Natwest Current Account - Is it any good?

juanmanuelmarquez

Im thinking of opening a current with Natwest...is it any good? I was told they charge for almost anything and everything...?

Does anyone know what its like?

lolavix

They have fee paying accounts, as do the majority of other banks, but you can open a fee free account with the usual cheque book and debit card.

juanmanuelmarquez

lolavix wrote: »

They have fee paying accounts, as do the majority of other banks, but you can open a fee free account with the usual cheque book and debit card.

is it any good? ... they also have the cardless emergency withdrawal which seems pretty good as well.

guesswho2000

It's not worse than another. I've never had a problem in over ten years. The first £100 of the overdraft is interest and fee free too. NatWest have never charged me for anything so I'm not sure what you're referring to in the way of charges?

Tiglath

I've been with them for close to 30 years - never a problem. Their online banking does everything I want it to do; they do try to flog loans and other financial products if you go into a branch, but I suspect many banks do that these days.

pmduk

All the banks are pretty similar when it comes to levying charges. I've had no problems with them that haven't been sorted with a single phone call. I've a current account with both Natwest and it's parent RBS.

NB it's always the customer's responsibility to read the T&Cs to learn exactly which charges exist.

innovate

I have had a Natwest current account since 1983 - never paid a bean in charges. They did try several times talking me into one of their premium accounts but these never represented any value for money for me, so I always declined.

Their normal current account is ok (unless they have a systems meltdown like last year). Depends what you are after in a bank account - personally, I would only keep money in a current account that pays me interest, such as Lloyds and BoS Vantage or Santander 123.

My Natwest current account and associated internet access did come in very handy, however, when they accepted applications for a savings account with market-leading interest rates for a bout a week last October.


MSE main article on current accounts: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/

johnsons_baby

I've been with them since I was 11, so 20 years.
Aside from the payment glitch last year, I've been pleased overall with them, (my) branch staff are pleasant but are obviously sales focused and sometimes you do have be very firm in saying NO.
However, I've had issues with them but have had pretty good outcomes.

innovate

johnsons_baby wrote: »

However, I've had issues with them but have had pretty good outcomes.

That can happen with any bank. Where people are involved, mistakes get made from time to time. The main issue is how quickly and efficiently any errors do get resolved. Natwest were quite unfortunate that they suffered a self-made disaster of biblical proportions last year but it appears that the vast majority of their customers found their issue resolution satisfactory.

I would feel quite exposed if I had only one current account these days - as the Natwest debacle has shown, you could find yourself with no funds for weeks if you relied on a single bank. I would recommend a second current account and/or a savings account with a cashcard, alongside one each of a Mastercard and a VISA credit card, to everybody who can possibly lay their hands on them.

pmduk

Compare what happened with RBS group last year with Lloyds Banking Group earlier this week. RBS seemed very open and upfront about their problems, whilst it seemed to take LBG quite a while to admit there was even a problem (from reading threads on here.) RBS also went to major lengths to avoid problems with unprecedented major extensions to branch opening hours.

innovate

I don't remember it quite like that. Didn't it take RBS quite some time to acknowledge there was a problem, and didn't it take Stephen Hester several days to make a statement? Scores of people reported they had no money for days. I also seem to remember that customers of their Ulster Bank arm were left dangling for weeks. In comparison, the LBG problem was minute, so it's understandable that the LBG response was a lot lower key than the RBS one.