Barclaycard is now offering a record 27 interest-free months to pay off your debts.
Barclays reforms staff bonus policy

Barclays front-line staff will get bonuses based on customer satisfaction, the bank has announced
Scandal-hit Barclays has announced it is scrapping commission-based sales targets for frontline staff and will pay bonuses purely on customer satisfaction.
From December 1, all 18,000 branch and call centre staff will have no commission or incentives based on products sold and bonuses will be based wholly on customers' views about the level of service they receive. Chief executive Antony Jenkins has said the move is part of Barclays' journey towards regaining customers' trust.
The announcement comes after the City watchdog recently said it would look to introduce new rules if the financial sector does not address the use of incentive schemes, which it said were driving staff to mis-sell products in order to receive a bonus.
The industry has already put £10 billion aside to pay back customers who were mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI), in what has become the biggest consumer mis-selling scandal regulators have ever seen.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has been investigating taxpayer-backed Lloyds Banking Group over huge sales bonuses to frontline staff.
The FSA recently reviewed 22 firms' financial incentive schemes and found that Lloyds' failings were "so serious" that it was referred for further investigation which could ultimately see it face a penalty.
Mr Jenkins said: "The key to Barclays long-term success is the level of service we provide, not how many products we sell. We want customers to choose Barclays because of the great service they receive from us."
The banking industry has also been rocked by a Libor-fixing scandal in recent months and Barclays paid £290 million in June to settle claims that it used underhand tactics to try to rig financial markets.
Last week, the Co-operative Bank also announced it was launching a bonus scheme to reward branch staff solely on customer service. It said it was scrapping sales targets for customer-facing staff altogether and instead staff will have to demonstrate excellent customer service to receive a quarterly reward.
Barclays' announcement was welcomed by consumer group Which?. Chief executive Peter Vicary-Smith said: "Consumers have been let down by the banks for too long. We need to see Big Change in banking now and a return to banks for customers, not bankers."
related stories on msn
latest money videos
more on msn money


The taxman says three and a half million people are due a refund, but two million will have to fork out for underpaid tax.

Fed up with low savings rates and high borrowing rates? As Dave Fishwick and his Bank of Dave has demonstrated, there are other options out there.

If you want to find a unique property bargain, there is plenty of help available online - you just need to know where to look.

US couple have found an innovative solution to the problem of sky-high house prices.

The two banks have now joined the Post Office's banking network, meaning customers can make withdrawals and deposits at branches around the UK.

Get 5p off per litre of fuel at Shell, broadband from £2 a month and more in our latest discount and freebie round-up.

Lifestyling is supposed to mean that your pension pot becomes more secure the nearer you get to retirement. Yet your pension provider might be switching you to overpriced and therefore riskier investments.

If you want to borrow a larger sum of money and repay it over time, a conventional personal loan is not always your best option.

Look out for these warning signs when house-hunting

Analysts at Barclays calculate Co-op – whose debt has been downgraded to junk – could need £1.8bn in worst case scenario

Government measures responsible for pickup in demand that has yet to be matched by increase in supply, says Rics



