The US Air ( ways ) and XXXX XXXX merger has created many problems for me as a credit card holder. I have been issued about XXXX different card numbers because of the merger, and supposedly there will be at least XXXX more. At the merger, each card number changes, the prior account is no longer available, and it creates a lot of problems for direct billings that the card holder has and is expected to notify those companies that direct bill with each card change. This is not an easy task, and who knows what happens to a credit score during this process, and changing the credit card is very time consuming both for the card holder and the business and seems to significantly interfere with the time, responsibilities, and work for each since most account changes need to be made between XXXX - XXXX, M - F. 
The most annoying change has been with Barclays, XXXX, and how many of the rules have changed in terms of cut off time to pay which is now XXXX Eastern ( I live in Central Time Zone ), and how likely they are to assess late fees and finance charges beyond XXXX of the day the bill was due. The cut off time is totally ridiculous when the credit card company is held by a XXXX and presumably is a national credit card. The prior US Airways credit card had a lot more leeway without being assessed late fees and interest rates, and easy and fair removal of the late fees and charges. The XXXX card change after the merger was a XXXX XXXX XXXX card which looked exactly like the prior XXXX XXXX XXXX card, except had a new account number, but all of the additional printing on the card seemed to be the same. Was this change essential?? It did n't appear to be. 
Barclays also has on the recording when phoning in to access the account they request the account holder to provide the FULL social security number or the FULL credit card number. This seems to be outrageous ; under XXXX XXXX XXXX we had to provide the last XXXX or XXXX digits of the credit card number AND the zip code. The request that Barclay makes seems to be ripe for issues of identity theft, then you must provide additional private information when you speak to an associate. I think the request for the full social security number or full credit card number is excessive, especially when they also ask for the zip code for the billing address. It is possible that the security system was designed by programmers in the XXXX ( sp ), where this information is likely not considered protected and private information. Supposedly there will be yet another credit card change, which initially was going to be ANOTHER card within 6 weeks of the card that was required to be used by XXXX XXXX ( or so ) from Barclays! The merger has created lots of extra work for credit card holders, and providing too much information via phone that can lead to customer fraud and identity theft. 
