Natwest reward current accounts vs other options

ConusmerBankingGuru

I've been looking at opening a packaged bank account and was leaning towards the reward silver account although still on the fence. Would love to know peoples experience with the account versus other similar tier accounts with other banks. I.e. are the rewards actually worth it and if so which are the best ones? A friend had said the account used to be much better but has since deteriorated in value and would advise looking at Lloyds or someone else instead.

Thanks

Nasqueron

You'd do better posting the banking section really, not the CC forum

The account is net £5 a month and does offer quite a lot, including access to the digital saver. Whether it's worth it for you depends on whether you could use the benefits

https://www.natwest.com/current-accounts/reward_silver_account.html

ConusmerBankingGuru

Thanks, i've moved it across

eskbanker

If you weren't already a guru then I'd direct you towards the MSE article comparing the current offerings....

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/best-packaged-bank-accounts/

WillPS

ConusmerBankingGuru said:

I've been looking at opening a packaged bank account and was leaning towards the reward silver account although still on the fence. Would love to know peoples experience with the account versus other similar tier accounts with other banks. I.e. are the rewards actually worth it and if so which are the best ones? A friend had said the account used to be much better but has since deteriorated in value and would advise looking at Lloyds or someone else instead.

Thanks

To be clear, by rewards are you meaning the perks for holding any Natwest Reward current account, or the insurance offerings that you pay for with a packaged bank account?

If the latter, then only you can comment on how useful the insurances might be for you. The travel insurance is only valid in Europe, and the phone insurance is limited to devices with a 7" screen or smaller (basically no book/fold type devices). There are also a whole host of other restrictions. I'm not sure I see the value personally but to each their own.

If the former, it's an easy fiver a month - but you'd be daft to pay £10/month for it when a £2/month 'vanilla' Reward account gets the same benefit. (You can have 1 sole and 1 joint reward with both NatWest and RBS, so a couple can potentially net £18/month pretty easily.) There are various tradeup for giftcards/airline options, but I prefer just to bank the cash - specifically in a Digital Regular Saver, where you can add this each month on top of your £150 deposit.

Halifax will pay £5 a month (up to 3 times per month) in exchange for jumping through some simple hoops. Lloyds will give you a magazine, some cinema tickets or a basic Disney+ sub. No reason you can't do any combination of these. Each is available in more expensive 'packaged account' flavours with different insurances. 

Santander give 1% back on some direct debit bills. That's it for rewards with net value unless you're a 'Premier' customer with Barclays, value Apple TV+ higher than £5/month or live in NI.