NatWest Rewards Account

lizzietwo

Can anybody advise me on best action to take - I am being hounded every time I log on to my NWB account to join a rewards scheme which pays money back on certain direct debits. On looking at the small print they will then deduct a fee "from" £3pm.
Sounds great but I fear that once joined the fees will rapidly rise and there will be no going back to my fee free banking.
Today I received a letter addressed just to me, even though I have a joint name account telling me I have a current rewards balance of over £32 and requesting I set up a MyRewards online account to claim the money.
This to me smacks of deception as the paperwork doesn't mention monthly charges.

Am I getting the wrong end of the stick or am I right to be concerned.

Advice would be appreciated.

xylophone

You have only one account with Natwest and that is a joint account?

You are saying that it is just the no frills "select" current account?

Neither you nor your fellow account holder have ever signed up for rewards?

If not, how can you have earned rewards?

http://personal.natwest.com/personal/current-accounts/compare-current-accounts1.html?mboxSession=1469624582632-804219#compare

Littleredteapot

The reward account was free of charge until the end of December 2015, and all you had to do to get it was give your email address, possibly in branch. It had been introduced about 2013. Any money you have would have been accumulated from using your debit card at selected retailers or from eligible direct debits up to 31 Dec 15. You can claim it as cash, or exchange for selected vouchers or donate to charity, but you do need to set up an online rewards account to do so. If you want to pay £3 to keep getting rewards then it's easy to stop this whenever you want, and there's no change to your account no etc in doing so.

lizzietwo

Xylophone and Littleredtea

Thanks for the explanations - I'm getting a bit doddery in my old age and didn't want to get tied in to anything that would be hard to get out of. As I don't sign in with my password very often ( I leave it to the other half) I had no idea that I had accrued any reward figures.

Again thank you both for your prompt replies

Mazb81

Hi Lizzietwo

You can also call up Natwest MyRewards team to redeem to your balance if you'd prefer to do that rather than set up an online account. You'll find the number on the natwest website, but for reference it's tel:03709016790

Dird

I assume you've already realised this but it's only worth having if you have at least £100/month of direct debits coming from your NatWest account

cheesetoast

1. You can switch to the Reward account and then back to a free account whenever you wish. There's no lock-in.

2. The fee is "from" £3 a month, because in addition to the Reward account (which is £3 a month), there's also the Reward Silver one and Reward Black one, which cost more because they come with "other benefits" that you might not want.

3. If you switch away from the Reward account, you lose your Rewards balance, so you make sure you cash it out first.

4. If you've got £100 of eligible direct debits going out per month, it's worth it - so long as you remember to cash out your rewards every so often.