Barclaycard US Is Rebranding As Barclays

They called it Barclaycard because that’s the name that was given to Barclays credit cards in the U.K. in the 60s...and is still used as that now there too. Barclaycard was the first credit in the U.K.

Ben - the “Barclaycard” branding is something of a quirk of history. It was set up by Barclays in the mid 60s as a stand-alone payment method (alongside, at the time, Amex and Diners), so it was actually hoped/intended to become a card network, Although was ultimately overtaken by Visa and (in the U.K.) all “stand-alone” Barclaycards became Visa cards (although they now issue Mastercards, too). The brand had built up a significant reputation in the U.K., so Barclays retained it as a standalone credit-card issuing subsidiary. Even though Barclays remains one of the biggest U.K. retail banks, all Barclays-issued credit cards in the U.K. are issued by Barclaycard. It follows that the logical vehicle (from a Barclays perspective) to launch international (non U.K.) credit cards was Barclaycard, so that’s what they did. I suspect the internal difficulties of issuing a plain “Barclays” branded credit card meant that it was not historically attractive. (I say all of this as a former Barclaycard employee).

In the US it’s mostly just a marketing name/brand anyway, as the cards themselves are issued by Barclays Bank Delaware

meh. as long as they keep giving me 10,000 AA aaniversary miles every March I really couldn't care less

I love my AA Silver Barclaycard which I’ve had longer than just about any other card. I’ve had great service from them and I, too, love my 10,000 anniversary miles and other benefits. While other cards come and go, this one will be with me forever. They can call it whatever they like just so the benefits and good customer service remain intact.

Maybe instead of spending who knows how much money to rebrand they could spend that money to actually provide a REAL CHIP & PIN card to us Americans the way they originally marketed their ARRIVALS+ card.
The fact that we are the last country in the world stuck with the insecurity of signatures (sorry but what clerk compares signatures?) over PINs is insanity... and while not Barclays fault per se, they falsely advertised that card and have never once done anything to make PIN use mandatory for those of us who wish it to be.

Just to clarify....I work for this company and to date has been called the Barclaycard Arrival Plus MasterCard.