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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.

  • Mark says:
    4 Mar4 March 09:18

    Fyi, for those who are also Barclays Premier current acct holders I managed to chase my application through the chat function in the app this morning and got told I have been approved. No email confirm sent and no immediate decision so worth doing if you are in the same boat (as some people are given the comments)

    • Tom says:
      4 Mar4 March 09:51

      Mine just appeared in the normal Barclays app and I could view my credit limit. No card arrived yet. In the application I was referred for 5 day wait.

      • rum says:
        4 Mar4 March 09:58

        I can as well, but the last 4 digits of the card number showing in the app are not the same as those in the welcome email!!

  • BA-Flyer says:
    4 Mar4 March 09:22

    What an absolute farce! It’s scary to think Barclays have billions of pounds flowing through their systems every week, yet can’t manage a simple credit card launch. I don’t even have the card in my hands yet, and my opinion of them is negative. Quite an achievement to upset so many new customers in such a short period of time.

    • Andrew says:
      4 Mar4 March 09:43

      And what should have been a bumper sales week for HfP has probably been a really damaging week, through no fault of their own.

      • CarpalTravel says:
        4 Mar4 March 10:21

        Hope Rob & Co. are to be compensated too. I bet they have invested a lot of time and effort into this. This sort of mid-flight offer change won’t help either.

  • Andrew@Chester says:
    4 Mar4 March 09:42

    Are we still going to see a ‘How does the Barclaycard Avios cabin upgrade voucher work?’ article Rob?

  • Nadeshka says:
    4 Mar4 March 09:45

    Another one disappointed that you can’t have two Barclaycards. I would 100% have the paid card but I’m not giving up a main method of earning Hilton points and retaining status when it’s no longer available on the market .

    Shame they can’t work something out for at least their “premier” customers. Feels less and less premier every day!

    • Benilyn says:
      4 Mar4 March 11:00

      I don’t think anything was Premier about it ever tbh

      • Doug M says:
        4 Mar4 March 11:50

        I have a number of bank accounts, the two that describe themselves as premier are far and away the worst for customer service. The banks I think have good customer service are the ones I never have to deal with, but that’s mostly because I use them less.

  • Tom says:
    4 Mar4 March 09:53

    If you have a Barclays account, premier or otherwise and didnt get any email check your Barclays app. I can see the card alongside my normal account but have had no email or anything in the post. Can view credit limit etc.

    • rum says:
      4 Mar4 March 09:57

      I can as well, but the last 4 digits of the card number showing in the app are not the same as those in the welcome email!!

  • 2ilent8cho says:
    4 Mar4 March 09:57

    The whole Barclays Avios launch has been nothing but incompetence.

    First the Barclays Premier Bank Account Avios Reward was delayed by a year because somebody thought it was not the right time, what utter rubbish and shows Barclays do not understand Airmiles collectors. It takes time to accumulate vouchers and Avios, so thats 12 months we missed out on getting 1500 Avios a month saved up and 12 month delay in getting the first voucher ready for when the world opens up again. Since I always travel with somebody I would need 2 years worth of collecting vouchers with Barclays Bank Account to upgrade both directions.

    Then they have been working on the Barclaycard Avios reward credit card for at least the best part of a year! They could have had everybody who was an existing customer able to swap card type in the app Monday morning and their systems tested to make sure it can take the sign up of new customers for a smooth great launch, but nope despite having all that time they still managed to mess that up.

    I’ve got the Bank Account and I have the Credit Card so I got there in the end, but why are incompetent people or teams allowed in positions at Barclays where they can make such a mess of things? They even had the luxury of communication with Rob so they could have made sure they are understanding the core market for this card correctly.

    • Mike says:
      4 Mar4 March 19:23

      I agree a stand up fail for Barclays and more importantly the head of the specific team responsible- do we know who that is ( and hopefully soon to be was)

  • Steve says:
    4 Mar4 March 10:00

    Has anyone received the plastic yet? Applied on Monday evening..

    • VINZ says:
      4 Mar4 March 10:32

      I applied on Tuesday I think. Didn’t get a response straightaway but a hard search appeared on my credit score so…

    • CarpalTravel says:
      4 Mar4 March 11:08

      Monday application, not in todays post.

  • Comrade Chag says:
    4 Mar4 March 10:02

    What a fiasco! If they try a bit more I think they can make it worse.

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

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