MSE News: NatWest and RBS to charge more overdraft customers

vixx.6

Just been informed that even though i pay for a privilage account Natwest now want to charge me £6 for going £11 overdrawn plus interest for 1day. I have been with them for years plus and this is the way we are treated. Howere if pay another £6 a month and up grade to a platinum account i can go the £100 overdrawn i could do previously on the silver account free of charge this feels like they are trying to bully me into having a platinum account. Time to move accounts now i think.

SurfBowlSC

vixx.6 wrote: »

Just been informed that even though i pay for a privilage account Natwest now want to charge me £6 for going £11 overdrawn plus interest for 1day. I have been with them for years plus and this is the way we are treated. Howere if pay another £6 a month and up grade to a platinum account i can go the £100 overdrawn i could do previously on the silver account free of charge this feels like they are trying to bully me into having a platinum account. Time to move accounts now i think.

Their whole account structure is ridiculous anyway when it comes to the benefits.
Compare the Silver with the Platinum for starters. Silver is £10 per month and 3 of the benefits are Lovefilm subscription, HMV downloads and Identify Fraud Insurance. Pay £16 for the Platinum and you DON'T get those!!! Instead you get a "tastecard" membership.......

With regards to this new £6 fee, it will be cheaper for me to pay whatever bill takes me into overdraft on my credit card! No monthly fee and lower interest!
Natwest are going to lose LOTS and LOTS of customers in the coming months.

jamesd

Is there a charge if the use of an arranged overdraft facility is eliminated before 6:30PM on the same day? That is, any charge for purely intraday use?

Those who use an overdraft for a few days might look at credit card use. It'll probably be cheaper. Even more so if you use a 0% for purchases card and repay only at the end of the interest free period, giving you a buffer in your credit account of whatever you spent on the card instead of from the current account.

chambta

hred wrote: »

More charges and profit for the banks. So far this year i've had a letter from Natwest stating the interest for savings has been reduced and now this.

Double whammy, interest charged from £10 overdrawn as opposed to £100 and also a £6 fee will be charged.

Yet again, a kick in the teeth for those who are struggling, yet another way for the banks to gain more profit. The poor get poorer and the rich get richer.

On a positive side Santander charge £1 per day (20max) for being overdrawn, not sure about other banks/building societies and if this is a standard?

Some profit would be nice as far as the RBSG is concerned.

Butterfly_Brain

These banksters are a law unto themselves and cannot be trusted, this is why on payday I withdraw every penny that isn't used for the mortgage and a couple of direct debits (I don't like direct debits and pay cash wherever I can or I use the credit card and pay it straight off using cash )
The best way to react to this is to vote with your feet move to a fairer bank........I know it is an oxymoron

innovate

Nobody is forced with a gun to their head to have an overdraft.

Aside from that: withdrawing all your money every time it comes in sounds an extreme measure. The only party you are hurting by doing this is yourself, unless, of course, you know of means to grow your money when dealing in cash.

For most people it would perhaps be a lot more sensible to keep their money in one or more bank/BS accounts, to earn some interest. Plenty of current and savings accounts about to do that.

chambta

It's worth bearing in mind for those divested customers that any RBS-imposed changed may not be permanent.

It's not impossible that the new owners, or the board of the relaunched Williams and Glyn's, will have an entirely new proposition once things have happened.

Gordon_the_Moron

I have never understood from it being introduced to this day the thinking behind charging fees for an overdraft rather than interest, ever since Alliance and Leicester pioneered it.

Charge £x.xx rather than interest per day fee, someone just going into the red gets utterly bum raped and someone spending the entire month just outside their overdraft limit is as well or better off. What is the politically correct way of saying this is !!!!!!?

jamesd

This isn't instead of interest. It's this plus interest.

hred

opinions4u wrote: »

£1 a day is positive.

Yet £6 a month plus a few coppers in interest is negative?

Don't get that.

Surely ANY overdraft charge should send a message to budget in a way that avoids going overdrawn.

The point was from my point of view it could be worse, had I banked with Santander and getting charged £20 per month as opposed to £6.

In a perfect world we would never use our overdrafts. But sadly this isnt the case, some use their overdrafts "because they can" basis, some rely on their overdrafts (for whatever reason) and others use them for emergencies. You can budget to the penny and still come unstuck the odd month throughout the year. Yes, people are always told to put some aside for a rainy day, but not everyone has the luxury of being able to do this.

To reduce the amount to £10 and add the new charge seems a bit rash. Charging interest on overdrafts should be enough.

Not that banks justify changes like this, but has there been any explaination/reason for this change?