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Barclaycard Will Provide Your Real FICO Score

by Scott Mackenzie
Last updated December 1, 2015

Barclaycard is one of the first large credit card issuers to give its customers access to a real FICO score. While I’m a fan of free online estimators like CreditKarma and Credit Sesame, they are certainly limited and don’t provide much in the way of “real” information. I look at them more as relative measures of my own creditworthiness. Am I doing better than three months ago? Okay, maybe I can apply for a new card, but only because I know from other sources I was already in a good place three months ago. There is not actually much difference between great credit and good credit.

The ability to freely access a true FICO score means you can better monitor your creditworthiness, your chances at successfully applying for new credit, and perhaps even notice mistakes on your record if it takes a sudden dip. However, the score is not live and only updates when Barclaycard gets new information, which could be up to 60 days.

Barclaycard is providing a few extra features beyond just showing you your score:

  • E-mail alerts when the score changes
  • Top factors impacting your score
  • Historical trends, beginning after three months

It’s important to note that not all Barclaycard-issued cards are eligible to receive this perk, though I hope the rest are added eventually. Those that participate now are the Barclaycard Arrival, Frontier Airlines, Carnival, Barclaycard Ring, Barclaycard Rewards, and Juniper cards. Personally, I would like to see more of the travel-associated cards included in that list, like the Priceline Rewards, Miles & More, and US Airways cards.

Of the participating cards, I only recommend the Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard®, and in fact it’s one of the top cards I recommend to travelers who aren’t loyal to a single airline. This FICO perk alone isn’t a reason to get it.

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Every purchase earns two miles per dollar, and the annual fee is waived the first year. You also get 10% of your miles back when you redeem them for a travel purchase, with no restrictions on how you redeem your rewards since all you need to do is call up Barclaycard and ask for a statement credit after you buy your ticket. All-in-all it’s nice to see a good card getting even better.

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About Scott Mackenzie

Scott is a former scientist and business student who created Travel Codex to unravel the complexity of travel loyalty programs. After 11 years in Seattle, he now lives in Austin with his wife and flies over 100,000 miles every year.

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If you have a question or would like to make a press inquiry, please contact:

Scott Mackenzie
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scott@travelcodex.com

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