Beware of the HAL/Barclay Credit Card!

[Mr. Oregon]

We signed up for the HAL branded credit card last fall thinking it would be a great way to pick up a few cruise credits along the way. They offered a low introductory rate and then what appeared to be reasonable rates after the introductory rate expired.

 

Fast forward 6 months. The first time I used the card and left a balance on it they jacked up the rate to 26.24% without warning or reason. Neither our credit scores or finances would give a reason for the move on a piddly $2k balance, so I assume it must be some opportunistic policy they have.

 

Contact with their customer service department was frustrating! Can't SOMEONE hire native english speakers? After a 10 minute conversation and several trips to the holding pen I was told that was the only rate currently available.

 

Outcome= account paid off, card shredded, warning posted for others.

[byucougs]

I'm sorry to hear of your experience. Unhappily, in the current economic environment many credit card companies are pulling this little trick. Doing exactly what you did is the only way to fix it.

 

All of us should check their credit card statements for current rates/ information. These companies are not sending out any "heads up" info on raising rates.

[Typhoon1]

The simple solution is not to carry a balance.

 

I have dealt with Barclay on an airline card for the past 10 years and have been very satisfied with them.

[byucougs]

The simple solution is not to carry a balance.

 

I have dealt with Barclay on an airline card for the past 10 years and have been very satisfied with them.

 

This is the perfect way to handle credit cards, and we have been blessed to be able to do that. However, for those not able to do that, please check your statements every month for hidden rates/changes.

[SDHALFAN]

I am also one of those who never charges more than I can afford to pay off when the credit card statement arrives. However, for those not as fortunate as I your solution was the perfect one - pay off the balance, shred the card and never again charge more than you are comfortable paying off each month.

 

Many, many years ago as a single parent with an ex-husband who refused to pay child support I was up to the eyes in debt. It took me years to pay off the debt because of the usurious interest rates and once free I vowed never to pay an interest charge again.

 

Now it is a pleasure to see something I want, use my charge card (using the bank's money for at least a couple of weeks) and then pay the charge when it comes due. Of course I am careful about how much I spend, but I am debt free and loving it.

 

Valerie:)

[Mr. Oregon]

The simple solution is not to carry a balance.

I have dealt with Barclay on an airline card for the past 10 years and have been very satisfied with them.

 

Absolutely! But in this case I simply wanted to split the cost of a little (well sort of...) home improvement project into two payments rather than raid the savings account. You can bet it won't happen again!

 

Typhoon, did you ever have to deal with their customer service? Was my experience exception rather than rule?

[Beowulfpk]

I don't carry balances either, but there was a time I needed to do a lot of remodeling to help sell my house. I found most "reward" cards had terrible rates after the intro, so I found a card with a low rate just to borrow money and worked out well. I sold the house and paid off the card.

 

Either way I don't find the HAL card very rewarding. Its better to take the 1% cash-back card and buy your own cruise with the money you get back.

 

The way I figure it I'm paying at least 1% of what I spend to get those rewards, since I could have gotten the cash if I used the cash back card, therefore unless the rewards are worth more than 1% of what I spend I don't use the card. Its a great way to tell how valuable the rewards are you are getting. :)

[Himself]

I recently got one of those HAL cards offered by Barclay and was charged with interest and I paid it off in full. There are no more grace periods with these companies. It used to be that as long as you paid it off by you due date you would be charged no interest. Now on some of them I more than pay it off so that when I use it again I will digging into a Credit balance. This way how can they charge me interest before I get the statement?

They will find away.

[SeaBlueSkies]

The simple solution is not to carry a balance.

 

I have dealt with Barclay on an airline card for the past 10 years and have been very satisfied with them.

 

I have a Barclay CC too and never had any trouble with it but I don't carry a balance either.

My card is the Carnival CC. I thought at the time I could use it with HAL, but I can't. Now that I know Barclay has a HAL card, I think I will close my Carnival CC and get a HAL one.

[SeaBlueSkies]

I am also one of those who never charges more than I can afford to pay off when the credit card statement arrives. However, for those not as fortunate as I your solution was the perfect one - pay off the balance, shred the card and never again charge more than you are comfortable paying off each month.

