Natwest issuing new visa debit cards?

James129

I opened current plus account with Natwest in Jan 2011. I received visa debit card which expires in Jan 2014.

However I have just received a letter from Natwest stating that as part of our commitment to providing you with the best prodcuts and services available we are pleased to advise that within the next few days you will receive a new visa debit card and so on.

I don't see how new visa debit card is going to improve anything and why would they issue new one anyway? The only thing I can think of it was converted into Select silver account as I had advatage blue perks on current plus account.

rb10

Most likely it'll just be security updates to the chip. I doubt you'll see anything different.

madgagoo

Might be a contactless card. Natwest recently started issuing them.

coolesticeking

If you currently have the Blue Visa Debit card, they may have upgraded you to the Purple (Offline) Debit Card instead.

Toe-Jam

Considering they made 2bn loss they are probably upgrading it to a rubber one so it can bounce off the atms.:D

RoxRoxBling

They did that with me before. Think it's something to do with the fact that the debit cards aren't cheque guarantee anymore. However, when they renewed mine it went from a solo to a visa.

I don't want to hi-jack your post, but Coolesticeking what is the difference between a blue debit card with natwest and a purple debit card with natwest?

savagej

The blue card tells the terminal to decline the card unless it can obtain a positive authorisation for the transaction to go ahead by checking with your own bank that you have the necessary funds.

This means it must have a connection available to it and if the terminal is not on-line the transaction should/will be declined.

The purple card has programmed onto the chip some rules about when it must go on-line and when it can be used without a full authorisation taking place. The bank when the terminal goes on-line (with the purple card) can change the instructions on the chip so that a certain number of transactions will work without authorisation or set a value and up to that the card will work without needing a connection to your banks. So these cards can be used in places where the terminal cannot seek authorisation the most common of which are on trains and planes (but this is slowly changing with the terminals being built with SIM cards so they can call for an authorisation) and pay at pump petrol pumps which only authorise £1 and then let you fill up say by £50 (a blue card would be programmed here to be declined in a pay at the pump by a code on the chip).

I hope this makes sense, sometimes the description is shortened to on-line only and off-line by people on this site. These terms were created by members of this site for convenience in describing cards but like many things in life it does not always work the way expected. Such as an on-line card working somewhere because the terminal is capable to getting authorisation from your bank and not being accpeted in the supermarket because the phone line is engaged.

It is to help people budget and stop unauthorised borrowing and it is likely in the future all transactions will be authorised and this destinction will cease to exist.

stclair

madgagoo wrote: »

Might be a contactless card. Natwest recently started issuing them.

I am right in thinking there only available to "purple" visa debit card holders?

Toe-Jam

stclair wrote: »

I am right in thinking there only available to "purple" visa debit card holders?

I don't think they are available to anyone yet. Certainly no mention of them on the website.

I used my contactless Barclaycard once in boots, it crashed the till. would have been quicker paying in pennies.

stclair

Toe-Jam wrote: »

I don't think they are available to anyone yet. Certainly no mention of them on the website.

I used my contactless Barclaycard once in boots, it crashed the till. would have been quicker paying in pennies.

They are we had a communication about them very recently

Toe-Jam

stclair wrote: »

They are we had a communication about them very recently

Oh ok cool, do you know when Ulsterbank are getting them ? Just called them and they don't know anything about them.