Don't get ripped of by Nat west Credit Cards

rip_off_natwest

Nat West reach a new low by charging interest on your balance transfer fee. If you do a 0% balance transfer beware as they charge you interest on their fee as they treat it as a purchase not as part of the balance Tf (As other card providers do) Oh well I suppose they need to get back Sir Freds pension money some how

dmg24

I trust this is in the terms and conditions? If so, I fail to see the rip off.

mab2000

Well i was thinking about doing a balance transfer to natwest recently, i have looked into all the information and terms and conditions and i didnt notice that natwest treat the fee as a purchase! That has definatly put me off doing it!

pre123

mab2000 wrote: »

Well i was thinking about doing a balance transfer to natwest recently, i have looked into all the information and terms and conditions and i didnt notice that natwest treat the fee as a purchase! That has definatly put me off doing it!

i would check this out yourself, as ive never come across this b4 my transfers have never charged interest on the BT fee!!!

has anybody else had this??? or is this a first??

meteor_2

They treated my balance transfer fee as a purchase, but as purchases are interest free for three months (Or they were when I took mine out) you would of paid of the the fee within this time, even if you only pay the minimum payments.

No interest charged.........

_Andy_

rip_off_natwest wrote: »

Nat West reach a new low by charging interest on your balance transfer fee. If you do a 0% balance transfer beware as they charge you interest on their fee as they treat it as a purchase not as part of the balance Tf (As other card providers do) Oh well I suppose they need to get back Sir Freds pension money some how

1) You make reference to a 'new low' - this incredulity implies you've not been happy with their business ethics previously - in this case why are you using one of their products if they're so bad?

2) They can charge what they want - I fail to see why other companies treating it as part of the balance is relevant - using your logic, every financial product would be identically priced.

3) They have acted according to the T&Cs of your credit agreement (that you obviously didn't take the time to read before you agreed to it). There (as is usual in threads with the word 'ripped off' or 'rip off' in the subject) is no rip off.

chattychappy

meteor wrote: »

They treated my balance transfer fee as a purchase, but as purchases are interest free for three months (Or they were when I took mine out) you would of paid of the the fee within this time, even if you only pay the minimum payments.
No interest charged.........

Yes, same here. I did notice the fee treatment, but my interpretation of the way they apply payments was that the fee would be paid off first and therefore within the purchase 0% period. Incidentally, interest on the BT fee (a % of a %) is always going to be fairly small so it's no big deal.

TWO THINGS TO WATCH THOUGH:
1) For subsequent BT offers this may not apply. Ie after expiry of my initial offer I had further offers for BTs. So I would have been charged interest on the fee.

2) I also had a subsequent offer for 0% on purchases (think it was 3 months). At the time my balance was zero and had been for a while. You had to register for the deal by automated phone system first. I did this and the call ended following a verbal confirmation that I was registered for the deal. I then started to use the card. The very first purchase (several hours later) after the call did not go through on the offer rate. Later purchases were fine. I got charged interest on the first purchase until the end of the offer period as my minimum payments were applied to the 0% transactions first. I assume that the IT didn't quite join up and there was a lag. Note there was nothing in any of the paperwork about having to wait - quite the contrary. It said something like "as soon as you register you can start enjoying this offer". So I was truly "ripped off" in this sense. BUT, the first purchase was small, and I think the interest was around 21p a month. Total damage during the offer less than a quid. So I didn't bother.

poppy_f1

must be a new thing then, i took out a natwest card in dec 07 - done a BT paid it off within the 9 months and was never charged a penny of interest

mab2000

chattychappy wrote: »

Yes, same here. I did notice the fee treatment, but my interpretation of the way they apply payments was that the fee would be paid off first and therefore within the purchase 0% period. Incidentally, interest on the BT fee (a % of a %) is always going to be fairly small so it's no big deal.

Thanks for this. I just checked over the terms and i can see that in the allocation of payments section any fee gets paid off first. Probably was a bit hasty taking in what the op said.