Tag Archives: Barclays Bank

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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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Track Credit Card Sign Up Bonuses, Annual Fees & 5/24 Score with TravelFreely

Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  A few weeks ago, I was in Denver and went to the Front Range Travel Hackers Meetup Group.  At the meetup, I met Zac, the founder of TravelFreely, a website he created to track credit card sign up bonuses (deadlines to complete the minimum spending requirements), track credit card annual fees, calculate your 5/24 Score, and make it easy for you to track your credit cards along with your spouse / companion’s credit cards.  And by the way, the service is completely free and you can set up your account in a few minutes (unless you have 30+ credit cards like me, in which case, it could take a little longer).  Without further ado, here is how TravelFreely works.  To get started, sign up for your free TravelFreely account here.  Enter your name, email address, and click the Get Started button.

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How to Downgrade to No Annual Fee Barclays Arrival Credit Card

Good morning everyone, I have a short post today regarding my Barclays Arrival Credit Card.  A few weeks ago, I wrote Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card: Redeem 2,500 Points for $25 Travel Statement Credit (Only Toward $89 Annual Fee).  After redeeming 2,500 Barclays Arrival Miles for a $25 travel statement credit toward the $89 annual fee, I called Barclays to downgrade to the no annual fee Barclays Arrival Credit Card.  The new credit card arrived a few days ago, along with the following letter.  I can earn 1,000 bonus Barclays Arrival Miles after making my first purchase.  That sounded like a no brainer, so I made a $25 travel purchase.

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My Barclays Credit Card Targeted / Spending Offers for May 2018 [Letters Now Attached]

Updated 10:20am PT on 5/15: I received letters from Barclays with the complete terms for all 3 targeted spending offers.


Good morning everyone, happy Friday.  A few days ago, I called Barclays to request a downgrade from my Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card to the no annual fee Barclays Arrival Credit Card.  After the downgrade was completed, I asked the rep (I believe he was a customer relationship manager, or some similar title) if there were any targeted / spending offers available.  To my surprise, there was an offer.  To say I don’t put much spend on my Barclays credit cards would be an understatement – all 4 of my credit cards have $0 balances and haven’t had charges on them for a few months.

The rep said that my new Barclays Arrival Credit Card had the following offer: earn a $50 statement credit after spending $1,000 each month for the next 3 months.  Since that was the only offer available, I accepted the offer, even though I have no intention on spending $3,000+ over 3 months to get a $50 statement credit ($50 / $3,000 = 1.67% bonus).  I then asked if he could check my 3 other Barclays credit cards and see if there were any offers available.  Who knows, if you don’t ask, they will never proactively tell you about your offers.

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Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card: Redeem 2,500 Points for $25 Travel Statement Credit (Only Toward $89 Annual Fee)

Good morning everyone.  I think I stumbled onto a way to redeem 2,500 Barclays Arrival Points for $25, but this only works when your annual fee posts.  I haven’t used my Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card much since meeting the minimum spend requirements and cashing in the sign up bonus, so maybe this post will not be very useful.  I just received an email that my $89 annual fee posted to my Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card.  I thought I have a few Barclays Arrival Points in my account, so I wondered if I could use any of those points before I downgrade or convert to another credit card…

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