NatWest reduced credit limit in error...

GW65

Checked my Natwest Online banking this morning, only to discover that Natwest had reduced my Mastercard credit limit by nearly £14,000 without any warning or notification... When I called they apologised profusely and immediately reinstated it at the old level.

I was told by the person I spoke to that Natwest had run a recent mailshot campaign telling people who don't use their cards very often that their credit limits would be reduced. Unfortunately, they also reduced the credit limits of other people who were not within scope of that campaign without any prior warning, or any notification that it had been changed. Very worrying that the bank's back-office processes could allow this to happen.

So, if you have a Natwest Mastercard I'd recommend checking your credit limit hasn't been changed....

[Deleted User]

They are allowed to review accounts and at their discretion close or reduce the limits on them

All banks do this

RG2015

!!! wrote: »

They are allowed to review accounts and at their discretion close or reduce the limits on them

All banks do this

Yes, NatWest advised me that they were going to reduce mine on a specific date about ten days later because it appeared that I didn’t need it. However, I could discuss it with them if I wanted to.

The OP is suggesting that NatWest made a mistake. It would be interesting to know if the OP needed the large limit. Mine was much higher than I needed as I mostly use another card now.

GW65

!!! wrote: »

They are allowed to review accounts and at their discretion close or reduce the limits on them

All banks do this

I'm afraid you missed the point... They didn't review my account, and they didn't apply discretion to reduce my limit - they scr*wed up; it was an accident. They gave no warning of what they were doing, because it was due to a failure in their processes. In answer to the other poster, I didn't need the full limit, but certainly way more than they erroneously reduced it to.

The person I spoke to at the bank said I wasn't the only person who called yesterday morning with the same problem, hence why I posted here since I only spotted it by chance and I wanted to help other people avoid the unpleasantness of having their card declined due to a bank scr*w-up.

virgo17

RG2015 wrote: »

Yes, NatWest advised me that they were going to reduce mine on a specific date about ten days later because it appeared that I didn’t need it. However, I could discuss it with them if I wanted to.

Yes, I had exactly the same, proposing a reduction of about one third of my credit limit.

As they were correct in the fact that I hardly ever use that card, I was happy to let it happen and did not call to have it retained.

My notification was by email. Wonder if the OP's went astray or wasn't sent. I didn't receive any mailshot before the email.

Kim_13

As Natwest themselves have said they reduced the OP's limit in error, I doubt they would have sent him/her an email.

agrinnall

GW65 wrote: »

The person I spoke to at the bank said I wasn't the only person who called yesterday morning with the same problem, hence why I posted here since I only spotted it by chance and I wanted to help other people avoid the unpleasantness of having their card declined due to a bank scr*w-up.

I would expect that now they are aware of the error they will be taking steps to correct it without needing customers to advise them that their limit has been changed. However, it can't hurt for people to check and if it's not fixed quickly let NatWest know - you never know, there might be a small ex gratia payment to come out of it.

chattychappy

A few years ago Halifax made an error where they reduced people's limits to £500 and told them that the account would be closed altogether shortly afterwards.

I was scooped up in this. It did seem odd - in the same week I had received a letter from them saying they had increased my limit. As I didn't use my Halifax card, it didn't bother me although I did check my CRA reports in case something had triggered it.

After the error became clear, they restored accounts on request. But they didn't write to people such as me who did nothing.