In late 2021 it was announced that Barclays would be purchasing the GAP portfolio of credit cards from Synchrony for $3.8 billion after it was previously announced that Barclays would be the new issuer in a deal worth $1 billion.
It’s now be revealed that existing cardholders will receive their new cards this month. In total there are four cards available, all with the same earning structure:
New cardholders that apply between June 1 and September 30, 2022 will receive 5x points on all purchases until January 2023.
I’m looking forward to 1/31/23 by which time the glue from the “activate me” sticker might finally be removed from my new Barclays Old Navy card
Just an FYI, Barclays will do a hard pull on your credit file when requesting credit line increases. I rarely used my Old Navy Visa and Synchrony would reduce my limit if I let more than a year lapse, so I would just request an increase when I would notice the lower credit limit. Well today I noticed it had been lowered and figured that I would request an increase while I was verifying the new card and setting up my info for Barclays. No sooner than I got the increase and my phone starts going off from my credit alert setting from my credit monitoring services. CS at Barclays says that’s their policy.
What happens if you return an item that you used the rewards points to pay for? Do you just get the points refunded?
You don’t actually use points to pay, you get store certificates issued in $5 increments as they are earned (and you have a certain amount of time to use them). That’s the way it was with the old Old Navy card anyway, unless it has changed with the new one. I’m guessing you would get a store credit if returning items, but I’m not sure.
In the past, those certificates were basically discount codes reducing the purchase price across all items you bought equally. You only get the actual out-of-pocket price refunded when you return items. Since the discount comes off equally across each item, you wouldn’t get a full refund even if you only return a single item. Because of that, we made sure to always cover the total purchase with certificates, and never return anything.
However, they changed the rewards program and you don’t use certificates anymore but redeem points at checkout now, which are refunded.
> If you paid with Rewards points … we will convert the dollar value of the rewards to points and credit your Rewards Program account.
https://www.gap.com/customerService/info.do?cid=1192370#returnpolicies
If Barclays is listening, they could offer those of us who are transitioning from Synchrony a similar 5% offer.
Synchrony was sending out regular 5% offers… so it would be nice to see them continue, considering that the redemption is limited to one of the stores’ brands.
I’m a little confused on why people are acting surprised you can only redeem at the store(s) for merchandise. That’s how virtually all store cards are.
I think it’s silly to even have a post about a GAP credit card that earns 5x when you can get gift cards for 20% off almost year round.
Buy those gift cards with the credit card to make it net 25% off?
There are ways to get Gap GCs for well over 25% off. Unless you’re trying to generate spending to hit top tier status, e.g. Luxe, still not worth the opportunity cost.
It’s because the surprised people are noobs assuming that if DoC posts about it, it must be a good deal.
If i already have a gap card, and its switching to barclays, will the switch cause an event for 5/24 (trying to get some chase cards next year)
The Barclaycard should have the same opening date and history of the original card, only the account number should update.
Too bad the points are only good for purchases at the GAP family of stores.
“Rewards can be redeemed at our Family of Brands for the purchase of merchandise only.”
anyway to get this card without a hardpull on your credit report?
Definitely worth the 5/24 slot for the occasional free Costco membership, which is ironically worth more than all of the card’s regular benefits combined
Could you explain? Have the banana republic flavor but never heard of the free Costco membership perk. Thanks !
I’m also curious as I can’t use this card now at Costco since it’s a Mastercard and not a Visa which sucks!