 

Many, many years ago as a single parent with an ex-husband who refused to pay child support I was up to the eyes in debt. It took me years to pay off the debt because of the usurious interest rates and once free I vowed never to pay an interest charge again.

 

Now it is a pleasure to see something I want, use my charge card (using the bank's money for at least a couple of weeks) and then pay the charge when it comes due. Of course I am careful about how much I spend, but I am debt free and loving it.

 

Valerie:)

 

Years ago (25), I got into the same mess. I got all the CCs paid off and made the same vow and to this day I've not ever carried a balance on a CC. It feels great to go to bed at night not having to think about paying the CC bill and all the interest. Once I learned how much that $300 TV ended up costing me...I never kept a balance again!

[kjw869]

The simple solution is not to carry a balance.

 

I have dealt with Barclay on an airline card for the past 10 years and have been very satisfied with them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have three airline cards with Barclay and have had zero problems with them. I've had one for over eight years--a Milwaukee based airline card.

 

(In fact, I'm flying to Seattle next weekend for an Alaskan cruise courtesy of award travel from this card.)

 

But, I always pay off the balance every month so if they raised the interest rates, I never noticed. I'm sure if I had a balance, they might increase the rates as all credit card companies seem to be doing lately.

[Himself]

Years ago a friend of mine put an addition on his home. A fellow worker asked him how he financed it. He said: "I used the Bohemian easy-payment plan--100 % down and no more owed. We would all be better off if we lived that way.

[Pokeynose]

We applied and got this card. We had no other CC balances. They would only give us a $1500. credit limit. I told them we got this card so we could put our cruise on it and would need more than this amount. We then would pay off the balance right away. They wouldn't budge so I told them to cancel our card, they were a rip off for us.:mad: I'll use our Marriott card and get room pts.:D I'm glad it works for most of you.

[Typhoon1]

Typhoon, did you ever have to deal with their customer service? Was my experience exception rather than rule?

 

I have been very satisfied with Barclay, (formerly Juniper) in ten years I have called them a few times. Your experience sounds like an exception.

[Cruising-along]

We've had the HAL/Barclay card since it was first offered by HAL and have been fine with it. The first month we did have to call customer service about a matter, but it was more our fault than anything. When I set it up for online payment I set it up to come out of our savings instead of checking. We were charged a $29 return fee because for some reason it didn't work from our savings. Called them up, they took off the fee, and I changed it to checking. No problems since.

 

They gave us a $12,500 limit which we'll never need, and we pay it off early each month. No problem using the points either, we used some on our last cruise.

 

Sorry this happened to you. As someone said earlier, many credit card companies are pulling that trick (raising your interest rate with no warning).

[Pete Jackson]

It's all part of the business cycle. The credit card business has consolidated down to just a few banks, who feel they can charge and gouge as they please since there no competition. Soon, competition will emerge as other banks feel there are big profits to be made; when competition emerges, rates will drop.

 

One alternative is to carry lots of cash around with you; of course it might get lost or stolen, but at least the money then goes to a needy thief as opposed to already filthy rich bancocrats!:D

[CaliforniaAC]

...Contact with their customer service department was frustrating! Can't SOMEONE hire native english speakers? After a 10 minute conversation and several trips to the holding pen I was told that was the only rate currently available.

 

Outcome= account paid off, card shredded, warning posted for others.

 

I have called customer service perhaps four or five times with questions. Yesterday I spoke to a young man with a southern accent, and I asked him where he was, and he told me he was in Delaware, but originally from Georgia.

 

Personally, I have about every reward program I can get my hands on. For our next cruise, I used my $200.00 worth of points from my HAL card toward the cruise, my Hilton hhonors card points for pre-cruise stay, Hyatt gold points for post cruise stay, Delta Skymiles for my flight (non-stop there, first class seats home) with a few Amex rewards peppered in. We also took advantage of the future cruise program with HAL, so we had $150.00 onboard credits, plus the current HAL promo, and the TA's promo all total about $300obc. I think I am upwards of $1500-$2000 savings on this vacation, especially since we get to fly first class home.

