Pros: Great purchase protection and extended warranty
Cons: Just about everything else

Recommend to potential buyers: yes

Full review
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Finally I found a good reason to use my Barclaycard. Well, actually two I guess, but one is a godsend.

On Saturday I purchased a new Sony DVD Recorder from Dixons. I knew that I would be paying more than I could have paid on some websites, but for the convenience of having it there and then, and for a little “retail therapy” I decided to take it. I paid in full on my Barclaycard, as I have done on a couple of occasions, to take advantage of their year’s extended guarantee offer. I object to the high prices Dixons and others charge for extending warranties, sometimes as much as 25% on top of the cost. A recent Which report states that they are not worth the money. It would be better and cheaper in the long term to pay the repair fees, than buy extended guarantees for everything.
So, full marks to Barclaycard for this added benefit of a years extra peace of mind. However, at the same time I was looking on the website about the extended guarantee, I noticed something else… Price Promise.

Basically, Price promise states that if you buy something branded for one price, then find it cheaper somewhere else within 60 days, you can claim back the difference from Barclaycard. I’ve seen price promises advertised before in shops, including Dixons, but usually these are pretty restrictive (for example, only applies to items found cheaper within a 10 mile radius of where you bought it). However, witht the Barclaycard price promise there appear to be a lot less restrictions, only that the item must be branded, cost more than £50, paid for in full with the card, and….. and this is the best part….. it even applies to internet sales (provided its UK based, available in exactly the same colour, etc., with the same warranty, and you once you have added the delivery and packaging costs on).

Having seen this, I decided to have a look round the net to see how much cheaper I could find the DVD recorder for. First stop Kelkoo, and there, to my astonishment, was the same machine for just £364 with free delivery, a massive saving over what I paid of £136. How Dixons can justify charging that much more for the same item is beyond me.

So, today I called Barclays Price Promise line. They are sending me a claim form. All that they require is a copy of the original receipt, a copy of your Barclaycard statement (they’ll accept a copy from their website if you don’t yet have the paper statement). For web sales, you also need to put the item into the website’s shopping basket, and print out the resulting prices.

What a result!!

So, think about it, shopping heaven. Get what you want when you want it, but for the cheapest possible price! If you are like me you will hate having to wait for something that you order online. I always want it NOW. So this way, you can have the best of both worlds. As long as it’s a UK website, go and buy it now from the shops, and claim the difference back later! I’ll certainly be doing this again. You can claim a maximum of £1000 over the course of a year, so get claiming! That’s a far better rate of return than reward points, cashback, and even 0% offers. To get £1000 back in cashback, using a card giving you 1% back you would have to spend a hundred grand.. With my nearest equivalent, Egg, giving 0.5%, I would have to spend 200 grand! I don’t think I’ll be getting close to that JUST yet somehow!!

In all other respects, Barclaycard is just barely competitive at best. I’m sure you‘ve all seen the news reports of the Barclays boss saying he wouldn’t use Barclaycard because it’s too expensive. I agree (hehe and I work for Barclays too). That’s why I will be transferring my balance to a 0% introductory Marbles card over the next few weeks.

Barlaycard are currently pushing their own 0% ”offer”. Don’t fall for it, it’s a con. It may be 0% for balance transfers for the lifetime of the balance, but read closer and you will see the catch; that a) you have to spend a minimum of £50 per month on the card to keep the 0% offer going, and b) any payment you make, goes to clearing the 0% balance transfer portion first. Any money you spend on the card (the £50s, or however much you spend), start to accrue interest while your monthly payments are still paying off JUST the 0% amount. That’s sneaky….

Their standard interest rates really aren’t very competitive either. They are “tiered” according to how much you spend each month. Obviously the more you spend, the smaller the APR, but even the lowest rate is a lot higher than some you can get.

However, I’d suggest that if you can get a Barclaycard, do so, in conjunction with another card offering a true 0% balance transfer and payments offer. Get it for the above 2 reasons alone. And you to can shop knowing that you are getting the cheapest price available, that even takes account of online sales!