£500 Credit Limit?

u2o

Hi All

Im relatively new to credit cards and I have a £500 credit limit on my Student Natwest Credit Card. Im currently in process of booking my flights for holidays, and theres a possibility that the flights alone are going to cost over £500 (Japan is very expensive even an indirect flight!). Anyway, is it possible to pay over the credit limit without getting charged in any way?? I want to put it on credit card for the protection i get. An overnight airport hotel which has to be paid between booking and staying will have to be put onto credit card as well as they dont accept my Maestro card, but that I guess can wait nearer to time - 21 Day Advance purchase from mid-april.

On another note, I checked my online account and noticed that they slapped on a £4.60 Interest, my payment cleared a day late - was due in on 1st of this month and with christmas and new years and that ive been very busy and by the time i realised i had to pay it in, it was already 28th dec ive been careful with payments in the past and never missed a payment so that i dont have to pay interest, the minimum repayment is set on Direct Debit, etc etc. anyway - is there any chance i can sweet talk to the bank and get it removed as its my first offence or shall i just live with it and learn from mistake? Its not a lot but for a student, thats 3 pints worth!

Help to either or both of these would be great, thanks!

jamalfatty

On the first one, put the credit card into credit by however much more than your credit limit the purchase is, do this as near to the purchase as possible though as your not covered for fraudulent use whilst in credit, and you obviously dont earn interest on it.

As for the second one, you can ask, but there well within there rights to charge it

cifpower

To get the credit card protection, not all the purchase has to be on the card. If the purchase is £100+ you could only pay £1 on a credit card and the protection is applied for the full cost.

patwa_2

If you're considering using the card abroad (although unlike Nationwide, Natwest will charge commission) you could ask for a credit limit increase. You would have to have been in good standing with the bank for at least 6 months, so maybe worth waiting a couple of months with on-time payments before doing this. Otherwise, yes, part payment on the card will offer you protection against the unforeseen.

Astaroth

I assume from your post saying you have a DD setup then you didnt miss the payment date but that you didnt clear the balance in full in time. I very very much doubt they will clear the interest for you as this is how they make the majority of their profits on operating credit cards. Remember if they dont clear it then you will also be paying interest on it again this month.

As to limits, either call them and ask for a raise or as already suggested you can over pay and create a possitive balance on the card and so increase spending capability that way (needless to say you dont get interest on a positive balance though)

Coveredinbees!!!!

why not ask the CC company to increase your limit before all the other mucking about ?

greyteam1959

u2o wrote:

Hi All

Im relatively new to credit cards and I have a £500 credit limit on my Student Natwest Credit Card. Im currently in process of booking my flights for holidays, and theres a possibility that the flights alone are going to cost over £500 (Japan is very expensive even an indirect flight!). Anyway, is it possible to pay over the credit limit without getting charged in any way?? I want to put it on credit card for the protection i get. An overnight airport hotel which has to be paid between booking and staying will have to be put onto credit card as well as they dont accept my Maestro card, but that I guess can wait nearer to time - 21 Day Advance purchase from mid-april.

On another note, I checked my online account and noticed that they slapped on a £4.60 Interest, my payment cleared a day late - was due in on 1st of this month and with christmas and new years and that ive been very busy and by the time i realised i had to pay it in, it was already 28th dec ive been careful with payments in the past and never missed a payment so that i dont have to pay interest, the minimum repayment is set on Direct Debit, etc etc. anyway - is there any chance i can sweet talk to the bank and get it removed as its my first offence or shall i just live with it and learn from mistake? Its not a lot but for a student, thats 3 pints worth!

Help to either or both of these would be great, thanks!

Am I reading this right ????
If you dont understand what you are doing with credit card you are going to end up in trouble!!!!
You have set up a direct debit to pay of the minimum payment every month is this correct ??????
You should have set it up to pay off the total balance every month !!!
By doing what you have done you are in effect borrowing money from your card company......sit down before you read their interest rate....19% 23% 28% or maybe even more.
As for getting interest repaid absolutely no way.....charges yes sometimes if you speak to them nicely.

inmypocketnottheirs

cifpower wrote:

To get the credit card protection, not all the purchase has to be on the card. If the purchase is £100+ you could only pay £1 on a credit card and the protection is applied for the full cost.

I am not 100% certain, but I always understood that you had to pay at least £100 on the card to be covered.

u2o

Thanks for the replies guys!

Sorry my original post may have been confusing, but yea I've got the DD set up to pay the minimum payment off each month and the full balance I tried to pay off didnt clear in time, but thats my fault I guess. a quick question - i've now set up my CC on my online account with natwest so i can pay it online (much more convenient!). but if I pay it from my current account, how long will it take to clear?

As for the credit limit, thanks - i'll ask if I can have it increased, if not i'll put money in the account to make it positive. i've got a bank account in japan so that should be ok whilst staying over there. and got a basic nationwide flexaccount that i can access using cashmachines!

YorkshireBoy

u2o wrote:

...but if I pay it from my current account, how long will it take to clear?

Why not make a £1 payment and see?

In my experience (with many cards, although not with NatWest), it'll take 2-4 days to show - but when it does show, you may find that it's backdated to the day after you sent it.

Astaroth

I believe if you look on your statement that it says to allow 5 working days for it to show but normally it is before this.... natwest is irritating by not accepting switch payments over the phone when other members of the RBS group do