February 12, 2025: Barclays Bank issues Wyndham credit cards and (for the moment) Hawaiian Airlines credit cards and some American Airlines credit cards. If you’re thinking of applying for a Barclays credit card, here’s what you need to know.
Barclays Bank overview and general sentiment
Barclays is one of the harder banks to get approved with. You’ll typically need above-average credit to get approved and the bank is unlikely to approve you for a large number of cards in a short time period.
The bank is especially sensitive to current and previous customers who have not used their cards. During your application process, you can expect that your previous use of your Barclays cards will be taken into consideration.
Although you can have good reasons for not putting spending on a card like an airline credit card (like if you’re paying the annual fee to effectively buy free checked bags), Barclays may see you not spending on your other cards as an indication that you won’t be a profitable customer.
Welcome bonus eligibility: You can (usually) earn a bonus twice
In most cases, the terms and conditions of Barclays credit card offers don’t restrict you from earning the bonus again, meaning it is possible to earn a bonus on a specific card product more than once. If you get approved for the card and meet the other requirements, you’ll earn a bonus.
Be sure to check the terms and conditions of the specific offer you’re looking to apply for—terms and conditions can vary by product.
Welcome bonus consistency: Some variation across channels
Barclays is fairly consistent with its welcome bonuses, but you’ll find some variation among channels. In most cases, the value you get from the bonuses will be similar.
- In-flight or employee-referral offers can sometimes offer more points.
- Some cardmembers can generate personal referral offers that will give you a better bonus than what is available publicly. (The ability to generate referrals is very sporadic. Most cardmembers cannot generate referrals.)
- Offers that don’t waive the annual fee in the first year can sometimes offer more points. We’ve seen Barclays consistently offer 10,000 fewer points on the Aviator Red card, tied to a waived first-year annual fee.
In most cases, you won’t need to hunt around for the best bonus with Barclays.
Getting approved: Especially tough for small business cards
The toughest thing about getting approved for a Barclays credit card is that Barclays ruthlessly scrutinizes your account history. If you aren’t using your existing Barclays credit cards or if you have a history of getting cards, earning the welcome bonus, and then closing your cards, you’re unlikely to get approved.
- Barclays will look at your account history. If you are not auto-approved and speak to an analyst, you should expect them to look at your account history—what you’ve spent on your other Barclays cards—to judge whether you’ll be a profitable customer.
- Small business cards get extra scrutiny. Some people applying for small business credit cards have reported getting multiple rounds of onerous documentation requests and then being ghosted by Barclays analysts for months without application approval or denial.
- We know of no limit on the number of cards Barclays will issue. Barclays may allow you to reallocate credit during the application process.
Reconsideration line: An option if your card isn’t instantly approved
If your card isn’t approved instantly, you can call a reconsideration analyst. Often a call to a reconsideration analyst can push your application through, but it’s best to be prepared for this call. Know why you’re getting the card (other than simply to earn the sign-up bonus) and be prepared to explain both any anomalies on your credit report or why you’re not using specific cards.
You should always be skeptical of contacting a bank through a phone number you find on a non-bank website (including this one!) The numbers posted below include links to our source for the number and we only publish numbers that we can trace to an official bank website or social media account.
- 866-408-4064. Source: Barclays official Twitter post
Checking your application status online
You can check your application status online for both personal and business Barclays applications. Here are the links:
- Check the status of a personal credit card application.
- Check the status of a business credit card application.
Additional notes
Here are some additional notes on applying for Barclays cards:
- Barclays typically pulls your TransUnion report. This seems to be the consensus we saw across various forums, so we’d say this is likely.
- Some sites claim that there is a 6/24 rule with Barclays, where you can’t get approved for a card with more than six new credit accounts on your credit report within 24 months. We haven’t been able to independently verify this.
Bottom line: If you want to get approved by Barclays, use your cards
Barclays is one of the toughest banks to get approved with because it actively tries to weed out customers it doesn’t think will be profitable. If you don’t have a lot of credit cards and you have a strong credit score, you’re likely to having an easier time getting approved. If you do have cards with Barclays, make sure that you’re using them to increase your chances of being approved.
