mrstraveler

I was wondering the same thing. We had a major issue with this when we applied for both cards last year. I'm excited about the revamp, glad they decided to offer free checked bag at least. I really wanted to apply for the Arrival card next month. I know barclays has been cracking down lately...think I'd have success applying for Arrival and HA business at the same time?

waingro

It's a festivus miracle they finally added free first checked bag. But they'll never waive that annual fee!

nas6034

and this won't be as churnable compared to when it was with bofa.

LETTERBOY

According to Barclay's customer service Twitter, the card will be Chip & PIN.

Tpa-flyer

Tried to apply for this new Barclay cc online this morning. Got into a loop of signing in/announcement page of new card. Called Barclay & applied OTP. Got the referred for review/wait for mail reply. Called the recon line at, 866-408-4064, spoke w/credit analyst, shifted some credit around from other Barclay accounts, and got approved. Still not sure why the internet site didn't advance me to an app page, but if anyone else has the same trouble, don't hesitate to pursue this w/a phone application. I am happy to add a CA to my wallet which always seems heavy w/Visas and Amex.

arlflyer

I wouldn't be so sure. You could have at least two Barclays US Airways MCs open at once, both accounts opened in a ~6 month period. Done it myself and standard practice over on the threads for that card. No, not crazy churning but about as good as one can expect these days.

LoneTree

After researching the issue Barclay's says this is Chip & Sig.

CVM Priority 1: Signature
Priority 2: PIN

arlflyer

I received the card today and upon activation it is clear that it IS in fact chip and PIN. When you call to confirm they ask you if you would like to enter a PIN for use in foreign transactions where a PIN is needed. Once you go in and enter it, they make it very clear that this PIN is for use internationally, that for the first transaction you need to go to a point of sale location with a cashier, and then after that you can use the PIN at automated terminals.

Coupled with the 0% forex fee, and given the dearth of chip + PIN cards available to US cardholders (exception being some weird credit union ones) I think that this could be very powerful to many travelers.

Nick92

Can you post a pic of the card? Many people eager to see it

arlflyer

Not sure if that was sarcasm/joke/phishing or what but the three images you can choose from on the front of the card are available on the promo page, except minus the "Bank of Hawaii" references which are still retained on those images and are obviously no longer applicable.

Nick92

lol no, usually when there's a new card someone posts a picture of it. Of course concealing sensitive info from the image.

LoneTree

Though it's possible that Barclays is confused yet again, some of us have received direct calls from the Executive office on the subject apologizing for misleading us.

It is Chip and Sig as first priority, then Chip & PIN if the POS unit insists, basically as a backup. They're letting you configure the PIN "for use in foreign transactions where a PIN is needed." i.e. forced. The ultimate answer is if you have an EMV reader to check the CVM list yourself.

arlflyer

I feel like I'm having trouble grasping anything beyond a semantic distinction here. Not really doing much travelling to places where chip + PIN is necessary (I've always gotten on with chip + sig just fine), I'm not sure what the difference or downside really is if what you're saying is the case. My understanding was that a plain old "chip + sig" card had NO PIN capability whatsoever, and thus that at a kiosk or other locations requiring ("forcing") a PIN you would be out of luck. Here it seemed that in no uncertain terms they stated that this capability would be in place (the phone recording specifically mentioned unmanned kiosks, a place where chip + sig cards seem to always anecdotally be people's downfall). I am assuming such locations would then default to or force the use of the PIN and that this card would then work.

My understanding was that save for a handful of oddball credit union cards, there were almost no offerings in the US with ANY capability for PIN whatsoever, whereas this one seems to have it.

Let me know if I'm missing anything since this isn't an area of my expertise; it just jumped out to me how clearly they were pushing the PIN capability!

LoneTree

I suppose it's how we're defining Chip and PIN. I'm defining it as a card that defaults to Chip and PIN as first priority, i.e. at every EMV transaction. Obviously the setup on this is better than Chip and Sig only, especially when Barclay lets you set your PIN online. Try explaining to Chase that you need a PIN for your card and they'll explain how it's not possible to ever be prompted for one. Which is particularly annoying since their priority setup is the same as this card and is set to prompt for PINs at kiosks. The Barclay folks to seem to have a better grasp of the technology than Chase.

At this point USAA and Diner's Club are the only true Chip and PIN card in the US.

The other question on these (which I have no answer to) is what happens at a completely unattended kiosk that attempts to do offline PIN authentication? For that we'll probably need someone with an EMV reader to check the CVM priority list.

mnscout

No, not the only. There are also some Penfed cards and Andrew's whatever (too lazy to look).