MorganStanley to Barlaycard - PR guff

Sainsbury Bank did much the same without even bothering to change the name on the card.

It's the way these companies work to make the headline price cheaper *for you*. In order to save 50p a year they dump you with a load of admin that, if you are a busy person, costs far more than the money saved. Insurance companies are past masters at it

tim

Yes.

They will sort DDs automatically. However, if *you* initiate the payment, you will indeed need to change the details.

Yes - but you can change it at an ATM machine, which you can't do with the existing card.

Probably - although that's not totally clear from the blurb.

Yes.

Yes.

Not necessarily. Morgan Stanley/Goldfish have *already* reduced the interval for people who pay their balance in full using DD.

You're unlikely not to notice the changes! Some things are a pain - others may be slightly better, like reduced fees for cash withdrawals (if you're foolish enough to draw cash on a credit card!). Cashback will also be credited automatically each month rather than having to initiate it manually in multiples of 15. As long as you spend at least 200 per month on 'qualifying' purchases, your cashback will actually increase since it's 1% on the first 2400 p.a. instead of the first 2000 (and 0.5% thereafter). Mind you, if your spending is irregular, you might get *less* cashback, since it's calculated on monthly rather than annual spend. This would apply, for example, if you spend very little each month and then make a single large purchase.

Hi Roger,

I concur with what you say, but I would clarify that my gripe is not so much with the changes per se (though I certainly do consider them an administrative PITA), but with the total inappropriateness of Barclaycard's opening gambit.

To have said that I won't notice the changeover would have been true in the case where Goldfish took over Morgan Stanley. Goldfish bought the Morgan Stanley card business and continued to operate it, and the accounts, as Morgan Stanley (except for some minor inconsistencies such as sending emails with 'Goldfish' as the 'From' field).

Barlaycard, by contrast, appear to have bought the list of customers and their debts, and is issuing them with Barclaycards, albeit with a vaguely similar cashback scheme.

I'm afraid it's just another example of the 'spin' to which we've become accustomed from most organisations - from Government downwards - when they're trying to sell us something which may be unpalatable. I suppose it's akin to the dentist saying, "Now this isn't going to hurt . . . *much*"!

Talking of government examples, my main bug bear was the slogan "It's money with your name on it". It's inappropriate, even allowing for it being a metaphor. (Why don't they just send the money to us, rather than requiring an application to be made?)

Because it's only got your name on it, not your address as well. :-)

Bitstring , from the wonderful person Roger Mills said

As a chip&Sig MS card customer it is going to hurt lots, since Barclaycard can only, apparently, send out chip&pin cards initially, and you have to then contact them and ask for a swap back to Chip&Sig when you get the pin card(s) that you don't want.. Clueless idiots.

On the whole it looks like a lot less hassle just to get a new card from some vendor who has >= half a clue. Suggestions anyone? (Not Capital One, got that already).