Barclaycard getting tougher on downgrades/fee waivers?

[Anonymous]

A lot of what I've read online has suggested that Barclay is one of the easier companies to get a fee waiver on, and pretty much the universal opinion has been that with the Arrival Plus, you can downgrade to the no-fee Arrival with no problems. This seemed to be the perfect option for me, as I haven't used the Arrival Plus much recently (Fidelity Amex gives me 2% back without requiring me to redeem for travel as Barclays does) but wanted to keep the TL open.

I tried that tonight a day before my AF was about to hit. Spoke to frontline CSR and said I didn't want to pay annual fee and asked if it could be waived. She said no, asked if it could be downgraded (PC) to Arrival non-plus... got put on hold for a few minutes and she came back on the line saying "no offers are available" to PC the card. Asked to speak to someone else on it, she transferred me to someone else (presumably some kind of supervisor) who confirmed the same thing-- no offers available. Neither rep explained why I needed a special "offer" to simply downgrade the card to a lower version, and basically said they plug it into some automated system to see if I'm eligible, and I supposedly wasn't.

This didn't fly with me so I escalated the call to a SECOND supervisor-- she said "no problem" and said I had two offers available. Supervisor said fee waver was not possible, but she was willing to downgrade. I hadn't used the card much so I went with downgrade-- she said it will show as the same tradeline on my CR but I'll get a new card in the mail.

Consider this a fair warning if you have the Barclay Arrival Plus... they seem to be getting tougher on fee waivers and even downgrades. It seems it CAN be done, but prepare to jump through a few hoops and escalate as needed.

Any other experiences with this card? Or Barclays in general? I love their Aviator Red MasterCard, which I also have, but was very turned off by this experience. I won't be taking any new cards with them.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

A lot of what I've read online has suggested that Barclay is one of the easier companies to get a fee waiver on, and pretty much the universal opinion has been that with the Arrival Plus, you can downgrade to the no-fee Arrival with no problems. This seemed to be the perfect option for me, as I haven't used the Arrival Plus much recently (Fidelity Amex gives me 2% back without requiring me to redeem for travel as Barclays does) but wanted to keep the TL open.

I tried that tonight a day before my AF was about to hit. Spoke to frontline CSR and said I didn't want to pay annual fee and asked if it could be waived. She said no, asked if it could be downgraded (PC) to Arrival non-plus... got put on hold for a few minutes and she came back on the line saying "no offers are available" to PC the card. Asked to speak to someone else on it, she transferred me to someone else (presumably some kind of supervisor) who confirmed the same thing-- no offers available. Neither rep explained why I needed a special "offer" to simply downgrade the card to a lower version, and basically said they plug it into some automated system to see if I'm eligible, and I supposedly wasn't.

This didn't fly with me so I escalated the call to a SECOND supervisor-- she said "no problem" and said I had two offers available. Supervisor said fee waver was not possible, but she was willing to downgrade. I hadn't used the card much so I went with downgrade-- she said it will show as the same tradeline on my CR but I'll get a new card in the mail.

Consider this a fair warning if you have the Barclay Arrival Plus... they seem to be getting tougher on fee waivers and even downgrades. It seems it CAN be done, but prepare to jump through a few hoops and escalate as needed.

Any other experiences with this card? Or Barclays in general? I love their Aviator Red MasterCard, which I also have, but was very turned off by this experience. I won't be taking any new cards with them.

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Haven't dealt with this yet. I only have one AF card with them but will see how they handle the wife's Arrival+ card. Which we will likely roll into her Aviator or she may app for a SM and roll limits.

[Anonymous]

Wish I saw this yesterday! Was approved last night for the A+, and my plan was to use the bonus then downgrade. Thanks for the heads up! 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Wish I saw this yesterday! Was approved last night for the A+, and my plan was to use the bonus then downgrade. Thanks for the heads up! 

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If you downgrade you lose out on Arrival bonus of $200.

[longtime_lurker]

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@Anonymous wrote:

A lot of what I've read online has suggested that Barclay is one of the easier companies to get a fee waiver on, and pretty much the universal opinion has been that with the Arrival Plus, you can downgrade to the no-fee Arrival with no problems. This seemed to be the perfect option for me, as I haven't used the Arrival Plus much recently (Fidelity Amex gives me 2% back without requiring me to redeem for travel as Barclays does) but wanted to keep the TL open.

I tried that tonight a day before my AF was about to hit. Spoke to frontline CSR and said I didn't want to pay annual fee and asked if it could be waived. She said no, asked if it could be downgraded (PC) to Arrival non-plus... got put on hold for a few minutes and she came back on the line saying "no offers are available" to PC the card. Asked to speak to someone else on it, she transferred me to someone else (presumably some kind of supervisor) who confirmed the same thing-- no offers available. Neither rep explained why I needed a special "offer" to simply downgrade the card to a lower version, and basically said they plug it into some automated system to see if I'm eligible, and I supposedly wasn't.

