topic Re: Barclaycard no longer does APR Reducation ? in Credit Cards

Barclaycard no longer does APR Reduction ?

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 16:26:59 GMT

Greetings All.

So i just called up Barclaycard (Jetblue Mastercard) to try to get a reducation on my APR. When i talked with the customer support she told me that as of the beginning of this year they have suspending APR reduction for any account. Is this legit ? has anyone been able to get APR reduciton from Barclay Card in 2019 ?

Thanks

Re: Barclaycard no longer does APR Reducation ?

pizza1 — Tue, 28 May 2019 16:12:31 GMT

Welcome to the forums!! Glad you're here

I no longer have Barclays anymore, but several here do, so I'm sure they will pipe in shortly. I just wanted to welcome you

Re: Barclaycard no longer does APR Reducation ?

FinStar — Tue, 28 May 2019 16:13:21 GMT

Barclays APR reductions are hit or miss these days. Typically, you'd have to be transferred to their retentions department to determine whether your account has an offer or is eligible for the APR reduction.

Re: Barclaycard no longer does APR Reducation ?

Anonymous — Tue, 28 May 2019 18:07:08 GMT

Interesting DP...although the APR shouldn't matter because you shouldn't be carrying a balance

Just got the Barclays Uber Visa but other than that have no other Barclays experience. My intuition is their APR reductions are probably on a manually reviewed case by case basis. Maybe try calling again and seeing if you get the same answer out of them just to confirm what the first rep said is correct.

Re: Barclaycard no longer does APR Reducation ?

SBR249 — Tue, 28 May 2019 18:28:30 GMT

This doesn't sound like a sustainable policy. APRs will always fluctuate with economic conditions. Unless Barclays has also suspended APR increases, then it seems unlikely that they would maintain a policy that APRs can only go up in the long term.

Re: Barclaycard no longer does APR Reducation ?

zerofire — Tue, 28 May 2019 23:45:49 GMT

@SBR249 wrote:
This doesn't sound like a sustainable policy. APRs will always fluctuate with economic conditions. Unless Barclays has also suspended APR increases, then it seems unlikely that they would maintain a policy that APRs can only go up in the long term.

We are talking about Barclay's here. They will charge 35-40% VAT on your US purchases for using their card if they could just for more profit. There are ways to keep the APR within reason by keeping it flat but it requires not raising it when the percentages go up at first. Also doing that would lose some customers. Anyway I think they might have suspended manual APR spread adjustments while still allowing the automated systems to do their things with prime changes.

Re: Barclaycard no longer does APR Reducation ?

Anonymous — Tue, 28 May 2019 23:55:16 GMT

dtmpatriot one of the posters mentioned calling in again for another CSR ... you could also ask for retention which some one mentioned and see if they would look for an offer. Also, someone mentioned it was Barclays and that says a lot.

Going back to 2016 I obtained a 4% reduction. Several other people on this site have also seen reduced Aprs. Note however, I do not recall any one commenting in the last many months about a reduced Apr. Best wishes as you weigh your options!

Re: Barclaycard no longer does APR Reducation ?

kdm31091 — Tue, 28 May 2019 23:55:30 GMT

@SBR249 wrote:
This doesn't sound like a sustainable policy. APRs will always fluctuate with economic conditions. Unless Barclays has also suspended APR increases, then it seems unlikely that they would maintain a policy that APRs can only go up in the long term.

It's sustainable if the bank wants it to be. They don't have to entertain customer requested APR reductions. Chase doesn't and to my knowledge they never have. The APR you are approved at is what you're stuck with, outside of changes in the Prime rate in either direction. Amex doesn't seem to do permanent reductions much anymore either. Capital One has never really done them. So if Barclay is moving away from it, they wouldn't be the only ones.

I have not seen any recent Barclay APR reductions. Doesn't mean they don't do them, but it sure doesn't seem as common as it used to be.

Re: Barclaycard no longer does APR Reducation ?