 

Yes, we pay off our cards every month, but we use them for everything. We pay about $200.00 a year for our amex and aa citi cards, but I think working it this way works out well for us. I may cancel the aa cards next year, we have enough for 2 round trip flights each, and Delta has improved their Skymiles program, so they suit our needs again.

 

Guess there's two sides to every coin.

[Jade13]

We signed up for the HAL branded credit card last fall thinking it would be a great way to pick up a few cruise credits along the way. They offered a low introductory rate and then what appeared to be reasonable rates after the introductory rate expired.

 

Fast forward 6 months. The first time I used the card and left a balance on it they jacked up the rate to 26.24% without warning or reason. Neither our credit scores or finances would give a reason for the move on a piddly $2k balance, so I assume it must be some opportunistic policy they have.

 

Contact with their customer service department was frustrating! Can't SOMEONE hire native english speakers? After a 10 minute conversation and several trips to the holding pen I was told that was the only rate currently available.

 

Outcome= account paid off, card shredded, warning posted for others.

 

I saw this coming last year. I don't care for Barclays. HAL made a mistake not hooking up with Bank of America. At least you can walk into any branch and pay your bill.

[Rabbitlady]

California AC,

I like your style.........we use all of the rewards you mentioned. Isn't it fun to get bargains?

 

RL

[LHC]

I do not have any credit cards. As a single mother of an adult handicap card I know what it is to be buried under credit card, medical bills, and simple debts. After learning this lesson late in life, it sticks.

 

I use my debit card, good old cash, and save for my cruises. No money, no cruise, simple. If I want it, I work and save for it. Freedom is priceless, not Mastercard.

 

Linda LHC

[YXU AC*SE]

Terms and Conditions for the HAL card may be found here: https://www.juniper.com/app/japply/lp/TnCs.jsp?prodidreq=CCVVS19004

 

Barclays Bank Delaware clearly set out when the default APR will apply (which can be as high as 27.24%). Caveat lector.

 

Scott.

[kalliekae]

We got the HAL card last November. Used it for the first time in December for a dinner out and it was denied. We were quite embarrassed! Came home and called them to see why and the customer service rep was very unhelpful. Told us to go out that night and use it again! I told him that was not going to happen as it was late and the temps were below zero. He never did give us a reason as to why it was denied at the restaurant. We have not used it since and plan to never use it again. Absolutely awful customer service! We never carry a balance on our credit cards and we charge everything so we can use the rewards programs that are offered by our various cards. We thought (erroneously) that the HAL card would be a great way to obtain OBC for a future cruise. We were sadly mistaken.

[MadManOfBethesda]

I do not have any credit cards....

 

I use my debit card, good old cash, and save for my cruises. No money, no cruise, simple. If I want it, I work and save for it.

 

Yes, but you are costing yourself hundreds of dollars a year by doing it that way. You can do the very same thing (save for big expenditures), but pay for it with a credit card rather than a debit card, and then the credit card company will pay you for using their card. I get $50 - $100 deposited in my checking account every month because the credit card company pays me $2 for every $100 I charge.

[Pete Jackson]

LHC,

 

How do you rent a car without using a credit card? Is it a matter of finding a company that will take a debit card (most don't)? I presume you use the debit card to buy the cruise, so that must work!:)

 

 

 

I do not have any credit cards. As a single mother of an adult handicap card I know what it is to be buried under credit card, medical bills, and simple debts. After learning this lesson late in life, it sticks.

 

I use my debit card, good old cash, and save for my cruises. No money, no cruise, simple. If I want it, I work and save for it. Freedom is priceless, not Mastercard.

 

Linda LHC

[LHC]

I book my cruise with my debit card and transfer my savings funds for vacation to my debit card when it is time to pay.

For one I do not want the hassel of the CC, I do not want to pay to carry one each year, nor in this economy want it jerked up no matter what my financial status is.

I use a card Visa purchased with cash from my AAA, which means no one has assess to my personal accounts when I travel. Again, I load it with cash from my vacation savings account.

I do not want a freebie with my headache. IF I want something I save to get it. No cash, no purchase.

 

LHC