This didn't fly with me so I escalated the call to a SECOND supervisor-- she said "no problem" and said I had two offers available. Supervisor said fee waver was not possible, but she was willing to downgrade. I hadn't used the card much so I went with downgrade-- she said it will show as the same tradeline on my CR but I'll get a new card in the mail.

Consider this a fair warning if you have the Barclay Arrival Plus... they seem to be getting tougher on fee waivers and even downgrades. It seems it CAN be done, but prepare to jump through a few hoops and escalate as needed.

Any other experiences with this card? Or Barclays in general? I love their Aviator Red MasterCard, which I also have, but was very turned off by this experience. I won't be taking any new cards with them.

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I still have to wonder if this is a new barclaycard policy in general OR if it's product based. I guess we'll get mana more data points on the Aviator soon, but this forum has been all about getting A+, then downgrading. If this a harder lined policy, I don't think it would be wise to apply it uniformly across all cards, considering they have a set pool of people who can ever have the Aviator.

[Anonymous]

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@longtime_lurker wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

A lot of what I've read online has suggested that Barclay is one of the easier companies to get a fee waiver on, and pretty much the universal opinion has been that with the Arrival Plus, you can downgrade to the no-fee Arrival with no problems. This seemed to be the perfect option for me, as I haven't used the Arrival Plus much recently (Fidelity Amex gives me 2% back without requiring me to redeem for travel as Barclays does) but wanted to keep the TL open.

I tried that tonight a day before my AF was about to hit. Spoke to frontline CSR and said I didn't want to pay annual fee and asked if it could be waived. She said no, asked if it could be downgraded (PC) to Arrival non-plus... got put on hold for a few minutes and she came back on the line saying "no offers are available" to PC the card. Asked to speak to someone else on it, she transferred me to someone else (presumably some kind of supervisor) who confirmed the same thing-- no offers available. Neither rep explained why I needed a special "offer" to simply downgrade the card to a lower version, and basically said they plug it into some automated system to see if I'm eligible, and I supposedly wasn't.

This didn't fly with me so I escalated the call to a SECOND supervisor-- she said "no problem" and said I had two offers available. Supervisor said fee waver was not possible, but she was willing to downgrade. I hadn't used the card much so I went with downgrade-- she said it will show as the same tradeline on my CR but I'll get a new card in the mail.

Consider this a fair warning if you have the Barclay Arrival Plus... they seem to be getting tougher on fee waivers and even downgrades. It seems it CAN be done, but prepare to jump through a few hoops and escalate as needed.

Any other experiences with this card? Or Barclays in general? I love their Aviator Red MasterCard, which I also have, but was very turned off by this experience. I won't be taking any new cards with them.

---

I still have to wonder if this is a new barclaycard policy in general OR if it's product based. I guess we'll get mana more data points on the Aviator soon, but this forum has been all about getting A+, then downgrading. If this a harder lined policy, I don't think it would be wise to apply it uniformly across all cards, considering they have a set pool of people who can ever have the Aviator.

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I plan on keeping my red as mine came with 10K AA miles credited yearly just for maintaining that membership.

The wife's will be converted to a white/no AF version.

[longtime_lurker]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@longtime_lurker wrote:

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I still have to wonder if this is a new barclaycard policy in general OR if it's product based. I guess we'll get mana more data points on the Aviator soon, but this forum has been all about getting A+, then downgrading. If this a harder lined policy, I don't think it would be wise to apply it uniformly across all cards, considering they have a set pool of people who can ever have the Aviator.

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I plan on keeping my red as mine came with 10K AA miles credited yearly just for maintaining that membership.

The wife's will be converted to a white/no AF version.

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I still cannot believe your app was not rejected like the rest of us. That's an amazing deal. 

[Anonymous]

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@longtime_lurker wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@longtime_lurker wrote:

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I still have to wonder if this is a new barclaycard policy in general OR if it's product based. I guess we'll get mana more data points on the Aviator soon, but this forum has been all about getting A+, then downgrading. If this a harder lined policy, I don't think it would be wise to apply it uniformly across all cards, considering they have a set pool of people who can ever have the Aviator.

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I plan on keeping my red as mine came with 10K AA miles credited yearly just for maintaining that membership.

The wife's will be converted to a white/no AF version.

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I still cannot believe your app was not rejected like the rest of us. That's an amazing deal. 

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Yeah, I know...totally weird huh. Instant approval too.

[red259]

Eh. After a year if they won't waive the AF or let me downgrade I will cancel the card. Its working for me now, but I don't put enough spend on it to justify the AF.

[heyarrnold]

I just closed my Arrival + like two weeks ago. They offered the option to downgrade, but I had no use for the card. Maybe the representative that you got was having a bad day.