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Barclaycard |
Barclaycard is a global credit provider (credit cards and loans) owned by Barclays plc in the UK. The Barclaycard was the first credit card introduced in the UK, coming into service in 1966. It enjoyed a monopoly until the introduction of the Access card in 1972.
Barclaycard later became part of the VISA network. Nowadays, Barclays offers both MasterCard and VISA versions. Barclaycard claims it is Europe's leading issuer of credit cards with 11 million in circulation. Barclaycard's main offices are in Northampton, along with several floors at Barclays' corporate HQ, One Churchill Place in Canary Wharf, London.
Barclaycard was also the main sponsor of the FA Premier League (from 2001–2004) until Barclays itself took over at the start of the 2004-2005 season.
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Barclaycard has 19.2 million customers in the UK, issuing one in three UK credit cards. It is currently the leading UK credit card issuer.
It is based at 1234 Pavilion Drive in Northampton in a specially designed building where it employs approximately 3000 people. It is one of the main employers in Northampton.
Barclays were the only major British clearing bank not to issue cheque guarantee cards, instead allowing its customers to guarantee cheques with their Barclaycard (on the basis that if a customer was creditworthy for a Barclaycard they were also good for issuing cheques). This practice ended in 1985 with the introduction of relaxed lending rules and the introduction of the debit card Barclays Connect.
In the late 80s and early 90s, Rowan Atkinson starred in a series of Barclaycard adverts. The first advert involved Richard Latham entering HQ to be told about his next mission. He is given a Barclaycard. The advert ends with Richard coming out of a sentry box with an oblivious sentry guard.
In the adverts following, Richard is accompanied by a protegé called Bough. Bough is the person who approves of Barclaycard and tells Richard of its benefits, much to Richard's disagreement. In the adverts, Richard burns the end of a rug, breaks a vase for a wedding present (and disturbs the photo of the wedding) and, the well-known advert, confuses a head honcho from MI5 for a plumber at a crime scene.
The other well-known thing about the advert is the theme tune. This advert was the basis for the film Johnny English, which also starred Rowan Atkinson (the name of his character was changed from Richard Latham to Johnny English).
In 2008 they made a commercial showing a man leaving work on a water slide, passing through areas such as a supermarket, a library and across the city. This advert is very popular in the UK with many people wanting "to go on the waterslide". The theme for the advert "Let your love flow" by the "Bellamy Brothers" was so popular after this advert that it re-entered the UK Chart peaking at 21, just because it was included in this advert.
Barclaycard operates in over 60 countries and has circa 1 million customers outside the UK. Barclaycard International claims that to date 1.8 million cards have been issued and that over 35,000 transactions are processed daily.
In 2002 Barclaycard took over the UK wing of the American Company Providian National Bank when it was sold off due to financial irregularities of its American parent company. Providian's former base in Crawley (West Sussex) is now fully part of the Barclaycard group, mainly catering for the very lower end of the credit card market. This targeting of the less affluent has created a lot of controversy as invariably the people targeted have existing financial problems.
In addition to Barclaycard UK and Barclaycard International, there is also Barclaycard Business UK (Merchant Acquiring, Corporate Issuing and Partnership Issuing). Barclaycard Business were formerly known as Barclaycard Merchant Services (BMS). As a Merchant Acquirer they enjoy around 38% of the UK Acquiring Business. They offer a number of channels including internet payments (ePDQ) and small merchant bank-owned terminals (PDQ Terminals) normally provided by Ingenico (formally Fortronic).
Barclaycard have now teamed up with London's Transport for London to combine a credit card with an Oyster card - called OnePulse. This new card was launched in the Autumn of 2007.
Barclaycard replaced Carling as sponsors of England's Premier League in 2001, an association which lasted three years before Barclays took over.
In September 2008 Ofcom fines Barclaycard the maximum amount of £50,000 for making silent calls (see http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2008/09/nr_20080926)
In various elements of the British Army, a method of entry with a shotgun is referred to as a "Barclaycard entry", due to the 1980s' British advertising campaign that "a barclaycard can get you anywhere"citation needed
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