Natwest student card trying to avoid full payment

DrScotsman

(Not sure if this should go in Credit Cards, or Praise, Vent, Warnings, or maybe even Student Moneysaving)

I already mentioned (post #3) that when I signed up for my Natwest student credit card, it wouldn't give me an option to sign up for the full payment, not ANYWHERE. Well after my first bill, I phoned up and told them to change the direct debit to the full amount. I asked if I'd receive written conformation, they said yes, which was a lie. Well lookie here, it's my bill date and a grand total of £7 has left my account out of over £300. It's a good thing I checked, otherwise hello interest.

Natwest are trying to rip off students new to the concept of banking and credit cards, it's apalling. Do they do this on all their credit cards? Besides phoning up Natwest (which I'll do later today), is there anyone else I should complain to? (I'll have a read of the banking code in a bit).

Cashpig74

Financial Ombudsmen
Office of Fair Trading

Threaten them with newspapers coverage :-)

Robert_Sterling_3

Intolerable.

cifpower

I know with my Ulster card (part of the RBS stable as is NatWest) you can set up a DD for the full amount

DrScotsman

cifpower wrote: »

I know with my Ulster card (part of the RBS stable as is NatWest) you can set up a DD for the full amount

Well my girlfriend has a Tesco card, and that let us choose full payment DD just fine on registering, although I have yet to test that as we have always paid that card in full manually (to pay our share separately).

I'm just guessing here, but I reckon if you apply for a normal Natwest credit card instead of a student one, this wouldn't happen - okay, I'm being a bit biased, but Natwest's student card page just screams to me "we want to screw you over". I mean they have the cheek to plaster all over the page "However, we don’t recommend just making the minimum payment..." and similar, but not even offer full payment.

EDIT: Just called up Natwest, begrudgingly costing me 5p (they close after 6pm and there were no verified 0800 numbers on SayNoTo0870). I was expecting that I'd be fobbed off with "It won't apply until after the next bill", but no, it wasn't on the system. Will be in writing in 5 working days apparently :rolleyes: