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Barclaycard has fixed its issues and an exclusive special offer is coming

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On Monday we ran three articles on the brand new, and very exciting, Barclaycard Avios Mastercard credit cards.

Things didn’t go well. As you will know if you tried to apply:

  • the application website was not functioning
  • when it was functioning, acceptance did not seem as high as we were hoping, so we are working with Barclays to optimise acceptance for HfP
HFP-Barclaycard-Avios-Plus-Card

Barclaycard has fixed its problems and a special offer is coming

Barclaycard is, of course, very unhappy that this has happened.

They have told us that we will see a special sign-up offer for a very limited period at a later point. This will hopefully encourage everyone who admitted defeat after facing problems this week to sign up.

In a statement yesterday, Barclaycard told us:

“We apologise to Head for Points readers for the technical difficulties experienced when we launched our Barclaycard Avios and Avios Plus credit cards. We can confirm that this has now been resolved. We will be coming back to you with an exclusive offer within the next few weeks.”  

If your application has been rejected, you may want to reapply in few weeks time, once we have worked with Barclaycard to improve acceptance for our readers.

If you want to try your luck now, perhaps because you have some spending coming up which you need to trigger the sign-up bonus, it’s best to check your eligibility first using their free tool – the information is reused in the application so it doesn’t take long, and there is no impact to your credit file.

You can check your eligibility and apply for the free Barclaycard Avios credit card (5,000 Avios bonus) here. You can check your eligibility and apply for the Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card (25,000 Avios bonus) here.

If you missed our content on Monday, the first of our three articles on the Barclaycard Avios Mastercards is here.

Bear with us. We’ll keep you in the loop. In the medium and long term, these two cards will be an excellent addition to the wallet or purse of all UK Avios collectors.

To learn more about the cards, read our Barclaycard Avios Mastercard credit card review here:

The representative APR is 29.9% variable.

…. and our Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard credit card review here:

The representative APR is 80.1% APR variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases is 29.9% variable.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Comments (299)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Небоход says:
    4 Mar4 March 07:28

    I viewed my PIN online and according to Barclaycard that counted as an “account change,” so I can’t see the options to swap cards in the app.

    So. No one can change product on the phone, they say go to the app, and when you go to the app – it’s not functioning.

    Two hours to speak to someone

    Chat is broken

    Text chat even worse.

    I can’t be bothered 😕 I don’t get this hassle with Amex!

    • AJA says:
      4 Mar4 March 08:25

      I just went into the app to see if I could swap and get an error message which says I have no card options available. None of the possible reasons listed apply. I haven’t viewed my PIN or recently lost the card and had a replacement (unless Jul 2019 counts as recent?) Not going to bother wasting my time calling Barclays based on your experience.

  • Dan says:
    4 Mar4 March 07:29

    So do you suggest those of us who were successful to use the 14 day cooling off period and cancel our current applications and wait?

    • James says:
      4 Mar4 March 07:53

      I believe Rob might be fighting for those who got accepted to receive the same special offer?

      • Rtid says:
        4 Mar4 March 08:02

        This is my take also. However the article title saying don’t apply is probably what is causing confusion. It makes it sound like, don’t apply and take advantage of a better offer later (which appears to be true), but then it also makes it sound like if you’ve applied already but tough! However I see in comments Rob/HFP appear to be hopeful if we’ve applied already something retrospective could apply.

    • Alan says:
      4 Mar4 March 16:21

      I’d be wary of that as I’m not sure they’d remove the hard credit search?

  • Bill says:
    4 Mar4 March 07:29

    If only residents of CI and IOM were able to apply !

  • Mike says:
    4 Mar4 March 07:40

    Paul – you have got to sound like you mean it – otherwise you just get fobbed off. I get a retention offer every year – usually 2 or 3 avios per pound for remainder of year or 5k or 10 k avios for a set spend.

  • Dac123 says:
    4 Mar4 March 07:40

    Perhaps Barclaycard spend a little less on glistening canary wharf offices and marketing, and more on core IT!

    • A says:
      4 Mar4 March 07:45

      Pretty sure Barclaycard HQ is in Northampton…Slightly less glamorous!

      • Ladyshopper says:
        4 Mar4 March 15:13

        Yep, it is. Causes chaos at rush hour round that area. Before I retired, I worked at the Criminal Justice Centre that is at the end of the same road Barclaycard is on. Traffic is horrendous at peak times.

        • Luke says:
          4 Mar4 March 17:42

          And as per any green credentials, Barclaycard moved from the town centre by the bus station to the ring road, inaccessible to any workers without a car.

    • Jeff77 says:
      4 Mar4 March 07:56

      Yep. I’m not going to be moving my money into a bank which can’t even do basic things like accept new customers.

      Tin pot. Embarrassing

  • Dave says:
    4 Mar4 March 07:43

    Well now I really wish I hadn’t read your article on Monday.

  • Alan says:
    4 Mar4 March 08:07

    Ermm what? If it’s an increased SUB they’re offering then I really hope they retrospectively honour it for those that have already successfully applied otherwise they’re going to end up pissing off a whole new group of people!!

  • Scott says:
    4 Mar4 March 08:13

    Surely this is like anything you may apply for or purchase?
    There’s nothing to say that £500 flight I bought yesterday won’t be £400 tomorrow, or retailer xxx will be selling something for £10 less than retailer yyy was selling it for in their sale.

    A lot of people here jumped on the bandwagon as soon as this appeared, and that may have been the best time for the best deal. I expect them to be offering say another 1000 Avios when you spend £1k or whatever, so it’s not probably going to be much to get stressed over.

    • Andy says:
      4 Mar4 March 08:34

      True although to be fair Rob was the one running the article and saying “sign up here!”

    • Andrew J says:
      4 Mar4 March 08:48

      This is why I really like my pot of FTVs – you can keep an eye on prices and cancel and rebook in seconds.

    • James says:
      4 Mar4 March 08:50

      So why run a special offer at all? Those that couldn’t apply haven’t lost anything so why should they be rewarded for simply doing nothing? Best way to deal with it is to reward everyone.

      • Benilyn says:
        4 Mar4 March 10:57

        I decided not to apply immediately knowing I’m running the risk that the offer may be worse in 6 months…

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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