Barclaycard no longer does APR Reduction ?

Anonymous · ‎05-28-2019

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

pizza1 · ‎05-28-2019

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

FinStar · ‎05-28-2019

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.

Anonymous · ‎05-28-2019

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.

SBR249 · ‎05-28-2019

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.

zerofire · ‎05-28-2019

@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.

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Anonymous · ‎05-28-2019

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!

kdm31091 · ‎05-28-2019

@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.

SBR249 · ‎05-28-2019

@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.

kdm31091 · ‎05-29-2019

@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.