Update 2/1/15: I have been BANNED from the Barclaycard Travel Community. 

I don’t know why, but this is what I see when I log in now:

 

So if anyone has given me kudos, but I haven’t reciprocated, this is why. Thank you guys for the support, but it looks like I’m out of this one, unfortunately. :/

 

This post is part personal ad and part information.

Stepping up the game

Barclays Bank has been doing some really cool things lately, especially with their new Barclaycard Arrival (the naming of this card is so weird). They’ve created a revolutionary card with instant posting of points, instant redemptions, a great portal, free FICO score, and a slew of other great benefits. Anything a bank can do to keep a consumer engaged with their product is a really good thing. Now, they’ve made a community.

The Barclaycard Travel Community

The site is easy enough to find: it’s www.barclaycardtravel.com

But beyond that, they’ve linked it up with the Arrival card. AND they offer incentives to use it. Incentives in the form of, you guessed it, Arrival miles.

If you have the Arrival card, you get 200 miles for posting a travel “story” of at least 50 words with an accompanying photo. 200 miles is $2.20! You also receive 10 miles for each “kudos” on a story (another $.12) and can earn badges for an additional 250 miles each ($2.62).

Let’s do the math on this

If you post 5 “stories” a day (with a photo), you’ll earn 1,000 miles (IF YOU HAVE THE ARRIVAL CARD). If you post 5 stories a day for 100 days, you’d then have 100,000 miles. This is enough to get a $1000 planet ticket for FREE. AND, you’d get $20 back on top of that). So, you’d get about $1,020 in value. Where could you go with $1,000 free bucks?

How long does posting a story take? As long as it takes to upload a photo and type 50 words. For me, that’s about a minute. Let’s say 2 minutes, just to round up. So, 10 minutes a day for a little over 3 months and I have a free plane ticket. Or hotel stay. Or other travel expense. That’s pretty cool!

You will also receive badges and (hopefully) kudos along the way which will accelerate your earnings even more. You are not limited to 5 stories a day. You can post until your fingers fall off. The miles post each morning, and are posted to your Arrival account when your monthly statement closes. With just a little bit of effort, you can get a ton of value out of this.

The upshot

I do not expect that this is lucrative for Barclays. How can they sustain these payouts? I do not understand what they’re trying to do with this, really, or where it’s headed, BUT in the meantime, I’m getting 200 miles per story I post. So far, I’ve earned over 7,000 miles (over $70!) for using their site a few minutes each day. Not a bad payout at all. And I will continue to, until they no longer offer this opportunity.

And the personal ad?

So now that the info is out there, I’d like to post a link to my Barclaycard Travel Community profile. Feel free to read the stories I’ve included and if you feel moved, to give me kudos.

As an additional measure, please freely post the link to your profile there by clicking on one of your stories, then copying the link at “View profile.” Paste it in the comments and I will be sure to look it up and give you some kudos, too.

Bottom line

Barclays is really moving forward with the way they’re promoting the Arrival card. It’s just another reason why I’m so engaged with the creation and marketing of this product. Pure curiosity has led me to keep the card for another year.

The Barclaycard Travel Community is a great way to earn miles in your spare time. They will add up over and could net you a really nice trip, for free. However, I do not think this is sustainable, so get in on it while the getting is good!

Post the link to your profile in the comments (if you want) for some added kudos to your stories!

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