Got a Tesco credit card? Will you be disqualified from Barclaycard Avios bonuses?

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• Lumma says:

  18 Aug18 August 05:38

  If Barclays IT is so terrible that you can’t hold more than one card with them, how will it cope when a lot of people end up with two cards because of this merger?

  • AndrewT says:

    18 Aug18 August 06:20

    They obviously must have thought of that and have a process to deal with it – the same process which will turn existing Tesco card holders into existing Barclays card holders.

    Can’t see it being an issue for many though. The free card has an enhanced SUB now so apply now, and we’ve been told several times there are unlikely to be large enhanced SUBs on the paid card in future, so apply now.

    A few playing the game on a six month break will get caught of course, but that’s why it’s a game!

    • Nick says:

      18 Aug18 August 08:34

      In the short/medium term they’ll be keeping the old Tesco IT infrastructure, so (if they want to) they can treat people differently to begin with at least. Might get more difficult when they later migrate customers across to their own platform, unless they build something different for it. I guess they’ll want to figure out how much crossover there is before deciding what to do.

      • 1CP says:

        18 Aug18 August 10:14

        Correct

  • L Allen says:

    18 Aug18 August 08:34

    I was wondering the same. I have held a Tesco card and Barclays Platinum for years. Both in regular use.

  • Tariq says:

    18 Aug18 August 08:41

    The same way that people who historically have more than one Barclaycard do. I would guess that the cardholders end up with multiple customer profiles on Barclays system as a workaround – or something of that nature.

    • TooPoorToBeHere says:

      18 Aug18 August 08:44

      Multiple profiles within Barclays is absolute death. Nothing will work right – signup, app, Avios transfer.

      • JDB says:

        18 Aug18 August 08:59

        Multiple profiles can be an issue, but once identified can be fixed very rapidly.

        • Michael Jennings says:

          18 Aug18 August 11:33

          I did have multiple profiles with Barclays at one point. However, they noticed and fixed it.

    • daveinitalia says:

      18 Aug18 August 09:57

      Before I started closing all my rarely used cards and other accounts before moving to Italy I had two Barclaycards. One was Hilton and the other was a generic card that was originally an IHG one.

      Back when IHG moved from MBNA to Barclays they had a signup offer to convince people to apply for the new card. I was declined and was unsure why and the person on the phone said my only option was to try again in 6 months. Now I’m thinking it was perhaps the Hilton card that was the problem.

      I had RA status at the time so I contacted them saying I was disappointed in their new card provider. The most I was expecting was them to give me the signup bonus but they must have had a word with Barclays as I was told they were reconsidering my application and a day or so later I was approved.

      That was a long time ago but an excellent example of RA customer assistance going beyond expectations. I’d never reach RA these days (although I’d be interested in what the current benefits and criteria are if Rob is looking for article ideas) but I had it for a few years, but lost it when work started taking me to cities without an IC hotel it was impossible to maintain on leisure travel alone and at the time IHG status didn’t give you much in the way of guaranteed benefits in their other hotels. Some CP hotels gave lounge access but not all, breakfast wasn’t a benefit back then so Hilton status was a better fit.

      • zapato1060 says:

        18 Aug18 August 11:01

        Can I interest you in a .

      • RussellH says:

        18 Aug18 August 20:08

        Many years ago I had both an IHG (Priority Club branding) Visa card and a Hilton Visa card when they were both operated by Barclays.
        BUT they were NOT Barclaycards. The BIN did not start with 4929.

        Around 10 years ago both IHG and Hilton cards were converted to Barclaycards, with new a/c numbers and new cards issued with a 4929 BIN.

        This was when the problems started with points not crediting, or at least being delayed for long periods of time. It was also when Barclays started paying me compensation for missing points. This was admitted to me over the phone by a senior CS person.

        The pre Barclays=>Barclaycard switch IT had its own bugs, though – I used to get triple points for purchases at my local pub, and many other pubs that had rooms as well
        🙂

• ukpolak says:

  18 Aug18 August 06:33

  I had one of the black coloured Tesco Mastercards (world or something?) they did and a key benefit was taking out FX in store at preferential rates and without incurring any cash-advance or other fees (including interest).

