Barclay Card Holders - Experience Feedback Wanted

[joesbrat67]

Hi - I'm considering applying for the Barclay Arrival + World Elite Mastercard amd I'm looking for feedback on the following:

• Current Arrival + card holders - what has been your experience with this particular card, in general?  I'm looking for good, bad and middle of the road
• General card holder feedback - is Barclay a good credit card company to deal with, based on current experience?  FYI - my husband has a Barclay card and has some good experience, thus far.  However, I would like to solicit for additional feedback

Right now, I am considering applying, although it's not a critical must-have at this stage.  My current card stats are:

• FICO scores - EX 784, EQ 790, TU 794.  As I understand that Barclay tends to use TU to inquire on, TU has one HP noted which will drop off June 2017
• Salary - Between 70k - 80k
• Cards issued currently - Cap1 QS - $6500, Chase Freedom - $6500, Citi DP - $6300, Amex BCP - $18K

My ultimate goal is to replace my Cap1 QS with the Barclay card, as I would like to have a travel-specific card in hand.  Cap 1 has offered to convert my QS to a Venture, but seems very reluctant to give me any further CLIs.  I haven't had one in 2+ years, which is why I tend to lean more on my other cards.  In addition, when comparing the basic travel benefits between Venture and Arrival +, the Arrival + seems to beat Venture hands-down.  The annual fee for the Venture is lower, but the general benefits seem to outweigh that.  Also, my QS has a rather high APR (mid 20's) and Cap1 eluded to not lowering the APR - even with the conversion to Venture.

Any and all feedback you can provide would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I have their Sallie Mae Rewards card.

My experience with them has been good. My only disappointment is that the card is being discontinued, but it was too good to last anyway.

I like their website and app. I haven't needed their phone service much, but it's been a good experience too, when I've called. I don't use APR reductions or softpull CLIs from them much, but it's nice that they offer them. I do like their annual "0% apr for 15 months with a 1% fee" offers.

They have a reputation for AA on this forum that shouldn't be ignored, but it's also worth pointing out that people on this forum are not necessarily representative of credit card users in general.

I don't have the Arrival+ because I don't think it's a great card, especially for an annual fee card. But I've heard reasonably good things.

I give them a thumbs up.

[Anonymous]

I had their rewards card. They CLD me after a year or so. I used them a lot. I had no idea it was coming. Nothing changed with the exception of me getting some new wheels.
I can't say it was a horrible experience but I had made my DW an AU on the card and when they CLD me it maxed the card out which cause her scores to tank in the toilet dropping from a 750's to 680's. Needless to say it was a stressful month. I didn't want her other CC taking an AA because of it. As of today it finally updated and her scores rebounded.
I would never, ever auto pay a lot of things on it because it they do CLD it will leave you with a huge UTI.
All my bills pretty much went on that card then I would just PIF. I'd make sure if you ever used it it was one of the cards you never let report a balance and PIF as soon as you can.
Lesson learned. All the while while they CLD me I was getting auto CLI from places like Amex, usbank, etc. so I don't know what they saw, my guess is the 3 inq I took for the car I purchased, but just like they seen me to risky of a consumer, I seen them to risky of a lender and had to shut them down.

[SouthJamaica]

---

@joesbrat67 wrote:

Hi - I'm considering applying for the Barclay Arrival + World Elite Mastercard amd I'm looking for feedback on the following:

• Current Arrival + card holders - what has been your experience with this particular card, in general?  I'm looking for good, bad and middle of the road
• General card holder feedback - is Barclay a good credit card company to deal with, based on current experience?  FYI - my husband has a Barclay card and has some good experience, thus far.  However, I would like to solicit for additional feedback

Right now, I am considering applying, although it's not a critical must-have at this stage.  My current card stats are:

• FICO scores - EX 784, EQ 790, TU 794.  As I understand that Barclay tends to use TU to inquire on, TU has one HP noted which will drop off June 2017
• Salary - Between 70k - 80k
• Cards issued currently - Cap1 QS - $6500, Chase Freedom - $6500, Citi DP - $6300, Amex BCP - $18K

My ultimate goal is to replace my Cap1 QS with the Barclay card, as I would like to have a travel-specific card in hand.  Cap 1 has offered to convert my QS to a Venture, but seems very reluctant to give me any further CLIs.  I haven't had one in 2+ years, which is why I tend to lean more on my other cards.  In addition, when comparing the basic travel benefits between Venture and Arrival +, the Arrival + seems to beat Venture hands-down.  The annual fee for the Venture is lower, but the general benefits seem to outweigh that.  Also, my QS has a rather high APR (mid 20's) and Cap1 eluded to not lowering the APR - even with the conversion to Venture.

