NatWest scam - interest free period not what it seems.

PeacefulWaters

cracklefish wrote: »

I'm not sure if this is common to all card issuers but I have just discovered that if you pay your NatWest credit card in full each month by direct debit, the payment is taken 10 days before the due date. So your interest free period is reduced by almost 20%, more when you take into account that the banks claim their computers don't work at weekends!

It is interesting to note that if your direct debit is for the minimum then it is taken on the due date. No doubt, this is because the APR would be effected and the FCA would call foul.

Why is no agency protecting the interest of customers? We were sold cards with the benefit of the interest period. When they discovered that they could make shed loads of profit by charging us penalties for late payment and writing us a letter, they placated us with direct debit settlement only to find we are being screwed because we are obeying the rules.

There is no possible justification for this.

How do we stop the "helpful bank" helping itself to our money?

Scam?

Seriously, get a grip.

jamesd

NatWest isn't obliged to have the same automatic payment dates for both full and minimum payments. Those making full payments are likely to have lower profit margin and it's understandable that NatWest might want to allow more time to correct any direct debit glitches in an attempt to reduce costs of dealing with them. Alternatively, they could decide that they aren't worthwhile customers and close their accounts.

They didn't do it this way in the past but it's not particularly hard to deal with if you're determined, since you can set up a minimum payment DD and when you get the bill set up a future dated payment to do the rest just before the due date. That way you get the DD protection against error but can still potentially benefit from having the money for longer. More work than pure DD but it'll get the job done and their online banking makes it easy to see when the payment is due.

It's not only NatWest that can choose not to have a person as a customer, the customer can choose not to have NW as a card provider. No law against having more than one card provider and exploiting 0% for purchases deals from a changing stable of new cards either.

katejo

SnowTiger wrote: »

If you don't have the money, you don't have the money.

If you forget a payment is due, you forget its due whether you pay manually or by Direct Debit.

If you tend to be forgetful, just set up an instruction to pay as soon as you get the statement.