  It was a useful card when clubcard rewards were so generous back in the 4x redemption days at eg Goldsmiths but I promptly cancelled when the bens all dried up. To cancel, I had to print, complete, sign, scan and email them a form to which I have had no response to this day 🙂

  I don’t know why anyone would want to retain a Tesco bank CC nowadays.

  • Jonathan says:

    18 Aug18 August 07:01

    I guess the only reason on would bother with a Tesco bank credit card is for spending at Tesco, although the earning rate could be better, it depends on how much you like Clubcard points

    • Dubious says:

      18 Aug18 August 08:19

      Helps to keep a few points active for those who don’t shop there much.

  • Brian says:

    18 Aug18 August 17:21

    I have a Tesco Premium card – paid for, with higher earning rate and and of year bonus points, which I think makes sense….

  • Paul says:

    19 Aug19 August 09:33

    As others have said…. For shopping at Tesco (v irregular). But actually it is laziness coupled with a Tesco requirement that to cancel your card, you have to fill in a PDF (yes you read that right) and email it to a specific address.

    No wonder they couldn’t make banking work.

• Heathrow Flyer says:

  18 Aug18 August 07:34

  What was the rationale for Tesco selling the bank?

  • Rob says:

    18 Aug18 August 09:09

    Plan was to build a bigger bank that NatWest etc, didn’t my quite work out.

    • Matarredonda says:

      18 Aug18 August 15:12

      And Sainsbury Bank going to Natwest although it appears they will pay Natwest to take it off their hands!

    • RussellH says:

      18 Aug18 August 20:13

      Tesco Bank was a JV with the Royal Bank (there was joint branding on Tesco ATMs, at least in Scotland), not NatWest, but I cannot remember whether it was before or after the Royal Bank bought NatWest after a bidding struggle with the Bank of Scotland.

      • WillPS says:

        19 Aug19 August 13:15

        The cash machines were RBS Cashline branded and are now Natwest branded (since they renamed the parent company).

        Despite the branding, supermarket cash machines are normally little to do with the supermarket banks themselves. Asda’s are rebranded Barclays machines and Sainsburys are rebranded BoS machines (although unusually in larger stores they will be filled by JS cash office staff).

        • Fennec says:

          22 Aug22 August 19:01

          The ATMs at Tesco near me are still co-branded RBS Cashline and Tesco Bank.
          The ATMs at ASDA near me haven’t been Barclays operated for years.

  • supergers49 says:

    18 Aug18 August 11:06

    The tech they bought in the early 2010s was effectively legacy tech. They were almost certainly going to need to re-platform across Loans, Savings and Cards products. Given it cost close to £1Bn 10-15 years ago to build out those platforms, I doubt they had the stomach to invest another £200-£400M going through that upheaval again.

    Additionally, though there is a strong velcro effect between holding a supermarket bank product and in-store basket value (e.g. the more supermarket bank products you hold, typically the higher your average basket value), it became apparent that supermarket banks had no greater ability at penetrating new customer segments, so the total customer base didn’t grow as rapidly as expected.

    Finally, supermarket banks looked amazingly profitable before reductions in interchange fees. A long story short, NatWest, HSBC, Lloyds, Santander, etc. were indirectly sending the supermarket banks huge cheques each month because their customers were using supermarket bank ATMs. The reduction in interchange and the reduced demand for cash has massively impacted that revenue stream for the supermarket banks.

    Interesting fact, Tesco and Sainsbury’s had the highest levels of usage and cash dispensing of any bank’s ATM networks in the UK.

    • Michael says:

      18 Aug18 August 12:18

      I used to work in Tesco many years ago in the cash office. We didn’t have a Twsco Bank ATM but we were asked to push “cash back” on debit card transactions. Tesco could add up to £50 onto a debit card transaction and issue the cash from the til. Less cash to count and less cash to be uplifted to the bank (so less banking fees). The only issues were the occasional dispute when a cashier forgot to issue the cash!

