Tag Archives: Barclays Bank

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Keep, Cancel or Convert? Barclays JetBlue Plus Credit Card ($99 Annual Fee)

Good morning everyone.  As part of my “Keep, Cancel or Convert?” series, I like to evaluate and reevaluate credit cards to make sure they still deserve a spot in my wallet (or at least my credit card drawer).  A few weeks ago, the $99 annual fee posted to my Barclays JetBlue Plus Credit Card.  I don’t fly JetBlue very often, but I do enjoy getting a 10% rebate on my redeemed miles and getting 5,000 bonus anniversary points every year.  Those 2 benefits alone are probably worth close to $99, depending on how much you value JetBlue points and how many JetBlue points you redeem.  So the question is, is this card a keeper?  I was leaning toward keeping the credit card, but I decided to call Barclays and ask if there were any retention offers available anyway.  Good thing I called…

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Best Options for Keeping American Airlines Miles From Expiring

My cousin called me yesterday afternoon to ask a question about her American Airlines miles expiring. She has a stash of miles expiring in a few months and didn’t even know that miles expire. I gave her a short answer because I was heading home from the mall to get ready for dinner. But it got me thinking, that maybe I hadn’t given her the best advice or even all the options, so I did some research and here’s what I’d tell her now.

Yup, your miles will expire if you don’t have activity in your account every 18 months. If you have no plans to fly to keep your account active, there are plenty of options. My cousin could:

  1. Apply for a Citibank credit card linked to American Airlines miles.
  2. Make a hotel reservation or car rental with an AAdvantage hotel or car rental partner. As long as her American Airlines frequent flyer number is linked to the reservation, she’ll get activity in her account and keep her miles alive.
  3. Link a credit card to the American Airlines dining program.  She can link American Airlines and then get miles when she eats at select restaurants.
  4. Shop online using the AAdvantage shopping portal.
  5. Buy or gift miles, redeem for a magazine subscription, or donate miles to any of American Airline’s partner charities.

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Why Can’t I Remove Closed Barclays Credit Card from my Online Account?

Good morning everyone.  A few days ago, I called Barclays regarding retention offers on my Barclays credit cards.  During the call, I decided to close my old Barclays Lufthansa Miles & More Credit Card.  I had already redeemed all of my Lufthansa Miles & More Miles for a Turkish Airlines business class flight from San Francisco (SFO) to Istanbul (IST) to Athens (ATH).  That was 55,000 miles well spent.  A few months ago, I even downgraded to the no annual fee version of the Barclays Lufthansa Miles & More Credit Card, but I vowed never to spend another dollar on that credit card since I had 0 miles, so what would be the point in earning more miles?  Long story short, I decided to close the Barclays Lufthansa Miles & More Credit Card and move the credit limit to my Barclays JetBlue Plus Credit Card and no annual fee Barclays Arrival Credit Card.  Now that the credit card was closed and had a $0 credit limit, I was confused why the closed credit card continued to show up in my online account.  I was on a mission to find out how to remove the credit card from my online account, but I was not prepared for what I would find out.

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My Barclays Credit Card Retention / Targeted Spending Offers for September 2018 [Letters Added]

Updated 8PM PT on 9/18/18: I just received the confirmation letters from Barclays and added both letters to this post.


Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  Last week, I noticed that my $75 annual fee posted on my Barclays Wyndham Rewards Credit Card.  I signed up for this credit card during my September 2017 App-O-Rama and received 45,000 Wyndham Rewards Points as a welcome bonus (enough for 3 free nights, which I still haven’t used yet).  I wrote a similar post about my Barclays Credit Card Targeted / Spending Offers for May 2018.  In today’s post, I will share my retention / targeted spending offers on my 3 Barclays credit cards.

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Cannot Redeem Barclays Arrival Miles for Eligible Travel Purchase? Call Barclays for Help

Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  Last week, I helped my brother keep his American Airlines miles from expiring.  In today’s episode of managing my family’s miles & points, my dad told me he had 11,026 Barclays Arrival Miles in his account and wanted to close his Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card.  I told him that he should redeem his Barclays Arrival Miles before he closes his credit card.  I told him to buy an airline eGC and then redeem Barclays Arrival Miles for that travel purchase.

He didn’t have any upcoming travel plans, so I told him I would help him out.  I would make a purchase on his Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card, redeem the Barclays Arrival Miles for the purchase, and then pay him back for the purchase.  Since I live and work in the San Francisco Bay Area, I use my Clipper Card to take public transportation (BART, SMART, Ferry, CalTrain, etc.) around the Bay and to SFO and OAK.  I go through $200-$300 a month in Clipper Card charges, so I knew I could use up $110.26 pretty quickly, so I loaded $110.26 to my Clipper Card with my dad’s Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card.  I normally use my Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card for the 3x travel rewards for Clipper Card charges, but I wouldn’t lose sleep over the missing points.

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