NatWest Select Silver Benefit Changes

stclair

Here’s what’s new:

• Tastecard membership

If you have a taste for value you’ll relish this new benefit. It gives you 2 for 1 meals or 50% off your food bill in thousands of restaurants around the UK. We’ll send your tastecard to you in the next few weeks. Please see link below.

• Ticket Booking Service

Here’s a great way to get more out of a great day or evening out. You’ll now get 25% cashback on
tickets for concerts, sporting events, theatre shows, and musicals throughout the UK and Ireland.

Here’s what’s changing:

We’ve also looked at the benefits our customers are not using or we’re no longer able to provide. As a result we’re removing the following benefits.

• Identity Theft Assistance

As our customers aren’t using this, we simply don’t have a good reason to keep it.

• hmvdigital downloads

This hasn’t been the big hit we’d expected with customers, so we are removing it.

• LOVEFiLM

This service is no longer available to us from the supplier who provides it. Unfortunately this means we are unable to continue offering this as a benefit.

http://eml.natwest.com/images/999/NW_Silver_Terms.pdf

Rambojazdude

The only reason I was maintaining my select silver account was for the lovefilm subscription and phone insurance.

Now they're taking the lovefilm away I'm out!

They are talking poop to suggest that the service is no longer being offered. My account is linked with amazon instant video and I watch streams on it all the time.

Good luck keeping people on this benefitless scam! :T:T:T

muffins76

Will we still be able to use Amazon Instant Video?

Macscient

I liked the fact that this was one of the few packaged accounts that offered things I would use.

I set a reminder in my calendar to us the hmv downloads each month and make good use of this.

I use the lovefilm by post because it offers blu-ray with subtitles that isn't yet possible via Amazon Prime Video, although other household members also make good use use of the streaming service, especially as it is now unlimited.

Ok, I didn't use the document registration, but I did make frequent use of the credit report element.

The European travel insurance was a bonus and I even and unfortunately I had to make use of the mobile insurance which was very straightforward to claim.

However those last two do not in my view represent value at £10 a month, up from the initial £8. This change and the charge for using the agreed overdraft plus the debit interest and the ridiculous £10 buffer from £100 is the final straw.

I'm switching banks and taking all my accounts with me. It's a shame because I like the friendliness of staff in the branches and the call centres.

The claim about Amazon not being able to supply the service smacks of a smokescreen for removing a popular benefit. There are pages on Amazon that confirm they are providing the service and are happy to do so. As a new user I can't post links, but if you search google with 'RBS Amazon Select Silver' it's the first link after the advertising link. There is also a similar page for the Natwest variant.
(nodeId=201467040)

stclair

You can downgrade your account over the telephone now should the services no longer be appropriate.

Macscient

Thanks stclair. I could do this, and indeed I should as the benefits no longer meet my needs.

I had a chat with my local branch at lunchtime today and it seems more sensible to just use the account switching service at the end of July when the current benefits are withdrawn.

It just seems a shame that RBS/Natwest didn't try to negotiate with Netflix if Amazon really are not interested as at least they offer subtitles on their streaming service and I suspect a streaming service would keep most people with the packaged account as it would continue to make the account different enough from the rest.

Sharon87

I find it hard to believe people don't use the hmv downloads. Ok so maybe not 100% of people do.

I'm annoyed as I always use the hmv digital downloads and occasionally use the Amazon/Lovefilm. I do also use the mobile insurance.

I don't think its really worth the fee anymore
Mobile insurance - worth £5 a month (my old insurance company was this)
travel insurance - £10 for one trip and I wont have more than one or two trips a year
tastecard - you can get a card for £30 when its on special offer
and the cashback and preferential travel money aren't that useful, may save a couple quid a year.

So adding it up for me the account benefits are worth £100 a year, I will pay £120 a year for my account. Not worth it as it used to be worth
£60 a year phone insurance
£60 a year on music downloads (assuming they're all 99p)
however much lovefilm and amazon is
£10 on travel insurance

So it was worth it. Not anymore! Does anyone know if you have to give a notice period to cancel it? If not I'll cancel it on 21st July, well once I've claimed my music tracks next month!

blackaqua

Very sad - the lovefilm was a great benefit with the mobile/travel insurance that made the account easy to justify the £10/month fee for a joint a/c. I would suggest amazon are hiking the prices following in introduction with amazon instant video, hence the cut.

Looks like I'll be switching come the 21st

Macscient

Because Natwest/RBS are making the changes, it is effectively a change in contract. No notice period is required Sharon87.

I will be switching on July 18th. - The day before the next charging cycle for my account. That way I can claim next months HMV Downloads, finish off a TV series I am watching on Lovefilm and probably receive the Tastecard (the T&Cs state you should get the card before 21st) that way I can give it to a friend or relative. (I already have a similar card through my newspaper subscription so don't need it).

The T&C say you can't transfer it, but this is about as easy to enforce as people transferring pay and display tickets in car parks (i.e impossible)

windsor988

stclair wrote: »

You can downgrade your account over the telephone now should the services no longer be appropriate.

So, stclair, what do we have to do as customers to ensure that we do not get charged after Natwest drop their association with the likes of Amazon (Lovefilm) - what do we have to do come 20th July so that we do not get charged by Amazon for a service that we used to get as part of the package account?

dr_adidas01

windsor988 wrote: »

So, stclair, what do we have to do as customers to ensure that we do not get charged after Natwest drop their association with the likes of Amazon (Lovefilm) - what do we have to do come 20th July so that we do not get charged by Amazon for a service that we used to get as part of the package account?

Stop using it would be the obvious answer, if you want to use it then you will have to start paying amazon!!

Natwest can change what they offer with there accounts, and remove features they feel they can no longer offer.