Natwest vague regarding Bt fee

caveman38

I can't get a straight answer from the Natwest CS rep regarding how the fee will for a BT will be paid off. She told me that it will appear on my statement as a purchase and no interest will be applied to that for 3 months.
Thereafter she told me a small amount of my payment will go to pay off the purchase but she didn't know what percentage. Knowing that the priority list for payments puts the BT on top I can't help thinking that the BT fee will remain unpaid and acruing interest.
I know this topic has been discussed before but it finished inconclusive I seem to remember. Can anyone throw any light on how to get this BT paid as I was also told that I could not pay for it up front. Help please.

Milarky

Seems clear enough to me

Summary Box

We will apply payments we receive to your account in this order:

1. Interest [at 0%] on special offers [therefore £NIL]
2. Other interest, any fee and charges [therefore paid first]
3. Special offers
4. Purchases and balance transfers
5. Cash Advances and money transfers

See Section 2(D)(b) of your Credit Card Agreement for full details.

caveman38

I'm glad it seems clear to you. But from that summary box it indicates that all payments would primarily be take towards paying off the BT and that that doesnt answer the reply I got from the CS rep that a small percentage would be used towards paying off the purchase ie. BT fee.
What I want is an answer from someone who has a Natwest or Mint card as to whether any of their payments went toward paying the BT fee or if all that amount remained acruing interest until they payed the balance at the end of the into period

riad_2

The BT fee will be paid off *BEFORE* the BT... it's clear from the box above (number 2 refers to the fee...)... which means that since you have 0% on purchases for 3 months on new accounts... new account holders who do a BT at the beginning will never get any interest on the BT fee as it will be paid off before the standard purchase rate kicks in.

This is the case for all RBS cards which include Natwest and Mint.

caveman38

My apologies. I see it now, although that info was not forthcoming from the rep. Thanks again.

YorkshireBoy

If it's so "clear" to both Milarky and riad, why is it that so many people post on here that they've been charged interest on RBSG card BT fees after x months?

I suspect the answer, as has been posted several times before, may be that the BT fee is not actually a fee, but a purchase, ie you have 'bought' the balance transfer fee.

Consequently, this purchase sits below the special offer 0% BT and attracts interest at the purchase rate from month 4 onwards. This statemented interest though, should be cleared each month under [2].

riad_2

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

If it's so "clear" to both Milarky and riad, why is it that so many people post on here that they've been charged interest on RBSG card BT fees after x months?

Obviously we don't have any cases to look at here... but I think many of these cases may well refer to non-introductory balance transfers (i.e. special rates offerred to existing customers and hence not done within the initial 3 months purchase free period).

Milarky

It's even clearer when you go down to 'charges' in the summary box:

Charges:

Cash advances (except gambling transactions) subject to a handling fee of 2.5% with a minimum of £2.50; Balance transfers subject to a fee of 2.5% (min £5) during the first three months from account opening, unless you qualify for exemption from that fee or are notified of a different fee under the terms of a special offer we make in connection with your application; Foreign exchange transactions subject to conversion fee of 2.75% (including purchase of foreign currency and travellers' cheques); Copies of statements are subject to a fee of £3.

If the balance transfer fee isn't a 'charge' then what's it doing in the box headed 'charges'? Granted RBS/Natwest may be doing something wrong here, but I can't see anywhere else in the agreement where a) charges are defined and b) their order in the allocation of payments puts them in the 'purchases' category. For example

purchase A transaction where you buy goods or services with the card

Simple enough definition - no mention of charges being equatable with these

YorkshireBoy

riad wrote: »

Obviously we don't have any cases to look at here... but I think many of these cases may well refer to non-introductory balance transfers (i.e. special rates offerred to existing customers and hence not done within the initial 3 months purchase free period).

Hi riad,

I'm not so sure. We went through a period recently where every other post on this board seemed to be asking the same thing..."why have I been charged interest on the NatWest/RBS BT fee?"

From memory, many of them were in relation to interest appearing on month 4's statement.

I think, as Milarky implies, RBSG are taking liberties. IIRC, Egg were also doing it on their Egg Card, and when challenged by cardholders they chose to remove the interest (presumably because they couldn't point the customers to the relevant clause in the T&C's) rather than stand their ground.

LTSB charge interest on the BT fee, but to (begrudgingly!) give them credit (excuse the pun!) they do quite openly state so on their website/small print. From their 'balance transfer important information'...

For each individual balance transfer there is a 3% fee. Interest is charged on balance transfer fees.

Milarky

Just to update. As per caveman's comments the BT fee does indeed appear under 'Summary of Balances' on the statement as a 'purchase' item and separately from the the 'balance transfers' item. So as things stand NatWest will commence charging from month 4 for that.

[Right, off to complain - no point waiting around for it to happen...]

..but just to add further doubt and uncertainty, NatWest now say the fee will definitely be paid first - because it comes under 'other interest, fees and charges' - ahead of the 'special offers' category even though being described as a 'purchase' [4'] on the statement. I took the details of the person I spoke to just in case and will rely on this assurance if I have to chase up.

But I am dubious. If I do some spending this month, that will definitely go into the purchases category. It cannot appear anywhere else and it will definitely NOT get collected first. So how can they somehow separate the part of my minimum payment destined to repay the fee from the rest of the 'purchases'? It can't really be done. That's why I suspect a problem is in the offing....

Milarky

Just to confirm that what I reported I was told would happen over the fee (it being paid 'first' as long as it remains a 'purchase' item at 0% for the first three months) has happened and my first minimum payment was wholly used to reduce that item first - leaving the 'balance transfer' item unchanged.

HTH