Barclays Ball-Playing Redux

Yesterday’s post spurred plenty of questions, discussion, and further digging. Sam at HelpMeBuildCredit.com started by letting me know about other heightened offers from Barclays, and I heard from many of you about their rules. Let’s go over both:

1. The JetBlue Business Card has an offer for:

   – 80,000 TrueBlue points and a $99 statement credit after spending $2,000 in 90 days

   The card has a $99 annual fee which is effectively erased by the statement credit. As with yesterday’s Barclay AA card offer, this one is probably a “get the sign-up bonus, sock-drawer, then cancel or get a retention offer after your one year anniversary” card. That said, I know a few of you like to keep it and spend $50,000 a year for Mosaic status.

2. The Hawaiian Business Mastercard has an offer for:

   – 80,000 Hawaiian Airlines miles and a $99 statement credit after spending $2,000 in 90 days

   This card also has a $99 annual fee effectively erased by the statement credit. This is also a sock-drawer and cancel after a year card.

And, a few things that came up in the last day:

• Q: Can I have multiple versions of the same Barclays card?
  A: No
• Q: Do I have to close a card to apply for it again?
  A: Yes
• Q: Will Barlcays offer to match a retention bonus if you recently opened a card?
  A: Sometimes, YMMV
• Q: Do I really have to wait six months between closing a particular card and opening the same card again?
  A: Probably, YMMV
• Q: Does Barclays care about credit line cycling?
  A: They don’t seem to care on business cards as long as it’s 2-3x per month, they’re stricter on personal cards
• Q: Barclays doesn’t care about anonymous bill payments.
  A: That’s not a question

And finally, I’ve been told that Barclays may not enforce 6/24 at all on personal cards — if you have a datapoint related to that I’d appreciate it if you let me know.

Happy Wednesday friends!