Why your backup Avios card should be the Barclaycard Avios Plus, briefly

"Why do you have an Amex? Not many places take those!"

Heard that one before? As much as I would like to say it's not true, there is a kernel of truth to it.

So if you're looking to collect as many Avios as possible, you'll probably already have a British Airways Amex, but you'll want a backup card that earns Avios too. In the UK that means Barclaycard, with your choice either of:

• Barclaycard Avios is free. It earns 1 Avios per £1, gives you 5,000 Avios when you spend £1,000 in your first three months, and a cabin upgrade voucher once you spend £20,000 in a year.

• Barclaycard Avios Plus costs £20 a month. It earns 1.5 Avios per £1, gives you 25,000 Avios when you spend £3,000 in your first three months, and a cabin upgrade voucher (or 7,000 Avios) once you spend £10,000 in a year.

To me, a backup is meant to sit in your wallet doing nothing until computer says no. Paying £240 a year for a backup won't make sense for a lot of you, so the free card looks like the obvious pick.

I'm going to tell you that it's the right card to end up with, but the wrong one to start with.

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Start on the Plus, finish on the free card

Apply for the Barclaycard Avios Plus. Spend £3,000 in the first three months. Collect the 25,000 Avios. Then switch to the free card in the Barclaycard app.

You only pay the fee while you're going for the bonus. After that, by downgrading, you've got the free backup you wanted in the first place, plus a lot more Avios than you'd have otherwise had.

How many more? Let's put the same £3,000 through each card. The free card will get you 8,000 Avios (5,000 Avios from the bonus, plus 3,000 Avios from spending). The Plus gets you 29,500 Avios (25,000 Avios from the bonus, plus 4,500 Avios from spending). That's 21,500 extra, for the cost of three or four months of fees, so £60 to £80.

You should think of each Avios as essentially 1p, so you're paying £60 to £80 for about £215 worth of more Avios. Good deal!

Before you do any of this

• WAIT for the Avios. Make sure the Avios are in your BA account before you cancel/switch cards, lest you risk losing them to an administrative cock-up.

• Barclaycard only lets you hold one of it's card at a time, so you can't apply for both at the same time.

• The downgrade isn't guaranteed. It's only offered in the app, under "Change to another card". You can always call customer services if it isn't showing. If it never shows up and customer services can't help you, you can cancel and reapply for the free card, but you'll have to wait six months first (Barclaycard's gap between closing one of its cards and applying for another, which we covered here).

• You can only get one bonus every 24 months. So don't expect a bonus when you switch to the free card. No problem though, as you'll be earning more Avios from the bonus on the Avios Plus card anyway.

• The £3,000 has to come from somewhere. If it's spending that would normally go on your BA Amex, it isn't counting towards your Companion Voucher. Time it for a few months with a big bill in them, the car insurance renewal, say, or the balance on a holiday.

• A boosted sign-up bonus isn't guaranteed. 25,000 is the standard bonus. Barclaycard boosted it to 35,000 around the new year, but this was the first boosted sign-up offer from Barclaycard for a few years, so I wouldn't bank on one appearing.

What about the cabin upgrade voucher?

The Plus also gives you a cabin upgrade voucher (or 7,000 Avios) once you spend £10,000 in a year, compared to £20,000 on the free card. You could hold off downgrading until you've earned it.

But £10,000 a year is about £830 a month of spend, and every pound put on this card is a pound that isn't going on your Amex. That isn't a backup anymore, it's a secondary card, and the question becomes whether you'd rather be working towards an Amex Companion Voucher or a Barclays upgrade voucher.

If you've got the spend for both, brilliant, go for it! If you just want something in your wallet for when your Amex gets turned down, I'd say stop once you've hit the welcome bonus.

So yes, get the free card. Just get it three months after you thought you should.

Sam

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