Originally Posted by
jediwho
Net net, Barclays wants to reduce its upfront marketing cost by no signup bonus so that they could pass on the entire transaction income to cardholders in form of rewards.
CSR with 100K bonus had very low marketing cost because it went viral.
Spending rewards are nice and all but every bank has cards with those. 2% cashback at 0 AF is better than double unlimited miles at 150 AF. Dollars are the ultimate flex currency. With award space being as crappy as it is, I prefer $s.
Barclay needs to do better than 0 bonus with 150 AF and some milestone spending bonus. If that's what it will be, this will go the opposite of viral.
If I can get an aviator with a 50K signup bonus with $95 AF or a M&M card with a 50K bonus with $90 AF, this new card will not even break even at 25K annual spend in terms of miles gained if there's double earning with 25K bonus miles earned after 25K spend.