Natwest Contact less card

bluejojo

Hi. I've downgraded my natwest account to a basic select account with no overdraft before I start my bankruptcy. I've seen other posts saying they wont let you have a contact less card when your bankrupt. Is this true? Should I order another card before hand so I can still access my account? Thanks

mwarby

The basic account for NatWest is the foundation account, this doesn’t come with contactless. Nationwide a flexbasic does have contactless and apple/android pay, they are also generally bankrupt friendly. If you want to go app only Monzo are also bankrupt friendly

deliveryguy1

just gone bankrupt end of Jan still using my contactless card but it runs out in July they have sent me another card out with no contactless on not activated it yet so i think they will just send you a no contactless card out as soon as you go bankrupt

mwarby

Worth remembering they will cancel the old card before long, imho the chances of it remaining active till July is slim

JTV93

mwarby said:

The basic account for NatWest is the foundation account, this doesn’t come with contactless.

This is actually incorrect. When I declared in 2018, I took out a basic account with natwest, and nationwide. Both cards are contactless.
The only difference with my natwest card is, it doesn't show the account number, only sort code and 16 digits, and the numbers and letters arent shiny or embossed. Just printed flat 

mwarby

I was going by https://personal.natwest.com/personal/current_accounts.html where for foundation account it states "Get your own Visa Debit card (*contactless not available)" it's possible that this is wrongor incomplete or the account you have isn't the foundation account. Still if contactless is important I wouldn't be going for that account

cymruchris

Whilst going through bankruptcy - you technically are not permitted to have a contactless card due to the way they operate. You might only have £2.67 in your account, and then make a contactless payment for £3.99 which would authorise as it's below the floor limit of checking, which in turn would take you overdrawn, and that's a big no-no when you're going through the 12 months until discharge. It's probably a bit more technical than that - but that's the general gist. 

mwarby

The nationwide flexbasic (and presumably others) don’t operate that way, they are online cards. The days of all contactless permitting offline auth are long gone (flex basic was introduced a few years back with contactless)

also chip and pin cards for basic accounts have long worked at pay at the pump, this is a much bigger risk than your example (you have £1 but can take £99 of fuel).