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@jeffery581 wrote:I guess thats why discover advertises american reps. because people are tired of it. Customer service is the most important issue to me. I think its very meaningful to say who is prime and who isn't. I know the terms before signing up. prime should also mean good customer service.
the reason for my call was because when i loged in to my account online it said click here to active.... card was not stolen or lost and less than a year old. after 45 minutes on the phone the supervisor finaly told me it was because of a security breach,(on barclays end) a new card was being sent, well ok but they didnt tell me any of that!
like i said barclays is not prime imo,
Prime means different things to different people (clearly from this thread), so saying that Bank X is prime isn't that informative without knowing what that person is using as criteria. So, no, it is not that meaningful without more context. Usually there are other words that could be used, such as "Barclays has terrible customer service". Some people would still disagree but it would be clear what you meant!
In the financial crisis sense, subprime (mortgage) lenders were those that lent money to borrowers who could not qualify for prime rates. That is sort of objective definition. And probably applies to the usual ones we love to hate in credit cards, Credit One, First Premier. But not Barclays.
And yes, Barclays pays me large sums of money to protect their reputation on consumer forums. I wish.
I've found the CSRs to be fine, never detected that they were foreign. If anything the ones I spoke with had some very American accents. Then again, they always answered as Arrival reps rather than Barclays, so maybe they have different services depending on card?
@longtimelurker wrote:
@jeffery581 wrote:I guess thats why discover advertises american reps. because people are tired of it. Customer service is the most important issue to me. I think its very meaningful to say who is prime and who isn't. I know the terms before signing up. prime should also mean good customer service.
the reason for my call was because when i loged in to my account online it said click here to active.... card was not stolen or lost and less than a year old. after 45 minutes on the phone the supervisor finaly told me it was because of a security breach,(on barclays end) a new card was being sent, well ok but they didnt tell me any of that!
like i said barclays is not prime imo,
Prime means different things to different people (clearly from this thread), so saying that Bank X is prime isn't that informative without knowing what that person is using as criteria. So, no, it is not that meaningful without more context. Usually there are other words that could be used, such as "Barclays has terrible customer service". Some people would still disagree but it would be clear what you meant!
In the financial crisis sense, subprime (mortgage) lenders were those that lent money to borrowers who could not qualify for prime rates. That is sort of objective definition. And probably applies to the usual ones we love to hate in credit cards, Credit One, First Premier. But not Barclays.
And yes, Barclays pays me large sums of money to protect their reputation on consumer forums. I wish.
+1
@NotUsher wrote:I've found the CSRs to be fine, never detected that they were foreign. If anything the ones I spoke with had some very American accents. Then again, they always answered as Arrival reps rather than Barclays, so maybe they have different services depending on card?
I believe they do. I have 4 CCs with Barclays and all are not handled by the same CS teams. My other CC (Bank of Hawaii AMEX) which is serviced by Barclays, seems to have US based reps. Then again, I don't call Barclays very often, but when I do, I've experienced no issues at all whether it's US based or not. Sorry to hear the OP had a bad experience but like others have mentioned, it happens with most lenders.
Sorry, but credit profiles are either prime or subprime, not the creditors themself.
Creditors just offer products to those borrowing demographics.
Consider Cap1. They market products to both ends of the credit spectrum.
CSR's are personalities. Some are better than others.
The better CSR's usually work the more prime-targeted products. AMEX comes to mind.
My experience w/ Barclays has been rather good. Every question I've asked was no trouble. They're not the friendliest, but I'd trade friendly for a one-call solution any day.
@longtimelurker wrote:Really another example of why saying a bank is or isn't prime isn't all that meaningful. Here the OP has experienced very bad CSRs. But, you can experience that with almost any bank (although top tier cards at major banks usually have better staff). To me, a subprime bank/card has some or all of these:
1) Lots of fees, including things like monthy charges, processing fees etc
2) Very low credit limits that don't grow and are eaten up by fees
3) Poor or non-existent rewards, despite very high APRs.
Most Barclays cards aren't like that..
+1. I would add another point though.
4) people with bad credit can be approved for it.
To OP, bad customer service isn't really a good indicator. I've had bad a couple experiences with American Express and Citi, and once with Chase and Discover. By your logic those banks wouldn't be prime either, especially Citi, only because they had to keep me on the phone with them for over 30mins before I finally gave up and I had to call my private banker just to have my accounts linked together. Try initiating a charge dispute with Discover as well, and they'll definitely be subprime, or worse, in your opinion, since Discover is fairly notorious for being horrible with customer disputes.
And to be fair to Barclays, they probably use a tiered customer service system, similar to American Express, Citi, Chase, etc. Depending on the type of card you have and your internal score with the bank, the type of customer service you get will vary as well.
Barclay CSR called me once since I pressed their luv button too soon. He was very nice and polite and I had no trouble understand him (unlike Amex rep which I believe were from India and I've had hard time understanding him). This was only one call though.
1st I want to thank u for this post. I have been trying to figure out all day why my account said activate when logging on. I called and when I entered my account number the automated system said my account had been converted and my new account number is xxxx now. I do find it odd that they deactivate ur card and not call email or anything. Well I didn't try to use the card im just assuming. I was begingto think that I got upgraded to world as I am plat now. I am sorry u had that experience from csr's. I was angry my statement just cut and was going to use this card. I would have been really angery had I called and I didnt want to pick a fight with csr. very fresh app spree and didn't want to poke a sleeping dog.
@Fin u have 4 cards that is insane I hear its almost impossible to get two cards let alone 4. Way to go!
Ps my account no longer says activate upon logging in. Under activated cards says my card was activated 1/2013. But the last 4 of acct# changed.