Be Warned about Nationwide Credit Card Centre

King_Of_Fools

Nationwide credit cards operate from Southend-on-Sea which is where RBoS have their headquaters...

Milarky

SpencerCourt wrote:

I thought, and I still think, that the wording on their statements is misleading "your minimum payment of £..... , less any SUBSEQUENT payments will be collected by direct debit". The extra payment I made was prior to, not subsequent to, the direct debit.

When I rang to query this I was told that membership of the society was irrelevant - "banks and building societies expect to make profits from credit cards", and "your other business with Nationwide is nothing to do with the credit card business".

Admittedly, when I complained in writing they agreed to refund the interest charged and said that the statement wording was being reviewed, but the impression I got from my phone conversation was that the credit card arm of Nationwide is a bit different from the reliable part of Nationwide.

A couple of points:

First the wording is not actually misleading (only potentially so) as "subsequent" refers to the statement date and not the due date. The cut off for taking account of such payments by the direct debit collection is five working days (at least one week) prior to the due date - which is explained elsewhere in Nationwide's literature (probably in the T&Cs but certainly I've come across it from them). Because your payment was made too 'soon' paradoxically, this reduction in the amount collected was triggered. Had you paid the balancing amount in the last few days (perhaps you did not have such fine control of the dates where this payment was concerned?) before the due date both amounts would have been recieved on the account.

On the 'mutuality' argument, this does not apply, I'm afraid since Nationwide offers the card without conferring membership rights on this product. Their credit card arm is just that - not part of the membership organisation - simply a product bearing the 'Nationwide' brand. (You get this with their 'investment' products also - like unit trust ISAs and stakeholder pensions which are marketed by Nationwide but can't confer membership). It's a moot point - understanding when 'Nationwide' equates to 'membership' and would not arise post demutulisation, for instance. BTW, it just so happens that Nationwide is currrently banging on at its site about the up coming 'online Talkback' for members to email points/questions to their CEO - to be held tomorrow evening. Here's the link:http://nationwide.twofourtv.com/talkback/ Get your point in now!

SpencerCourt

Thanks for your comments Milarky

"Potentially" misleading is enough for me to raise questions, as I did. I agree with you, though, and Nationwide agreed with me, that the wording was not ideal. It hasn't changed, though.

You are entirely correct in your comments on payment dates if the Nationwide interpretation of their wording is accepted. Once upon a time I remember another credit card company (I think it was the Co-op Bank or RBS) having similar terms whereby a direct debit for the minimum due would not be taken if more than that was paid by other means before the due date, but after lots of problems they changed that and agreed that minimum payments arranged by direct debit would be taken irrespective of other payments.

That was many years ago, and none of the many other cards I have held over the past ten years or so have had such unusual terms.

I hear what you say about membership, but as a member for many years I mistakenly thought that the Nationwide credit card centre would be influenced by that; their phone operative effectively told me what my membership was worth to them (nil).

I suppose the easy answer is to replace the minimum payment direct debit to a full balance payment direct debit, but I'm afraid my inclination is to use other credit cards and keep this one only for transactions abroad.

I saw the Talkback possibility but have left it too late unfortunately.

ffym

SpencerCourt wrote:

Apologies if this topic is already discussed on other threads, but having paid off my credit card balance in full (direct debit for minimum and undisputed payment of the rest by bank transfer) I was charged interest, because the bank transfer payment had been received before the direct debit was due, so they did not take the direct debit, leaving me with a balance outstanding and an interest liability on the lot!

I thought, and I still think, that the wording on their statements is misleading "your minimum payment of £..... , less any SUBSEQUENT payments will be collected by direct debit". The extra payment I made was prior to, not subsequent to, the direct debit.

I've fallen foul of this too. It's the only complaint I've got against NW - this is plain stupid. Every other card I have takes the minimum DD regardless but NW doesn't - if you pay anything it doesn't take the DD. To be fair they cancelled the interest after I complained but I think they need better wording on the statements.