Natwest LEGACY Black Card effectively downgraded to standard card, no fee charged.

amacuk

Got a sad letter today. My legacy Natwest Black Mastercard will go fee-free from 1st Janaury - the fee was previously £250 a year. This is not the card associated with the current account, but the old 'stand alone' card. Also from this date travel insurance is totally removed. Previously this had world-class benefits, included pre-existing conditions, and covered your whole family, and up to 5 other people travelling with you.


From the 1st April all of the other benefits will be removed, Green Flag European Cover, Home Emergency Cover, Personal Assistance (the Concierge) and worst of all the Anytime Airport Lounge Access.


Basically all of these benefits have been removed at a stroke, not just reduced or 'enhanced' (in BA speak).


A few years ago this card was associated with the rich and famous (not me by the way). You had to earn at least £75k a year and got a minimum £15,000 credit limit (actually this limit is the only thing staying).


Nothing in the letter to explain if the card will be re-branded, but next time I get I new one I expect it to be the standard Natwest Mastercard with a high-limit.


Sad day, Cheers.

Ben8282

I must admit to knowing absolutely nothing about the legacy black card that you mention despite a member of my family having held a NatWest Private Black account for many years.

All of the benefits stated above, including the Priority Pass for airport lounge access, are offered to holders of the black account for a very similar fee. In the UK it is much more common for such benefits to be offered through packaged bank accounts rather than fee-paying credit cards. If you bank with NatWest would suggest you try to upgrade your account to black to retain the benefits for the same fee.

What was, until last year, in my opinion a truly excellent product was the NatWest Advantage Private charge card. This is a MASTERCARD charge card, therefore avoiding any Amex/Diners acceptance problems, with no annual fee and no benefits. No stated credit limit, no interest on cash withdrawals (normal 3% fee applied) and full balance due 15 days after statement date. The colour of the card is not black. Unfortunately, this card is not part of the new 'rewards' product so as of about 12 months ago the old NatWest points (which were awarded for spend on this card) were withdrawn. Holders were offered a swap to the new black credit card with guaranteed acceptance if they wanted the new rewards or to keep the no-fee charge card with no rewards. As we already have credit cards and obtained this charge card as an alternative to Amex, we decided to stick with it. I am curious to know if the card that you have gave you the new 'rewards' or if you lost your points last year as we did.

By the way, £15k is a decent credit limit but there is certainly nothing exceptional about it.

Nasqueron

Ben8282 wrote: »

By the way, £15k is a decent credit limit but there is certainly nothing exceptional about it.

A 15k minimum is not so common though

I got 13700 from Amex on a supermarket card on a salary under £20k

System

It's been obviously affected by the interchange fee cut.

Premium MasterCard products used to attract a higher fee to retailers - much closer to Amex rates. Those (now withdrawn) fees were likely subsidising the perks of the card.