Credit Card Payment Priority

stewdaviesuk

Hi All

Am new here so sorry if this has been covered before, though never found anything.

I took out a new Nat West Platinum card with 6 months interest free on New purchases and 12 months on balance transfers. I made a 3.5k purchase and a 5k balance transfer. I made my first payment of £1100 and was suprised to find that about 95% of it was used to pay off the 12 month interest free balance transfer.

Section 2D(c) of my agreement specifies the order of payments against outstanding balances but none seem to show that the balance transfer has priority. I phoned them up and they were not sure so was put on hold, to be eventually told, thats what they do, balance transfer before new purchase. I asked where it said that in the agreement and they refused to answer it. Do I have a case here?

Cheers Stew.

Tixy

Its how they always work. They pay off the cheapest item first which is why people are advised on here to never spend on a balance transfer card.

I'd imagine it is in the terms somewhere but don't have a natwest card so cannot point you to the correct section.

fozmcfc

If you go to this page and click on the Platinum card summary box link you will see it says

Please note that if you take advantage of the balance transfer offer and the purchase offer, your payments will be used to pay off your balance transfer first

http://www.natwest.com/personal/credit-cards/g1/platinum.ashx#tabs=section4

stewdaviesuk

Many thanks for that. I signed up in the bank and have no recollection of ever seeing anything like that, I will have to look at the paperwork I signed, it maybe on there.

stewdaviesuk

I have now read through the credit agreement I signed in branch and there is no mention of the priority given to the 12 month interest free balance transfer.

The nearest it comes is a statement saying that if I take up any special offer they may decide to repay these transactions in a different order but they would let me know if this was the case.

The statement is clear enough on the summary on the website but it isn't on any of my paperwork or mailings, that I can see.

I will have to wait for their reply but I see no reason to let this go.

I will definitely visit here next time BEFORE I choose a financial product. Many thanks again for your assistance.

chattychappy

stewdaviesuk wrote: »

I have now read through the credit agreement I signed in branch and there is no mention of the priority given to the 12 month interest free balance transfer.

The nearest it comes is a statement saying that if I take up any special offer they may decide to repay these transactions in a different order but they would let me know if this was the case.

The statement is clear enough on the summary on the website but it isn't on any of my paperwork or mailings, that I can see.

I will have to wait for their reply but I see no reason to let this go.

I will definitely visit here next time BEFORE I choose a financial product. Many thanks again for your assistance.

Yeah, don't let it go (yet). It may well have been their intention to implement the agreement the way they sincerely believe they have, but with so many offers and variations of T+Cs around it is quite possible they messed up.

From what you say, it looks like the T+Cs are correct and work by leaving it open for them to make specific (promotional) offers on specific terms, but that they then failed to make the repayment allocation clear on the promotional offer.

Assuming they have messed up, it doesn't necessarily mean that the effect of the agreement is an interpretation that would be most generous to you, though.

stewdaviesuk

I am still chasing this. The card issuer acknowledges that the ONLY place this specific condition is mentioned is on the summary page of the Nat West website, as pointed out further up the thread.

The advisor at the bank did not know of this condition, hence did not tell me about it.

The card issuer says, its on the website, not our fault if you did not read it.

Bank are currently formulating a written response.

As for me, if I go to a bank and they offer me any financial product and nowhere in the T's & C's is there any mention of a clause that is subsequently applied, because its written in a place I may not even have access to, I would consider that product to have been miss-sold.