Can I Get the Barclay Arrival Plus if I have the No-Fee Arrival?

Dozens of people are asking:

I currently have the no-fee Arrival card. Can I apply for the Arrival Plus card while still holding the no-fee version?

• Barclay Arrival+ Now with 50,000 Point Bonus [worth $525 in travel]

Answer: No, not with instant approval.

It used to be possible to have multiple Arrival’s at the same time, but that was changed over a year ago. At some point over the past year or so, there was a change in the system whereby the no-fee Arrival and the Arrival Plus are considered the same product, and the system won’t approve you for Arrival Plus if you currently have any version of the Arrival card.

If you currently have any version of the Arrival card, no hard pull will be done for the new application. 

[Some people report that Barclay never hard pulls for a denial, but that’s quite YMMV based on the comments to this post. With regards to applying for a second Arrival, it’s unanimous that no hard pull will be done.]

Manual Approval

While the system will instantly deny the Arrival+ application if you hold any version of the Arrival card, that doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t get approved for the card.

A friend applied for the Arrival+ while holding the no-fee version and was able to get approved for the card by calling in. And a reader reports the same.

It might simply be a bug that the system mistakenly considers both cards to be the same product. Or maybe it’s on purpose. In any case, it is possible to get approved by explaining to the rep that it’s a different card, but it will likely be more difficult to get approved if you currently hold the no-fee version.

Important: While my friend was able to get approved, I don’t know for certain he’ll get the signup bonus. Logically, he should get it, but there is one troubling data point which might indicate that the system won’t automatically apply the bonus is such a scenario. Update: A reader reports getting confirmation on the signup bonus being attached.

How long after cancelling the Arrival/Arrival+ can I signup for a new card?

That’s the million dollar question, and I can’t give an exact answer. Traditionally, it’s been said to wait six months to apply again. However, there are indications (1, 2) that as little as two months is fine and can be instantly approved. There’s also one report indicating instant approval after 16 days.

More recently, reports came in with an approval after just four days or even one day, although they needed a recon call to process the application and pull their credit.

We don’t have any information as to how long the 50,000 bonus will be around.

Conclusion

Lots of people like downgrading their Arrival+ to the no-fee version instead of cancelling, either to save the points or for the chip/PIN or due to a 10,000 points downgrade bonus offer Barclay is wont to offer. But keep in mind that you won’t easily be able to get the Arrival Plus at a future date if you do so.