SBR249 — Wed, 29 May 2019 02:32:13 GMT

@kdm31091 wrote:
@SBR249 wrote:
This doesn't sound like a sustainable policy. APRs will always fluctuate with economic conditions. Unless Barclays has also suspended APR increases, then it seems unlikely that they would maintain a policy that APRs can only go up in the long term.
It's sustainable if the bank wants it to be. They don't have to entertain customer requested APR reductions. Chase doesn't and to my knowledge they never have. The APR you are approved at is what you're stuck with, outside of changes in the Prime rate in either direction. Amex doesn't seem to do permanent reductions much anymore either. Capital One has never really done them. So if Barclay is moving away from it, they wouldn't be the only ones.

I have not seen any recent Barclay APR reductions. Doesn't mean they don't do them, but it sure doesn't seem as common as it used to be.

The OP's account wasn't really specific enough as to whether Barclays is suspending APR reductions across the board or case-by-case APR reductions. Certainly in the long term, CC APRs should fluctutate with economic conditions (prime rate for instance) which was what I was commenting on.

Re: Barclaycard no longer does APR Reducation ?

kdm31091 — Wed, 29 May 2019 16:09:18 GMT

@SBR249 wrote:
@kdm31091 wrote:
@SBR249 wrote:
This doesn't sound like a sustainable policy. APRs will always fluctuate with economic conditions. Unless Barclays has also suspended APR increases, then it seems unlikely that they would maintain a policy that APRs can only go up in the long term.
It's sustainable if the bank wants it to be. They don't have to entertain customer requested APR reductions. Chase doesn't and to my knowledge they never have. The APR you are approved at is what you're stuck with, outside of changes in the Prime rate in either direction. Amex doesn't seem to do permanent reductions much anymore either. Capital One has never really done them. So if Barclay is moving away from it, they wouldn't be the only ones.

I have not seen any recent Barclay APR reductions. Doesn't mean they don't do them, but it sure doesn't seem as common as it used to be.
The OP's account wasn't really specific enough as to whether Barclays is suspending APR reductions across the board or case-by-case APR reductions. Certainly in the long term, CC APRs should fluctutate with economic conditions (prime rate for instance) which was what I was commenting on.

Variable APRs always fluctuate with economic conditions, frequently up but obviously can go down as well.

However, customer requested APR reductions have nothing to do with the natural fluctuation of a variable APR. The bank could easily have a policy of not honoring requested manual APR reductions. It doesn't mean it's not a variable APR, just that it is not adjustable upon request.

In any case, we don't know if Barclay has really changed policy or not, but a bank not honoring customer requested APR reductions isn't unheard of.

Re: Barclaycard no longer does APR Reducation ?

Anonymous — Wed, 29 May 2019 16:22:58 GMT

Update on all of this

First though, thank you guys for being an awesome community and responding quickly.

So i called back, a new CSR said she didnt know of a freeze but she see's i was denied an APR lowering.

Being confused i called a backdoor i found on these forums, the guy directed me to what seemed like another CSR but way friendler.

I told him my situation and he said he didn't here of a freeze but he will check. after a 5 minute hold he was surprised to say that they did freeze all APR lowering across all accounts.

I have a backup card i never use with CapitalOne. I called them and they were able to lower it 4% and told me to call back in 6months to check again. In one last ditch effort i decied to not have to move all my Auto payments etc. I called and talked with a Supervisor at Barclay card, told him my situation and the fact i did over 50k of business through them is there any else they could do. A Big Fat no.

So now i am moving all my automatic payments to the capital one card and will only use the jetblue barclay card to purchase flights on jetblue.

thanks again for your support in the forum

Re: Barclaycard no longer does APR Reducation ?

Anonymous — Wed, 29 May 2019 16:24:27 GMT

Several CSRs told me the same thing. No longer being offered.

Re: Barclaycard no longer does APR Reducation ?

CreditInspired — Wed, 29 May 2019 16:32:14 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Greetings All.

So i just called up Barclaycard (Jetblue Mastercard) to try to get a reducation on my APR. When i talked with the customer support she told me that as of the beginning of this year they have suspending APR reduction for any account. Is this legit ? has anyone been able to get APR reduciton from Barclay Card in 2019 ?

Thanks

Hi OP

I never knew that they had to give an APR reduction, much less if it is legal. Honestly, I though it was a privilege when I asked and received one.