      • John says:

        18 Aug18 August 13:21

        My only experience of cash in Tesco was when Tesco Bank accepted cash deposits to their current accounts in store. The cashier refused to take my coins and I made a complaint but the complaints team didn’t give me anything except a long essay which I didn’t read.

      • Rob says:

        22 Aug22 August 19:16

        At one point Tesco Bank launched a World Elite Mastercard – but it was quickly scrapped.

        Why? This was before the interchange fee cap, and WE Mastercards had far higher fees than standard Mastercards. And where were Tesco Bank WE cardholders mainly using their card? In Tesco!

        The store network was taking a big hit on profits and wasn’t happy, even though some of that cost flowed back into Tesco Bank ….

    • Andrew. says:

      18 Aug18 August 13:18

      Back in the early 1990s, in the days of MINT (MIdland, Natwest, Tsb), Four-bank (BoS, RBS, Barclays & Lloyds), Matrix & Link, the interchange fees on Four-bank were between 40p & £1 per cash withdrawal.

      We could face disciplinary action if it was noted a staff account holder (or their partner!) were persistently using a “foreign” atm.

    • Alan says:

      18 Aug18 August 16:29

      You don’t make your bank work just on ATM useage fees. Tesco’s sale does not include their ATM network which is operated for them by NatWest.

      • supergers49 says:

        19 Aug19 August 14:45

        I didn’t say they did make their bank work on ATM interchange income alone but it was a huge cash cow in the day which made up for tighter margins elsewhere.

        • Fennec says:

          22 Aug22 August 19:15

          The biggest killer was probably the EU interchange cap as very few credit card customers actually paid non-promo interest – using it as a charge card effectively with points so you barely break even – once you add in S75 costs and fee refunds then you are operating that account at a loss even with zero bad debt.

• Judy says:

  18 Aug18 August 07:50

  Are you even still going to get clubcard points?

• InsiderFly says:

  18 Aug18 August 08:10

  I thought you had to wait 2 years for a new Barclaycard SUB after cancelling but you could reapply for the card (without the SUB) after 6 months.

  • JDB says:

    18 Aug18 August 08:32

    You need a six month gap after cancelling any Barclaycard to apply for any other. You need a two year gap after cancelling an Avios Barclaycard before you can get another welcome bonus/SUB. If you are offered the opportunity in the app to upgrade or change an existing card, you may be offered some sort of reduced welcome bonus, perhaps 5,000 Avios vs 25,000.

  • Rob says:

    18 Aug18 August 09:07

    Correct (if cancelling an Avios card)

• fede says:

  18 Aug18 August 09:22

  what happens to people that have barclaycard and tesco card. would they get asked to close the card?

  I thought barclaycard was going to keep tesco bank branding and keeping it separate?

• 1CP says:

  18 Aug18 August 09:45

  I work for Barclays , and I’m involved in the acquisition. The systems will be completely separated for a significant amount of time after the acquisition, so I’m pretty sure that there will be no way for acquisition rewards not to work if you qualify as a non-Barclays customer, but hold a Tesco’s product. The merging of the systems, and therefore the linking of a single customer view across both is going to take a while. There should be no need to cancel your Tesco’s product quite yet.

  • John says:

    18 Aug18 August 11:02

    How long are we talking about? 1 year? 3 years?

  • supergers49 says:

    18 Aug18 August 11:10

    It’ll almost certainly be at least 2-3 years and I cannot imagine anyone will want to do a single big band migration.

  • flyforfun says:

    19 Aug19 August 09:23

    I have just the debit card and bank account. I was thinking of getting a Barclays Bank account because of the sign up bonus currently available (£175+ perks). It seems that I wouldn’t have an issue with them working out if I had a Tesco bank account, but wonder if it would cause issues later.

• Harrier25 says:

  18 Aug18 August 09:50

  No that won’t happen. As in the past, what you currently have you should be able to keep.

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