Any and all feedback you can provide would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

---

Responding to your second question only, since I've never had either Arrival card.

Barclays is a peculiar company to deal with. They are known for taking adverse action for bizarre reasons, but I haven't heard of that in connection with the Arrival card. I have had a bunch of their cards, I presently have 4, and their Ring card is my favorite card in the credit card universe. I've always liked their card offerings, and they have never harmed me, but I do live in fear of the axe coming down on me some day.

[Onthe27thday]

I love barclays. I get regular CLIs and APR redcutions on my Rewards card.

I have nothing bad to say.

[longtimelurker]

The Arrival + is good for the first year bonus.    After that, you need to consider why you would pay an AF over a free 2% unrestricted cashback card.   Generally these reasons are:

1) Very high spend: After about $90K spend a year, the extra reward on Arrival + overcomes the AF

2) Lots of foreign spending.  Around $15K a year of this makes it better than a free Quicksilver for example.

3) Can really get value from the WEMC benefits (very rare!)

Otherwise, you are paying an AF for a card that is more restrictive than a general 2% cashback card

[joesbrat67]

Can you explain the APR reductions?  Did you initiate, or was it proactively offered by Barclays?  What was the start/end APRs?

[Anonymous]

I had to call in and asked for one. They granted me one but that was it. Declined me the second time. Nothing ever offered.

[Anonymous]

---

@joesbrat67 wrote:

Hi - I'm considering applying for the Barclay Arrival + World Elite Mastercard amd I'm looking for feedback on the following:

• Current Arrival + card holders - what has been your experience with this particular card, in general?  I'm looking for good, bad and middle of the road. While I don't have the card, my better half does.   Talk about a train wreck/aweosme experience.  They have done some very strange things to family as well. Requiring DL, copies of professional licensure?, 2 different pieces of mail, copy of social security card, MAILED in but cannot be sent certified (how secure is that), as well as accusing a person when they have a cold that they are triggering a security alert and their voice does not match previous recordings (this has happened to 2 other people here).  HOWEVER, for SP CLI's on the arrival plus, not bad, paired with decent increase at 6 months of age (50% increase), with the ring, amazing results with Hp, doubled the limit to over 20k).
• General card holder feedback - is Barclay a good credit card company to deal with, based on current experience?  FYI - my husband has a Barclay card and has some good experience, thus far.  However, I would like to solicit for additional feedback No.  They either love you or they hate you.  But if your butt was burnt from the UK mortgage crisis, I would probably behave in a similar way!

Right now, I am considering applying, although it's not a critical must-have at this stage.  My current card stats are:

• FICO scores - EX 784, EQ 790, TU 794.  As I understand that Barclay tends to use TU to inquire on, TU has one HP noted which will drop off June 2017
• Salary - Between 70k - 80k
• Cards issued currently - Cap1 QS - $6500, Chase Freedom - $6500, Citi DP - $6300, Amex BCP - $18K

My ultimate goal is to replace my Cap1 QS with the Barclay card, as I would like to have a travel-specific card in hand.  Cap 1 has offered to convert my QS to a Venture (dont do it, you need to spend 12k+ a year for it to make sense and locked in to travel purchases only for redemptions), but seems very reluctant to give me any further CLIs.  I haven't had one in 2+ years, which is why I tend to lean more on my other cards.  In addition, when comparing the basic travel benefits between Venture and Arrival +, the Arrival + seems to beat Venture hands-down.  The annual fee for the Venture is lower, but the general benefits seem to outweigh that.  Also, my QS has a rather high APR (mid 20's) and Cap1 eluded to not lowering the APR - even with the conversion to Venture.  you wont get apr reductions with capital one long term. but they stick through you in hard financial times. they also have no frills rewards with no minimum redemption no hassle rewards, and no FTFs. 

