Barclaycard Ј50 Credit for bad press

A question about : Barclaycard Ј50 Credit for bad press

Just rang Barclaycard to cancel after 18 months 0% purchases rate ran out. The man on the phone was trying to persuade me to stay with balance transfers etc. I said that I wasn't happy with the negative publicity re LIBOR etc. He then offered me Ј50 credit on my account to appease me.

Has anyone else encountered this?

Best answers:

• I personally haven't but take the Ј50 and spend it. Then just cancel after!
• others have reported yes
• I called earlier this month to cancel an Initial card as they've just sent me a Cashback card.
  They then offered me Ј50 to keep the Initial open... Ј50 appeared straight away. Will cancel it next month...
• Barclaycard gave me Ј20 a year or two ago to keep the account open. I then closed it shortly afterwards after spending the money.
• This is still happening, I was very confused (and a little sceptical) when it was offered but yeah I took the Ј50 and I'll close next month!
• I used to do this trick every 3-6 months but the last time I called, about 6 months ago they just offered me cashback deals and balance transfer deals that I wasn't interested in but I kind of wanted to vote with my feet since they decided to start charging for cash advances (a rare perk amongst credit cards!.
• The 15 month 0% spending offer on my Barclaycard ended mid-Jan 2013 and, after paying off the balance, I called up a few days later to cancel and after the guy had failed to persuade me to keep the card he surprised me by offering to credit Ј20 to the account. I took the offer, spent the money a few days later, and closed the account last week. The lady this time tried all their usual techniques of "you've been a valued customer since 2011" and various other reasons that it's good to keep the card "in case you want to use it" etc but no more cash was forthcoming the second time around.
  A few weeks ago RBS, by comparison, just closed the account quickly and without a fight. Barclays transfer you to special loyalty department where they seem to be well trained in trying to keep you.
• A few months ago I called to cancel and was offered Ј30 and 1% cash back for 6 months. I spent the money but did not use the cash back much because I have another cash back card.
  I shall try to close Barclaycard again and see if I can get Ј50 this time! Thanks for the tip! Will report on what happens after I have done it.
• I recently complained about the service provided (I couldn't understand what the customer service staff were saying due to their accent).
  Barclaycard offered Ј30 apology and 0% for 6 months.
• Rang up to cancel hoping they would offer me the Ј50 to stay. They tried to persuade me by saying I could keep my barclaycard just as a spare, and they could reduce the credit limit if I was afraid of fraud, but they never offered my any money to stay. In the end they just said "well, it doesn't look like we can persuade you to stay so we'll go ahead and close your account for you". Ah well, worth a try (and I never used the card anyway, so nothing lost from my point of view)
• They gave me Ј250 .
• Just rang to cancel. Although the advisor spent ages talking and did his best to persuade me to stay, no offer of anything at all except their existing rate & rewards scheme. Oh well, I didn't use it anyway.
• It's possible that given Martin's e-mail has just suggested ringing up for free money, they've decided to take a less generous approach today? It's more likely someone ringing actually doesn't intend to cancel.
  If I was Barclaycard, I'd probably use it as an opportunity to focus on quickly agreeing to the request to cancel from customers they would be happy to lose.
• I got Ј10 from Barclaycard last year when I tried to cancel. Interesting to hear it's gone up to Ј50 - will be ringing them now!
• Just rang. got Ј50... after a bit of wrangling. Thank you for flagging this up, as I was actually going to cancel this account, so feel a little less guilty.
• About a month ago my account was credited Ј40 to keep my Barclaycard. I got the card about 2 years ago. The deal at the time was 0% on purchases for 18 months plus Ј20 Amazon voucher. I think I'll keep the card for another 2 years then cancel with the hope to be given another incentive to keep it.