Barclays Times Card - Not Worth the Trouble!. Review on Barclays Bank Visa Credit Card

I am a regular user of Credit Cards, and I find it very useful and safe if you pay proper attention to a few details. If you pay your dues timely, keep track of your payments to be made and keep control of the amount of purchase and usage of credit cards. But dangerous as well, if you dont pay proper attention. Most of us dont know that if you dont pay the minimum amount, you would have to pay Rs 600 (amount depends on the bank) irrespective of the amount spent, even Rs 100!!

Things to look out for in a credit card-

1) Proper communication regarding payments, dues, offers, fees etc.

2) Suitable options avilable for payment, tracking your dues etc.

3) Proper customer care support.

4) Proper and genuine offers available for frequent usages, e.g. for frequent flyers, some discount plans on flight ticket transactions etc.

5) Additional tracking options like SMS alerts on payments made etc.

Barclays card however is not having any of the above requirements in place and is a total mess when it comes to basic things. I dont know what their strategy is but, some of the basic requirements are not suitably selected and totally works against their plan of action. I am having a Barclays Times Card, and its a pretty bad card to have for a customer.

Lets see some of the major drawbacks -

1) A huge number of SMS's being sent reminding about the payment dues, but not a single confirmation stating the status of the payments made or recorded.

2) Offers, Offers, Offers, none of them suits the customer.

"There are offers like on a 20,000 sauna bath in a luxury spa, you get Rs 2000 off.. No thanks, I would rather have a bath with Hamam Sabun lol!"

3) Payment options, there is only one online payment option available that is Visabillpay. For such a reputed bank, I think they could do better!

4) No online account available to track the ongoing transactions on your card, the only way to get through is the weekly or monthly statements.

5) No suitable and easy option of altering your details, preferences etc.If you want to change your address, or even want to get a hard copy of your statement, you would have to call the customer care and raise a request!

6) Sloppy Customer care, and you would have to make atleast 2 calls to get through to a Customer care executive.

Some good things -

1) Looks, the card does look great with its transparent appearance and some artistic styling! But is that enough? Think about it! :)

2) No hassles in delivering the card, well informed with all the rules and regulations.

3) No annoying calls as yet after 6 months of usage. Hard to find such cards, I get some weird calls from ICICI at times! :)

Lucrative offers being used to sell the cards, but do check them out before you get trapped, as most of them are just ways to lure you into getting a card you would not want.

Overall, pretty bad credit card to have, and probably the reason why we see a lot of these negative reviews! And here you get One more from me! :) If you are going to acquire a credit card, barclays is not a good option. Not recommended.

Views and comments are always welcome!