Barclay’s Multiple of the Same Product
A couple of months ago I wrote an article talking about Barclay’s credit card application best practices. In the article I shared my experiences with Barclay’s and the experiences of others. In the comments many people also chimed in. Overall it provided a somewhat decent picture of what most people should consider when trying to apply for Barclay’s cards.
In that article I shared how both my wife and I both were able to get 2 Arrival Plus cards. At the time I shared the key was to get an instant approval. For some reason Barclay’s computers weren’t able to see if someone already had a certain product, so if you received an instant approval all was good. On the other hand if it went to a human for review, it would be denied automatically since Barclay’s official policy is not to allow multiples of the same card.
Unfortunately Barclay’s seems to have upgraded their systems. I received an email from a reader who was applying for a second Arrival Plus card. This person was auto denied, but the interesting part came when he received the denial letter. The denial letter which is shown above, says:
Our records show that you’ve already established the maximum allowable number of this product with us. Please let us know immediately if you did not apply for or receive this product previously.
A credit bureau was not used in making this determination.
Based on this letter and the fact that they didn’t do a credit pull, we can now safely assume that their computers are able to determine when you already have a certain product and auto deny you. Considering this new information, it probably isn’t the best idea to apply for a second version of the same card anymore. Of course, there are always loopholes, so who knows and it would seem you aren’t risking a credit pull.
Application Language
Unlike Chase and Citi who have specific language about when you can receive a bonus again, Barclay’s only says “This offer is available to new Cardmembers only.” This would seem to indicate that you should still be able to get the bonus again if you close out your current version of that product. Of course the language is somewhat ambiguous, so there are no guarantees.
Conclusion
At least one reader was auto denied without a credit pull for applying for a second version of the same card. It looks like Barclay’s may have finally fixed their computers, which means that going forward it will be nearly impossible to get a bonus a second time when you still have your first card open.
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Came across this old post in a google search! I recently was approved for this card, my second one after closing my previous one over a year ago (and earned the SUB a second time). My P2 was in the same situation and applied again, and was just denied by mail. The decision letter said “Our records show that you’ve already established the maximum allowable number of this product with us.” Given we were in identical situations, I’m surprised she had a different outcome, as her old account is closed. Any DPs on getting this card again after closing it previously? Maybe something changed recently, or P2 just got unlucky (and I got lucky)?
[…] used to be possible to have multiple Arrival’s at the same time, but that was changed over a year ago. At some point over the past year or so, there was a change in the system whereby […]
[…] to Memories reports that there appears to be a system in place that will automatically decline you if you already have the card you’re trying to apply for. You might have better luck canceling and then re-applying. […]
As other commented, Barclays do this thing for long time – at least 8 months. I applied for second Lufthansa and US Air cards, while having these cards opened – was denied with the same reason. Closed those cards, applied again later and was approved.
It seems based on what others have reported that this happening only to some people and not to others. I do agree there is ample evidence that closing a card makes you eligible for the bonus once again. Thanks Sergey.
I started seeing this when I tried for my 3rd US Airways card just before they pulled the links. I also tried calling in and offered to close one of my other US Air cards, but no luck. Never thought of applying for multiple Arrival+ cards though. Oh well, too late now it seems.
[…] Barclay’s Makes Major Change on Getting Multiples of the Same Product by Miles to Memories. Let’s hope this only effects you getting the same card again if you already have one open, it would suck if you were only able to get each sign up bonus once. I’ve updated our list of churnable credit cards to reflect this new information. If anybody has gotten the sign up bonus again on a card they’ve had before, let us know in the comments. […]
That Barclay response is definitely not new… There’s no rhyme or reason to Barclay auto denials but most likely having too many new apps with them recently. A group of us have gotten 5x us air cards with auto approval and some with that auto denial reasoning in between
successful apps.
Does it still worth a try to apply for 2 similar Barclay card on same day using 2 browser method if they combine the pulls? like applying Lufthansa card 2 times to get the 50k sign up bonus 2 times, making it 100k bonus.