Barclays Miles & More - Barclaycards Bait and Switch: Offering 30,000 miles for Premier Miles & More card - switching to 5,000 miles Wilmington Delaware
I received an offer for the Premier Miles & More World Master credit card with a total welcome bonus of 30,000 miles and free companion tickets from Barclays.
As an alternative they offered the Miles & More World Master credit card with a total welcome bonus of 22,500 miles (lower annual fee).
This sounded almost too good to be true and I called to apply. CSR read the entire conditions for the two cards and asked me "Which card do you want, the Premier Miles & More World Master Card or the Miles & More World Master card ?"
I told her "The Premier Miles and More World Master card".
A few days later I received a "Miles & More" credit card in the mail and was assuming that it was the card that I had applied for. After having used it a few times I was surprised that I received only 5,000 miles on my Miles & More account. I called Barclays and they explained to me "You were not approved for the Premier Miles & More World Master card, that's why we sent you the default credit card which is the Platinum Miles and More card"
CSR did not explain that they would automatically open a "default account" if I was not approved for the card that I had applied for. Since the conversation that I had with their CSR when applying for a credit card was recorded I will report them to the Comptroller of the Currency. I believe that these practices are fraudulent.
My credit was good enough to receive a credit line of $ 17,000 with Citi cards, I had to call them to reduce the credit line because they wanted to increase it another time. I have a total of 5 credit cards, one with unlimited credit by AMEX. Thats why I believe that Barclays never had any intentions to send me the card with a 30,000 miles welcome bonus.
This offer is just a marketing strategy that turns into their "default card" when people apply. What really bothers me is that I had to close this account when i found out that it was not what I had applied for and this lowers my credit score. I would never have applied for their "default card".
Steve
Phoenix, Arizona
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Mark
Miami,Florida,
Miles and More - Awesome!
#2Consumer Comment
Fri, November 15, 2013
I signed up for Miles and More MasterCard. In order to be approved, you need to have excellent credit. If you have less than excellent credit, you may get a card that requires less than excellent credit, but also has less benefits.
I was instantly approved online, and after receiving my approval email a few minutes after the online approval, I called Barclay Bank and asked them to expedite delivery. They send me my card via FedEx Priority Saturday delivery and waived the associated fees.
The card I received was exactly as advertised. I received 20,000 miles after I used the card the first time, and then I received 30,000 more miles after I spent $5,000 within the first 90 days. I also received a companion ticket to use.
Everything I got was exactly as advertised, and I have already used the 50k miles to travel to Europe.