Barclaycard Upromise Credit Card Discontinued

To say I’m late on this would be an understatement. Earlier this year Barclaycard discontinued the extremely popular Sallie Mae card, application links for that card reverted to the Upromise credit card instead and that card is also no longer available either.

PFdigest received a statement that Barclaycard closed the majority of the application channels for this card on February 15th and all of them February. Existing cardholders are currently not affected, but we saw a similar thing happen with the Sallie Mae card and those cards were eventually closed. This card was interesting due to the earning rates:

  • 5% cash back on eligible Online Shopping through Upromise.com (this is in addition to the portal rate)
  • 5% cash back on participating Upromise Dining Restaurants
  • 5% cash back on eligible purchases from participating travel partners through Upromise.com
  • 2% cash back at eligible movie theaters
  • 2% cash back at department stores
  • 1% cash back on all other purchases

The problem was that the 5% categories had issues tracking probably so you often had to ask them to manually fix it and that’s the last thing you want to be dealing with when it comes to a credit card/portal.

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Momof2
Momof2 (@guest_511485)
November 8, 2017 17:02

I use this for all my online purchases (as long as they provide some sort of bonus) and I’ve never had an issue with things not tracking. I always do my leisurely online shopping and load my cart. Then when I’m sure I have everything I want, I exit the retail site, go into Upromise, and back on to the retail site through the Upromise link. Then I check out immediately. I’ve always wondered if the tracking issues might be due to internet breaks, etc. that people may not realize happen, cutting off the tracking link while they are shopping over extended periods of time. I’ve always used this method and so far so good. I hope they keep this card going for those of us who still have them. 10% for shopping at Kohls, etc. has really been nice!

DrRyan
DrRyan (@guest_399802)
May 2, 2017 21:26

I have earned a lot with this card….I had a hard time with it tracking when it was a Bank of America card, but when it became Barclays i never had an issue. I hope they let us keep it or Upromise contracts with another Bank.

Don Robinson
Don Robinson (@guest_396667)
April 26, 2017 21:35

I hope we get to keep it. I noticed the Upromise site no longer talks about the extra 5%, so I e-mailed them, and they said it’s still good.

Total Savings: $2,744.35

Elle
Elle (@guest_396616)
April 26, 2017 20:18

I envy those that didn’t have any tracking issues. I had one transaction take nearly 6 months of back and forth emailing and inquiry before it was finally confirmed (excluding the initial wait time and cashout times). It was good for the dining program, but online shopping was so hit or miss.

IOException
IOException (@guest_398218)
April 30, 2017 09:16

I think those that never had tracking issues either didn’t use the online portal much, or just shopped at retailers that had better tracking. For example, Kohl’s, eBay, and Walmart.com always tracked for me. On the other hand, buying something from walmart.com for in store pickup didn’t (no exclusion wordage). Similarly, jet.com never tracked. I’d always get my money back after an inquiry, but it was a PITA.

Also, I find Barclay has agressive security protocols, which is annoying when online shopping (I might use the card at 3 different websites in a few minutes of each other, and that would cause Barclay to shut it down until I spoke to CS).

Honestly, I only ever put up with this crap because the occasional 10% CAB is basically unheard of.

anthonyjh21
anthonyjh21 (@guest_396594)
April 26, 2017 20:02

Well I guess the good news is that it’ll reduce the number of barclay cards I have so that it’s easier to churn the A+ bonus.

Frito Pendejo
Frito Pendejo (@guest_397005)
April 27, 2017 12:01

Wow its been a whole year since I got my first Arrival+. Do I need to wait 6mo from *closing* it or can I just close it and apply for another a day or so later?

TygerHawke
TygerHawke (@guest_396510)
April 26, 2017 17:47

I can’t help but wonder if these cards will also end up as the ever-so-popular Commence card…as usual every piece of news I hear out of Barclayville makes me glad I never moved into town 😉

Gus
Gus (@guest_396509)
April 26, 2017 17:45

No loss. It’s just not worth dealing with a card that pays very late or never, and it’s not worth chasing a few bucks here and there. Good riddance UPromise. (Actually the card still exists, and I have it, but I won’t use it. Not worth the aggravation.) Sallie Mae going was a loss. This won’t be.

One thing I’m wondering. If we think we might ever want to apply for a Barclay CC in the future (e.g. for bonus) is it better to just close our useless Barclay CCs now, or keep/sockdrawer them (PC doesn’t seem to be an option)?

Deb
Deb (@guest_396457)
April 26, 2017 15:53

I had been earning so much lately through upromise that I seriously considered getting this. As odd as it sounds, this makes me kinda sad. The reviews saying people frequently had to chase down that 5% is what held me back. It would have doubled most of my payouts. Had I known people were getting paid without a hassle I probably would have gone for it.

Nick @ Personal Finance Digest
April 26, 2017 14:04

I don’t use the card too much, but I never had issues getting rewards to (eventually) track.

Amy
Amy (@guest_396430)
April 26, 2017 14:50

Same here. I like the extra 5% when all else is equal across the various cash back portals.

Nick @ Personal Finance Digest
April 26, 2017 18:55

It tracked automatically, it would just take a while.

But toward Amy’s point, yeah, the extra 5% is nice. At worst the card was at least competitive when ordering online and it was often one of the best. I don’t order a ton of stuff online which is why I don’t use it too much.

IOException
IOException (@guest_398216)
April 30, 2017 09:03

I order everything online. It would track most of the time, but not always. Combined with the fact that their pending payments screen is hard to understand at a glance, this made things frustrating. Now, that being said, I always got my rewards when I filed a claim, but it could take months. Notable example for me was jet.com, where I placed multiple orders, but only got the additional 5% 4 months after filing for missing claims (which you can only file after 10 weeks).

IOException
IOException (@guest_398219)
April 30, 2017 09:18

I should add, the actual Upromise portal always tracks (eventually). It was the bonus that sometimes didn’t work.

Bob
Bob (@guest_396390)
April 26, 2017 13:16

No one will miss this. Barclays continues to disappoint with its CCs. Do they even care?