Any and all feedback you can provide would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

---

benefits slowly disappearing (trip it pro, dividend amount, redemption amount) for the arrival plus. get it for the sign on bonus if you have opened more than 5 major credit cards in the last 2 years.  You will get 50k bonus points, plus points for spend, so you are left with 56k points at a minimum. HOWEVER, remember you have to do barclays math.  They increased their minimum redemption to $100.  This is a nightmare.  It ends up leaving points held captive so you have to always consider barclays math with the arrival plus. This is explained here: https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/4okzke/barclay_arrival_redemption_frustration/

Basically you want to redeem almost all of your points but just enough so that you do not have to spend another 1200 to cash out the leftover points/dividend. By following barclays math above you'd end up redeeming less, then spending less to maximize the bonus before downgrading to the no AF version.

I would say hands down chase should be your first stop, after that, citi, amex, and BOA.  You want to evaluate what your true needs are with the card.  If its avoiding foreign transaction fees and having true chip+pin, then the regular arrival is a good choice to downgrade to after exhausting all other options.

http://uponarriving.com/2016/10/15/downgrade-product-change-barclaycard-arrival-plus/

Also again after exhausting all chase signup bonuses, the Bank of America Travel Rewards is a nice choice. They offer decent credit increases, apr reductions, recurrent BT promos, no ftfs, and a $200 signup bonus good for travel redemptions. However its only 1.5% back vs the 2% you'd get on the standard arrival. BoA merril lynch would give you $500 in cash or up to $1000 in airfare after spending 3k in 90 days, as well as apr reductions and BT promos, is basically a 2% card for travel only with no annual fee.

Discover IT miles may not be as widely accepted, I would make sure its accepted where you plan on traveling. As it offers $30 in yearly inflight wifi credits, and the first year is 1.5% cash back on everything and doubled at 12 months for a total of 3%.  Also has no FTFs. Apr reductions. Recurrent BT promos.

Arrival Plus and Venture bonuses are fine as long as you've exhausted all other available measures. 

To summarize, you are at a max of 4 cards in 2 years (unless you closed some recently).  You should be applying for the chase sapphire reserve before january 11th (i think thats the last day). You would get $300 off any travel expense now, and again in 2018, and 1000 in cash or 1500 towards travel booked through chase. You are already established with chase, have the income, and scores, and see you getting a 15-25k limit on a CSR.  If you are at 3/24 I would check in branch in a month or two after getting the chase sapphire reserve to see if you are preapproved for the 70k offer on the chase sapphire preferred.  Then once you have had the CSR for 12 months you can decide if its in essence 150 AF is worth keeping for redemptions (you'd easily get 30k urs a year if you maxed out each quarter on your freedom), or can downgrade to a 2nd freedom or freedom unlimited.

[wasCB14]

A high share of the CSRs are idiots...or they have very bad incentives. I'm not using that term to say they wouldn't give me what I wanted; I mean they present as facts things that are not true (and they don't seem to care). I've never had a CSR bother to research some question I have, as has happened at other banks...they just say something to get me off the line.

For example:

"The no-AF Arrival comes with an EMV chip." (This was before it was an option.)

"You can switch to Arrival+. It has only a $49 AF." (It's $89, and the PC wasn't allowed.)

I did once lose my Sallie and fortunately got an intelligent, helpful person who provided me with a new account number.

I've heard from others that their customer service reputation on the supposedly premium cards (Luxury/Black) isn't any better than on other cards.

They have a reputation for AA on here, but this is a community of outliers and I see a lot more AA reports from people with 690ish FICOs and 40 other cards than 790ish ones and 4 other cards (like you).

The cards I have (Sallie and no-AF Arrival) are closed to new apps. Timing matters with their cards as far as apping when a great promotion is running (like renewal points/miles). They change their lineup a lot.

I'm on the fence about closing mine. I think I'll just squeeze a little more AAoA and 5% cash back out of them before closing both Sallie and Arrival. My hesitation is mostly around minimizing the indications of churner behavior. I'll be closing enough accounts in the next few years, as it is.

One auto CLI after 20 months on Sallie (with intermittent use). APRs are irrelevant to me.