This Barclays Blue Rewards poster tells us we can make savings of up to £180. Does the advert deliver on its promise?
I’m a pretty chilled out person and tend not to let the little things bother me. But there are a few small annoyances that will make my blood boil. Alongside people talking in the cinema or at a gig, and people pushing on to a tube when there’s clearly no space, I really hate advertising.
Not all of it, but most of it. My wrath is particularly reserved for the posters and pages which suggest you’ll get a better deal through this company or that product – when you clearly don’t.
So this is an occasional look behind the ads to see if they’re telling us the truth, or whether it’s really slight of hand.
Barclays Blue Rewards – can you really save £180?
This week I saw this big poster outside a branch of Barclays offering “Up to £180” if you switch to them. Sounds good doesn’t it?
If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’ll know I’m a big fan of switching bank to get either high interest or a bonus payment. I track all of the offers and keep an updated list on the blog to help you make a choice. So straight away I knew this poster was misleading.
Yes, strictly you can earn “up to” that amount with Barclays Blue Rewards, but to get the full amount you need both a mortgage and home insurance with them. If you don’t have these the most you can get is £84.
Of course, in the scheme of things even £84 isn’t too bad. But that’s also not the full story.
You have to pay £3 a month to get this “reward”. So the most you can realistically expect to get if you switched to Barclays is just £48.
Better than nothing? Well it practically is nothing compared to the £150 currently available from Yorkshire Bank, or the 5% interest and 5% cashback from TSB.
I wouldn’t switch to Barclays right now with all the other offers available. In fact, if I was with Barclays, I wouldn’t even stay with them for this small amount.
>> Take a look at all the current bank switching offers to see if you’d be better off banking elsewhere
My verdict? Bad ad!
This is just another example of a big brand exaggerating their offering, and hoping the customer doesn’t pick up the fact they’re more likely to get just a quarter of what the advert promises.
If they were upfront about this, I wouldn’t mind as much, but it’s confusing for customers and could stop some people get the best deal.
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