Barclaycard (; stylized as barclaycard) is a brand for credit cards of

Barclays PLC Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...

. , Barclays had over ten million customers in the United Kingdom.

History

Barclays launched Barclaycard on 29 June 1966, initially as a charge card, but following Bank of England agreement to the offering of

revolving credit Revolving credit is a type of credit that does not have a fixed number of payments, in contrast to installment credit. Credit cards are an example of revolving credit used by consumers. Corporate revolving credit facilities are typically used to ...

, it became the first credit card in the United Kingdom on 8 November 1967. It enjoyed the

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

of the credit card market in the United Kingdom, until the introduction of the Access Card in October 1972. Barclays was not the first issuer of a credit card in the United Kingdom though;

Diners Club A diner is a small, inexpensive restaurant found across the United States, as well as in Canada and parts of Western Europe. Diners offer a wide range of foods, mostly American cuisine, a casual atmosphere, and, characteristically, a com ...

and

American Express American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...

launched their charge cards in 1962 and 1963 respectively. Barclaycard was originally a

BankAmericard Visa Inc. (; stylized as ''VISA'') is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California. It facilitates electronic funds transfers throughout the world, most commonly through Visa-branded cred ...

licensee, and became part of the

Visa Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...

network on its formation in September 1976. In 2021, Barclaycard cut credit limits for over 100,000 customers.

Acquisitions

Providian

In July 2003, Barclays took over Monument, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

branch of the U.S. bank Providian, when it was sold off due to financial irregularities of its American parent company. Barclaycard sold the Monument business and premises to CompuCredit Holdings Corporation in April 2007.

Egg

In March 2011, Barclays announced that it would be buying the British credit card business of

Egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

from

Citigroup Citigroup Inc. or Citi (Style (visual arts), stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking ...

for an undisclosed price. At the time of the announcement, Barclays claimed that the credit card assets consisted of 1.15 million accounts with approximately £2.3bn of gross receivables. They intended to integrate those customers within their own credit card arm. At the time of the announcement,

Citi Citigroup Inc. or Citi (stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking giant #Citicorp, Citicorp and financial ...

said it was "committed to working with Barclays on a seamless transfer of the customer accounts, ensuring continuation of the high level of service to which customers are accustomed".

Analog Analytics

In June 2012, Barclays acquired Analog Analytics, a digital coupon and daily deal business similar to

Groupon Groupon is an American global e-commerce marketplace connecting subscribers with local merchants by offering activities, travel, goods and services in 13 countries. Based in Chicago, Groupon was launched there in November 2008, launching soon af ...

The Logic Group

In September 2014, Barclays announced it was going to acquire The Logic Group, a managed payment and loyalty business. The acquisition would enable Barclaycard's clients to benefit from The Logic Group's single platform transaction processing capabilities, alongside data insights, which would allow merchants to better target their services to customers. In late 2014, Barclays confirmed that the Logic Group acquisition has been finalised.

References

External links

Barclaycard Webpage
Financial services companies established in 1966 Credit cards Financial services companies of the United Kingdom Barclays Debit cards Credit cards in the United States Payment card services companies 1966 establishments in the United Kingdom British companies established in 1966 {{Econ-stub