NatWest black card: stick with it or move on

tired_dad

Need advice


Have had a NW BC for several years. £250 pa fee for which I got

worldwide travel insurance for me and family
Priority pass for me and wife (used 2-3 times per year)
Breakdown cover
Home emergency cover
Your points.

I understand the your points scheme is closing.

I have redeemed your points for amazon vouchers.

Do you think this card is worth it or not?

Any suitable alternatives?

bigadaj

Nationwide flex plus account would give you most of those things for £10 a month.

Wouldn't cover lounge access which you could pay for separately, we've recently had problems using priority pass at lounges so the value of that is a bit debatable.

grumbler

Worldwide travel insurance plus breakdown cost just £120 with Nationwid FlexPlus (and can be had even cheaper with FlexAccount and Autoaid).

Paying for points is pointless IMHO (pun intended)

Ben8282

Slightly confused here.
The incomplete list of benefits that you have mentioned above appears to refer to a Natwest Black Current Account (fee £24pm) and not the newly launched black credit card.
The newly launched black credit card has an annual fee of £84 not the £250 mentioned. This card also offers the new Cashback Plus rewards but does not offer any of the packaged current account benefits mentioned above.
The points scheme which is closing refers to the old points scheme and the points that you were receiving on your advantage private chargecard.
The letter you will have received advising you about the discontinuation of the old points scheme will have given you the opportunity to retain your existing advantage private chargecard without points(Annual fee: NIL) or exchange it for the new black credit card (Annual fee: £85) with guaranteed acceptance.
Personally the idea of exchanging a free chargecard for a £85 annual fee credit card albeit with points did not seem a good idea so the letter went in the bin.

tired_dad

Maybe this is an old nat west black card ut mine had the above benefits for a £250 annual fee.

I suppose they keep changing the benefits for new cards. I have had this car for at least 5 years

nomoneytoday

I'd say it was borderline, depending on the lounge cost and use.

worldwide travel insurance for me and family
- worth £50 depending on area covered and your age?

Priority pass for me and wife (used 2-3 times per year)
£20 per visit

Breakdown cover
- full euro cover is about £60, UK is around £30

Home emergency cover
- £5 a month (£60 p.a.)

Your points.
- now zero

pacontracting

You still have to look at the small print for this card.

Sounds like you have the Natwest Black Legacy Card (same as me). The benefits are not like for like to other policies.

Travel Insurance - This has far better T&C's than others e.g. covers you, your family and up to five other travellers. There is no age limit. It covers pre-existing conditions (providing you are taking the recommended medication and are fit to travel). It also covers cancellation (up to £12,500), missed departure, delayed departure, baggage delay, personal possessions, personal liability, winter sports and so on.

This means you can take your family and your elderly parents on the same trip and be covered. May not be worth it to some, invaluable to others.

Priority Pass - this is the unlimited version so if you travel a lot - well worth it. If you don't - it's not.

European Breakdown - again everything included.

Home Emergency - up to £750 per incident. Unlimited incidents.

Hire Car Excess - you have to pay with Black Card to get this cover.

There is also the great concierge service (again, you may not need this) and customer service is excellent - one number for all of above and phone answered virtually immediately.

As I use (and have used) all these features at the levels mentioned, I'll be keeping mine. The only alternative is the AMEX Platinum but that has worse travel insurance (they both use AXA), doesn't include breakdown / home emergency and costs £450/year.

**Update** I've just looked at the Natwest Black Account benefits and they appear to be very similar to the older 'Black Legacy Card' benefits. With the old card, there was no need for a current account. The only difference I can see is that Legacy travel insurance covers pre-existing without need to declare. Black current account doesn't have this feature (you have to declare).