Natwest Platinum Credit Card Problem

FiftyPents

Hello Guys,

Here's my story -

I signed up for a natwest credit card just before Christmas, for their deal at the time that was 6 months 0% interest on purchases and something crazy like 20 months 0% on balance transfers.

My credit limit was 5850.

I recently set up a direct debit, and when I set it up I was told it may not be set up in time for my next payment. I was ready to continue making manual payments, when a letter fell through my door telling me it was now set up. I thought this would be ok, but just to be sure I checked on the day the payment was due to see if my direct debit had come out. It hadn't, so in a panic I made a manual payment online. The next day I looked in my account and I saw that i'd had a late payment fee, then a late payment credit adjustment that had been refunded to me straight after, so they'd obviously seen that my payment wasn't late and refunded me.

I look today, and I have two chunks of interest, and an overlimit fee. A £10 purchases interest, and a £62 balance transfers interest, and an overlimit fee of £12. The interest payments that I had not expected to receive had actually pushed me over the limit.

I've called Natwest and been put through to about 5 different departments, none of them able to help. The first person thinks I lost my offer due to my late payment, which i'd consider extremely unfair. The 3rd person thinks I actually went over the limit before the interest, which is untrue. I checked my account this month, made sure my monthly payment had gone in, saw that I had £74 credit and then spent roughly £45, which still left me in credit, just.

The only option I had (im at work) was to request to be called back by the Natwest complaints team. Of the two people that were helpful, both agreed that it was unfair and thought something should be done. Is it likely i'll get the offer put back on and my interest/overlimit fees refunded?

I can maybe see other points of view that I should have made the manual payment BEFORE it was due to be safe, but everything I looked at told me I had it set up, so I simply couldn't afford to make a direct debit payment AND a manual payment.

YorkshireBoy

A lesson learned.

A direct debit will only be collected if the statement says it will, usually along the lines of "your payment will be collected by direct debit from your nominated account on xx/xx/xx"

This is because, under the direct debit guarantee, they have to give you at least 10 working days notice of both the amount and date to be collected, and the statement is the only mechanism they have for doing this.

FiftyPents

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

A lesson learned.

A direct debit will only be collected if the statement says it will, usually along the lines of "your payment will be collected by direct debit from your nominated account on xx/xx/xx"

This is because, under the direct debit guarantee, they have to give you at least 10 working days notice of both the amount and date to be collected, and the statement is the only mechanism they have for doing this.

I'll accept the lesson on that, but if they refunded my late payment charge without me even asking, surely that's them acknowledging that my payment wasn't actually late?

YorkshireBoy

FiftyPents wrote: »

...but if they refunded my late payment charge without me even asking, surely that's them acknowledging that my payment wasn't actually late?

Unless they're terming it a goodwill payment, ie made without accepting liability?

I'd pursue the matter, resorting to formal complaint if necessary, along those lines though, and citing what you've been told by their representatives.

Unless they produce correspondence they've sent you, or listened to the tape of your call, and found you were warned about the statement message, then I expect they'll reinstate the 0% offer and credit back interest already charged.

So that just leaves the matter of the late payment and overlimit markers on your credit file to resolve.

chattychappy

No consolation, I know. But it seems we get a query like this every few days now now. So you are not alone.

Do feedback the outcome.