28 Things You Should Know About Barclaycard Credit Cards

We’ve covered all the major credit card issuers with what you should know about them, but somehow managed to miss Barclaycard (several readers let me know about this). So without further ado, here are 23 things you should know about Barclaycard credit cards.

The List

1. Barclaycard almost exclusively pulls the TransUnion credit bureau. Depending on where you live, this can be a big plus as they are frequently not used and it’s good to be able to spread your hard pulls across the three credit bureaus.
2. We don’t know if they’ll pull another bureau if you have TransUnion frozen and still approve you. That’s because most people freeze their reports with Equifax/Experian to try and get more inquiries on TransUnion.
3. They send out a lot of targeted spending offers, so keep an eye on your e-mail and mail. Frequent offers include, spend $500 for three months and receive 15,000 miles/points and 2x bonus points in different categories.
4. It’s mixed results with retention offers. Sometimes you can get the annual fee waived, sometimes you can’t. They seem to prefer to offer the targeted spending offers mentioned above instead. You can read more about tactics for retention here.
5. Most of the Barclaycard credit cards come with no annual fee versions, and it’s possible to downgrade to them. This might be useful if you want to increase your average age of accounts.
6. They will usually match a higher sign up bonus as long as you request the match within 30 days of account opening. It’s always worth a call though even if you’re outside this 30 day period.
7. The time your minimum spend must be met begins as soon as your card is approved.
8. You can ask for your credit card to be expedited, but they charge a $15 fee (might now be lower according to the comments). Customer service representatives can and will waive this fee sometimes, so just make sure you have a valid reason for wanting it expedited.
9. They won’t issue you an instant credit card number either. So that option is out the window.
10. On Barclaycard branded cards (e.g Arrival) the sign up bonus will post with the transaction that met the minimum spend requirement. On co branded cards (e.g Wyndham) it’ll post after the statement closes in which you meet the minimum spend requirement. Don’t think there is anyway to get these expedited.
11. If you’re not approved for a Barclaycard credit then call their reconsideration department. If you’ve never called reconsideration before, then read this guide first.
12. Barclaycard will regularly offer credit limit increases, but if you initiate one yourself it’ll result in a hard pull. Some phone representatives will be able to process this as a soft inquiry though, just ask in advance.
13. When it comes to reallocating credit, the rules are tricky. No matter what, if they allow you to do it it’ll be a soft pull. They are more likely to offer this when you open a new card or close an old card. Full rules found here.
14. Barclaycard card’s are churnable, meaning you can get the sign up bonus on cards more than once. If you get approved, you’ll get the sign up bonus. The difficult thing is getting the card approved, you’ll need to have cancelled the previous card and usually a wait for at least six months is required. In addition it’s a good idea to be putting spend through any existing Barclaycard credit cards before applying for a new card.
15. There is no hard limit on the amount of credit cards you can have with them. But following the rules in the point above is a good idea (e.g waiting six months in between applications and putting spend on existing applications).
16. Barclaycard will merge multiple inquiries into a single hard pull if made on the same day. Maximum of three and only one will usually be auto-approved, in my experience extremely difficult to get multiples approved.
17. If you’re denied for a credit card and you already have at least one credit card with Barclaycard, they usually won’t do a hard pull on your credit report. This isn’t always the case as J points out in the comments, if significant change has occurred in your report (e.g new inquiries) they will still do a hard pull.
18. You can view your pre-approved offers online. Barclaycard removed this functionality for awhile, but it’s back now. They don’t offer increased bonuses through this checker though.
19. They report your statement balance to credit bureaus for credit utilization purposes. If you want to lower your credit utilization then simply pay your credit card before your statement closes.
20. You can also change this statement closing date by calling the number on the back of your credit card.
21. They will refund your annual fee as long as you cancel your card within 60 days of the annual fee posting.
22. They’ll usually waive balances of under $1. Obviously abusing this isn’t a good idea.
23. They do not report business cards to your personal report which matters for purposes of keeping your credit report cleaner.
24. Barclay’s will reinstate a closed credit card account soon after it was closed if you change your mind and decide you want the card.
25. They do not offer a public referral program, so no getting points/miles cash back for referring your friends. Although they sometimes offer targeted promotions. Thanks to Moe for pointing this out.
26. Their cards support chip + PIN functionality. Most other credit cards have EMV chips, but they are chip + Signature. Barclaycard allows you to set a PIN, this is extremely useful when traveling internationally where chip + PIN is the standard (less explaining that they can still swipe it or use chip + Signature) and it also means that unmanned kiosks will work.
27. You can check your credit card’s application status online.
28. If you make a partial or full payment and have auto pay set up they will pull the full amount.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully everybody found this helpful, this is the last credit card issuer we’re going to be covering in this series (unless I’m an idiot and have missed a major issuer again). You can view the posts on other issuers below:

• American Express
• Bank of America
• Capital One
• Chase
• Citi
• Comenity
• Discover
• Synchrony
• TD Bank
• US Bank
• Wells Fargo

If any of the information above is wrong or if you think I missed something, let me know in the comments and I’ll be sure to update it. If you liked this content, why not follow me on Twitter & share it?