Songer5

I do most of my MS on my Old Amex Blue (GGD) so no need for an $89 fee Barclays Arrival+ for that extra 0.2%.

rgAAFT

I guess it's a difference of opinion. Unless your job requires you travel a lot and thus you get a bunch of miles by default, I would wager a lot of people want to collect actual miles. Unfortunately, 100k cash back points for example will not get you nearly as far traditional miles will

commdiver

Stop falling for all the tourist traps. Then FTF will not matter

MaxVO

It's rarely possible to extract 2.2% out of Arrival. You gotta be a blogger and make $25+ travel purchases ad infinitum.
Plus there's the annual fee of course.
I do love the Arrival though for the signup bonus, 0% foreign fee, and Chip & PIN.

rgAAFT

Elaborate please? How do you skip out of the foreign fee with a card that doesn't waive it?

thehogsters

I just got my BA+ the other day. What is Barclay's reputation with retention calls? Do they give out freebies like other card do?

It seems to me AMG are getting harder and harder to unload. If that is the only GC outlet for Citi then count me out.

Frindle

How did miles come into this? We are comparing cash back cards. If this is your default card (let's assume for the case of argument that it is), then this is a big legitimate difference. Hotels, meals, shopping, etc will eat up that AF really quickly.

Volodath

Serve, yes, A/P... if you don't mind risking your A/P, AGC would pay out better (for more hassle of course). Plus then you lose the rounding usefulness that comes with A/P (mostly what I use them for). Those two weren't what I was thinking either (considering they don't scale)...

You and I both. The possibility of this card is such - it's another useful CB card from another issuer, and one that gives out decently high credit limits as well. For people whose constraints are their CL, could be a good option if their throughput is high enough.

rgAAFT

I guess I have got a little bias since I use my cards to collect miles as opposed to cash most of the time. Seriously though, I had, and still have the arrival card, but at the time when I used it I always had to remember to put travel charges on it to get the maximum redemption value out of it! (Which is a big negative for me since I always wanted to put the travel spend that I had,on other cards) At one point I had to "buy" a refundable airline ticket (which I hated doing, from an ethical standpoint) just so I could get my points earnings out. Therefore, I highly appreciate that a new player in the cash back market has emerged.

Sidenote, I wish Barclays would let us redeem for non travel at full value, but give the additional 10% (or more) for those who actually redeem for travel

Volodath

This. This is why cap1 wins over arrival in my book. .2% is a small loss for not refunding and instead getting straight gift cards.

MaxVO

Cap1 also lets you redeem the same travel expense repeatedly, as long as it's within 90 days. ^

rgAAFT

The absence of this benefit on the Barclays card was one reason I had to "buy" another travel charge. Sure wish Barclays did indeed allow this. One of you guys should probably PM me with a nice comparison.(if you wouldn't mind) Although, it must be noted that if I do decide to go for the cap1 card, the two biggest negatives I can think of are that,
1. Cap1's lax/nonexistent position on EMV
2. I hear they have been known to pull all three credit bureau reports

MaxVO

They also have more and bizzarre reasons for rejections. For example, this was seriously the reasons listed on my recent rejection letter from Cap1:
a). Too many revolving accounts on TransUnion report;
b). Too few revolving accounts on Equifax report.

rgAAFT

lol, but isn't Barclays the same way in some respects? maybe its just there way of saying you have "too many inquires"

jmw

Agree 1000%. If you are eating at places with English language menus and credit cards, you are overpaying significantly and getting subpar food at the same time. The tourist shops are also a waste of money. I prefer to withdraw Euros or whatever and use them at places that don't take credit.