MSE News: Barclays offers switchers double rewards for a year

18cc wrote: »

Although I got my account up and running today and the switch started I am not going to add the blue rewards until 1st of June because I don't think there is anyway I am going to be able to get two direct debits up and running and paid out this month

This is still something I'm looking in to... as explained in a post yesterday.

If you don't add blue rewards until 1st of June then your first fee shouldn't be taken until the second working day of July. Rewards are only paid (on the second working day) if a fee has been paid in the "previous calendar month".

This would mean the first reward payment being made on the second working day of August in relation to the DD's and fee paid during July. You'd get nothing for the month of June because a fee hadn't been paid in that month.

If that interpretation of the T&C's is correct then it means having to set up Blue Rewards before the end of May in order to be charged a fee in June and for the June direct debits to generate a reward payment in July.

Unfortunately unless anyone can get a definitive answer before then, we are only going to know for sure if people setting up this month fail to get a payment made to them on the second working day of June.

18cc wrote: »

Well the way I understood it is that if I set up my blue rewards on the 1st of June and pay two direct debits in June then in July I will get a £3 fee and also the rewards money

call me naive but that is the way I read it

I thought the same as you. I even got as far as trying to arrange the switch for 1 June, but the Barclays system doesn't allow that.

Then I got home and read this in the T&C's:-

Your monthly fee will be taken from your nominated account on the 2nd working day of each month. The first monthly fee will be taken in the month after you join Barclays Blue Rewards.

That seems fairly clear, and taken at face value means there is no fee taken in the first calendar month you are a member.

Instinctively I think the reward would be paid in the second month, but that doesn't seem to be supported by the wording of the T&C's.

When I opened mine back in September 2016 I had 2 DD paid out and the £800 paid in and they gave me the Reward in October, so I don't think the fee matters when the account is recently opened as there is no way for you to pay the fee in the previous month. Though this might have all changed by now as it was nearly 2 years ago.

My experience with the Double Blue rewards application ..... I know it's not brief, but hope it helps someone on here!

As a brand new customer to Barclays I tried to apply online for the double rewards switch offer on the 4th May. All went well up to the point of the application being accepted and a sort code and account number being issued and confirmed by email. It took me through to the SWITCH NOW button ..... and then it failed with an error code. Bah!

I phoned the help line who told me to wait for the on-line passcode to arrive by post and everything would be sorted out then. OK! I’ll wait!

Tue/Wed, Debit card arrived, pin arrived and yesterday the on-line passcode arrived, so I access the account. As expected, the account showed £0 balance and no transactions ..... so where was the switch button? Nowhere to be seen! Back on the phone to the helpline.

Well, that was an experience I wouldn’t wish on any of you! I was given the run-around for nearly an hour with absolutely no useful information about how to do the switch being forthcoming. In fact I was given some obviously very bad information. I was first told to switch on Blue rewards first as I was on-line and able to do it, then informed that as an existing customer I would be unable to switch or have access to the Double Rewards! All completely wrong.

When I inquired whether I would be charged £3 for rewards in June that I could not fulfil the conditions for, as I had no way of switching ... the answer was ..... Yes! At that point (and for sometime before!) the conversation was going around in circles and my free phone call was approaching the one hour limit, I politely informed the operator that I was going to end the call and make a complaint tomorrow.

Ok ... on to today .... well I must have got the Good Cop to yesterday’s Bad Cop! He politely listened to me relate the tale so far .... said he had had several similar calls and would like to make me an offer of a simple solution to the problem. OK by me!

He said, if he arranged to have £7 x 12 = £84 paid upfront into my account plus an extra £3 refund in advance for the June fee ..... all done today, would I accept just signing back in to normal single rewards? Before I could say Yes! ... he then offered me an extra £25 for the inconvenience of the experience, no prompting needed! Sounded good to me .... except, I realised we were no nearer a solution to the switch. He put me on hold for 2 minutes and came back to say, unfortunately, the only way forward was a Branch Visit.

I was a little disappointed and cheekily said that they were making me work hard for my £25 compensation for nearly 2 hours total on the phone and now a Branch Visit! We came to an agreement that £40 would be a more suitable figure! The appointment was booked and £127 appeared in my account 5 minutes later.

After a disappointing start, a fair result I think! Not looking forward to the Branch Visit though ..... just seems like another potential hurdle to fall at!

Bet someone suggests I take the money and run