The easiest way to earn points from credit cards is from sign-up bonuses. Once you have the card, you can take advantage of bonus categories to earn 2 to 10 points per dollar you spend with the card.
Referral bonuses are another way to earn bonus points from a card you already have.
Cardholders can earn bonus points when people sign up for a credit card through a personalized link. Chase, Capital One and American Express have websites providing cardmembers with referral links.
Bonus offers from a referral link are often the same as the publicly available offer. There are times when a referral link is lower. For example, I’ve asked people not to use our link for a 60,000 point bonus when there was an 80,000 bonus available. In rarer cases, a referral link can be better than a public offer, but I make sure I know who those links are from before using them.
While some banks are eager to pay cardholders to get them new customers, other banks, like Barclays and Citi, do not regularly promote referral bonuses. However, I received an email from Barclays with a limited-time offer on my JetBlue Plus card.
To find the offer, log into your Barclays account and go to the “Offers” section.
That’s where I found the offer for 10,000 TrueBlue points for each referral.
The referral link sends you to offers for the JetBlue Card and the JetBlue Plus card. Both offers are the same as those available publicly—60 K for the JetBlue Plus and 10K for the no-annual-fee card.
I have a JetBlue Plus card and pay the $99 annual fee for the benefits provided. Most valuable is the free checked bag for up to 4 people on the same reservation. Cardmembers also receive 5,000 points every anniversary.
I’m not posting my link here because the restrictions specifically state the offer can be shared by text message or social media. If you’re interested in signing up, send us a message, and we’ll send the link to you.
Barclays states that cardholders may receive a 1099-MISC for the income earned from referral bonuses.
The total rewards you may earn from all programs and/or offers from Barclays associated with any product(s) you may have (including but not limited to, Barclays credit card(s), personal loan(s) and deposit account(s)) may qualify as miscellaneous income and could require Barclays to send you a Form 1099-MISC (Miscellaneous Income) and file it with the IRS for the year in which you participate and are awarded rewards from any program(s).
Applications from referral links need to be submitted by June 30th to be eligible for bonus points.
Final Thoughts
It’s rare to see a referral bonus on Barclays cards. While only I received the email about the bonus, the referral offer was on both of our JetBlue accounts. We don’t have any other Barclays cards with referral offers, but it might be good to check if you have any of their co-brand travel cards.
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary, or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
