Ready for a total makeover? Barclaycard is changing their name, adding to their business in the states, and releasing a new card.
Barclays Arrival Premier
Until recently, the Barclaycard Arrival came in two flavors, with the Plus offering a few more benefits in exchange for an annual fee. Go take a look at their application page, and you’ll notice no more links for Arrival Plus cards!
Folks have reported the following Arrival Premier benefits after speaking with customer service representatives:
- An annual fee of $150
- Global entry credit (
I have a few extra if you need one…all taken guys, sorry!) - Annual bonuses of 15,000 points after $15,000 in spend, an additional 10,000 points after $25,000 total annual spend
Unfortunately, we don’t know anything about a sign-up bonus at this point, but I’m confident we’ll see one come through. Looking over Barclays’ past card bonuses, they seem to be a fan of the 40,000 to 50,000 range. I’m going to bet on a 50,000 sign-up for the first few months, and then 40,000 thereafter on the Arrival Premier. The Arrival Plus had the same exact bonus structure.
Will the card look similar to the Arrival Plus?
Will Arrival Premier Points be Transferable?
We’ve also heard from Frequent Miler that the Arrival Premier card will have transferable points. There will be at least a handful of partners to transfer to. Looking at Barclays’ current cobrand offerings, some logical partners would be American Airlines, JetBlue, Hawaiian Airlines, Frontier Airlines, and Lufthansa. If you’ll let me include hotel partners, Barclays already has cards for Choice and Wyndham hotels. If Barclays does offer a 50,000 point sign-up bonus, that’s 3 nights in any Wyndham, plenty of short JetBllue trips, or a roundtrip on American Airlines.
(Hopefully, the card gives us one more way to rack up TrueBlue points!)
Barclays has a large stable of cobrand cards, though not necessarily best in class offerings. Cruises anyone? How about transferring these new Arrival Premier points to Princess, Carnival, or Holland America? Although it’s probably not where we’d move points, I think this could be a useful option for the average consumer.
The credit card game continues to heat up. Chase continues to release new cards. American Express captured the Hilton portfolio. With the new JetBlue account, the recent introduction of the cobranded Uber card, Barclays is definitely becoming more competitive. If you don’t have a Barclays card in your wallet yet, you may soon!
H/T to Doctor of Credit and Frequent Miler