Re: Barclaycard no longer does APR Reducation ?

zerofire — Wed, 29 May 2019 18:45:02 GMT

They do not have to unless they exceed the legal max where everything higher is loan shark territory. They can lower an APR by changing their spread. The spread is the difference between prime and their posted APR. By lowering the spread they make less money but keep you happy and paying as a customer. Banks use it as a hardship assistance tactic but there are some banks that will let you drown in interest due. Getting an APR reduction is a privilege as most people never ask. It shows you know a little extra while at the same time being nice to the CSR. No sane CSR will do the reduction if you are being rude.

Re: Barclaycard no longer does APR Reducation ?

UncleB — Wed, 29 May 2019 18:53:15 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Update on all of this

First though, thank you guys for being an awesome community and responding quickly.

So i called back, a new CSR said she didnt know of a freeze but she see's i was denied an APR lowering.
Being confused i called a backdoor i found on these forums, the guy directed me to what seemed like another CSR but way friendler.
I told him my situation and he said he didn't here of a freeze but he will check. after a 5 minute hold he was surprised to say that they did freeze all APR lowering across all accounts.

I have a backup card i never use with CapitalOne. I called them and they were able to lower it 4% and told me to call back in 6months to check again. In one last ditch effort i decied to not have to move all my Auto payments etc. I called and talked with a Supervisor at Barclay card, told him my situation and the fact i did over 50k of business through them is there any else they could do. A Big Fat no.

So now i am moving all my automatic payments to the capital one card and will only use the jetblue barclay card to purchase flights on jetblue.

thanks again for your support in the forum

Hi @Anonymous, just to clarify, was the Capital One APR reduction temporary?

If not this is new info, since Capital One isn't know for permanent reductions, either. Usually six months is what they can do; I'm assuming that's likely what you meant.

Re: Barclaycard no longer does APR Reducation ?

gdale6 — Wed, 29 May 2019 20:58:05 GMT

Must need money to pay this latest settlement https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/16/eu-regulators-fine-five-banks-for-forex-rigging.html

I exited everything with Barclays in January ahead of the first scheduled Brexit date and with no deal back on the table it makes sense they are not allowing much of anything to change until they get some clarity.

Re: Barclaycard no longer does APR Reducation ?

Anonymous — Thu, 30 May 2019 17:47:46 GMT

Well, it seems that I dodged a bullet when denied for their Aviator card. lol

As for APR reductions, it's alwasy been a "courtesy" for memebers in good standing. Generally if you PIF, then the APR is moot. And they'll typically lower it because it's obviously not factoring into anything. For People who carry a balance though, there's not much incetive for them to lower it. So it could seem like a tug of war situation, especially if you're only paying minimums.

With Discover, I tend to carry BT's but pay much more than the miniums. And I was able to get an APR reduction. Haven't yet tried Citi as I 've been on their 0% promo since account openeing on the DP. And recently was offered 1.99% for 12 months on the AAdvantage MC, so no need there. All other card are PIF, so no real need to ask.

Re: Barclaycard no longer does APR Reducation ?

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 16:19:32 GMT

@Anonymous as other posters have already said, lenders do not have to lower Aprs. US Bank, Chase and USAA come to mind as lenders that will not reduce Aprs. Whatever your credit file generates at the time of the account opening is the general card Apr. Now some people find they can apply to the same lender when their credit profile improves and get a better rate on a new card. Looking at JP Morgan Chase, they have been slowly raising the Aprs on many of their older accounts to the higher rates such as the 17% to 18% plus. In my case, the Apr on my Chase Freedom Card product went up from 10.24% to 17.24% over the last few years. Other posters on this Forum experienced the same actions from Chase (nothing to do with my credit profile - scores in the signature). Other lenders are also slowly raising their Aprs (guess the low rate Aprs free ride is over). Motto: "Don't carry balances"!

Re: Barclaycard no longer does APR Reducation ?

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 18:27:30 GMT

thanks for all the responses !

i never suggested they were required to change it, i was just getting clarity if what they were saying to me about "no one can get a APR reduction" was real or just bs.

In a interesting turn of event , 3 days later i got an letter saying they raised the amount i can borrow on the card..

But yea this is my journey to pay off all my cards and not carry balences. taking control of my finacial future while reading " I WIll Teach You To Be Rich" by Ramit Sethi