of anything higher. Said it was a new trial scheme. Thanx Martin.

clareneal

Treadmill wrote: »

Is the amount of cashback capped ?

I tried cancelling in December as I wasn't using it regularly and I've got an egg card that gives 1%, which at the time was better than my 0% at Barclaycard, and I was offered 3% for three months. There was a £50 limit though, but was very useful for my train season ticket purchase over New Year!, which would have been £54 (3% of £1800 - now paid off with interest free travel loan through work).

oscarhugo

Malcmandy wrote: »

Rang through, was put through to Barclaycard Cancellations, and a very pleasant girl offered me 2% straight away. No chance of anything higher. Said it was a new trial scheme. Thanx Martin.

I spoke to CS who also said they were trialling a cashback card that was offering 1.5% "just for petrol" and a few other things but that it was not possible to offer it to me. So I went ahead and cancelled the card.

jtp101

I bargained pretty hard - threatened to leave insisted on speaking to a supervisor etc. but could only get 2% for 3 months. My monthly spend is about 3k.

They told me the 5% deal was not valid and than no one was getting it at the moment but perhaps I'm just not the negotiator I think I am ;-)

Cheers,

Justin