I’ve always through Barclaycard US had an interesting name. Barclaycard US is actually a subsidiary of Barclays Bank Delaware. Which is of course a subsidiary of Barclays Bank PLC or Barclays International. Which are both ultimately subsidiaries of Barclays PLC. Are you following all of this?
Well, clearly someone at Barclays has decided that the names are getting a little too confusing and soon Barclaycard US will be rebranding to just Barclays. As a Barclaycard AAdvantage Aviator Red card holder Barclaycard alerted me of the change a few days ago in the following email.
The email explains how the change from Barclaycard US to Barclays will be gradual over the coming months and there is nothing, as a cardholder, that I need to do.
What’s Actually Changing?
Well, it seems like Barclaycard isn’t changing many things at all. Barclays won’t be changing interest rates, terms, or card offerings. It seems the only changes will be to the website and mobile app, which per the above email aren’t changing?
My guess is that in the coming weeks we’ll begin to see the Barclaycard name and blue swirl logo disappear. Most likely the mobile app icon will change to the Barclays Eagle and the name of the app will change to just Barclays. At the same time I bet that we’ll begin to see similar changes on the Barclaycard website. The header of the website will most likely change to Barclays and also feature the Eagle.
Lastly, going forward, new credit cards and reissued cards will list Barclays on the card instead of Barclaycard. For example, on the back of my Aviator Red card the Barclaycard name and logo appear. My guess is that when I get a new card it will simply say Barclays and feature the Eagle.
What I Make Of The Change
I’ve never understood why banks issue credit cards under different names than their parent bank. For example, why does Bank of America have the Bank of America BankAmericard Travel Rewards Card? Isn’t that name terribly confusing? Why not just have the Bank of America Travel Rewards card?
I feel the same way about Barclaycard. You’re essentially opening a Barclays Barclaycard Uber Card. It just doesn’t make sense. It’s much easier to simply call it the Barclays Uber Card.
For that reason I welcome the change. I also think that this change could help grow the Barclays brand in the United States. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Barclays start pushing traditional bank products (checking/savings accounts) to existing Barclays credit card holders in the US. For that reason, I think this is a positive change.
Final Thoughts
Overall this change, for not, is aesthetic at best. There will be absolutely no changes to existing products nor any immediate changes to the credit cards currently offered by Barclays. However, in the long term I wouldn’t be surprised to see Barclays begin offering a wider variety of traditional banking products in conjunction with their credit cards. Perhaps soon Barclays card holders will begin seeing emails with offers to open a Barclays Savings Account or Checking account.
Lastly, I’m curious to see how quickly the Barclaycard.com website disappears. It seems odd that the Barclaycard name is going away, but customers will still type it into their web browser.
