Natwest charges 2% for balance transfers

Sirshocking

I recently called Natwest to transfer my visa balance. I tried to up the credit limit because it wasnt quite enough. They gave me £3000 limit so I up it to there max of £3600 for a new account. I was surprised to learn that they charged me £40/ 2% for that transfer!! Perhaps this was because of my request to bump up the credit limit by a measly £600. I think i'll have to chase this up!

fatboyonadiet

I doubt it, they'll probably charge it regardless, ask them if they would give you one for free or charge a lower rate, I've sweet talked MBNA into not charging in the past.

Benuk73

Sirshocking wrote:

I recently called Natwest to transfer my visa balance. I tried to up the credit limit because it wasnt quite enough. They gave me £3000 limit so I up it to there max of £3600 for a new account. I was surprised to learn that they charged me £40/ 2% for that transfer!! Perhaps this was because of my request to bump up the credit limit by a measly £600. I think i'll have to chase this up!

Maybe this is for existing customers. I recently applied for a natwest card and was accepted. I did a full balance transfer fee - the estimated purchase protection insurance, and interest free for i think 9 months or maybe 6 cant recall now.

I think all cc companies now charge a % for b/t apart from my Halifax who have been absolutley brill to me!

p3gg

There seems to be a crazy lack of clarity as to whether the new 0% cards from RBS/NatWest do or don't have a charge for balance transfers. Nowhere is this made clear in the banks' own online information. I see that the comparison table in Martin's article -- http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1107192915,68336, -- just leaves the BT fee blank for these cards, presumably because no proper info was available.

In the last two days I have made three phonecalls to try and get a definitive answer to the simple question "Is it free to transfer a balance to this card?"

The responses were as follows:

1. RBS (first phonecall) -- "It's free for the first nine months from taking out the card." (Clearly the lady I spoke to didn't understand my question, or, more worryingly, her product.)

2. RBS (second phonecall) -- "If you transfer a balance up to 31st August 2005 there's a charge of 2%. After that it's free." (Clear enough as answers go, but surely too peculiar to be credible... If they were suddenly going to stop charging come 1st September, they wouldn't be trumpeting it in advance would they?)

3. NatWest -- "No, we don't charge, it's free." (Great. Why don't I believe her though?)

Would be very interested to hear from others, as well as Sirshocking, who've already transferred balances to these cards. Have you been charged or haven't you? Or even better, can anybody provide a definitive answer from the banks themselves?

thefirs

I activated my new card 9 days ago. The limit was set much lower than the requested BT; CS upped it by a few hundred pounds upon request, though this is not reviewable again for six more months.

I asked when the BT would be effected - couldn't say. "Wait a few days and if it hasn't been done, call again and we'll put it through". I asked again today, still no BT. The helpful young man seemed eager to please though, and said he would check tomorrow. If it hadn't gone by then, he'd call me and do it over the phone there and then. I asked, and he assured me that it was free of fee within the offer period.

I await developments. Have others had to wait this sort of period to se a BT being made?

Former_MSE_Dan

Hi all,

Have spoken to Natwest/RBS, and they confirm that at no time will a balance transfer fee be charged.

It's possible that these are mistakes being made by customer service staff - as has been the case with other BT cards.

Also, the table in the Balance Transfers article does state, under BT Fee for Natwest and RBS, that there is 'none'

Cheers

Dan

p3gg

Thanks Dan, excellent news.

MSE_Dan wrote:

Also, the table in the Balance Transfers article does state, under BT Fee for Natwest and RBS, that there is 'none'

It does now. Didn't before though!

thefirs

The pleasant young man from NatWest called back, though much earlier than I had told him I'd be home from work, so I had to call them again anyway. Spoke to the BT section, as I guessed no action following my original request would have been taken anyway.

I explained that I had requested the BT some weeks before, when filling in the application, that I had understood the BT to be fee-free when requested upon application, and that I now wished it done. The enquiry agent told me that there would "certainly be a service fee", in view of the 0% interest rate. There were, she said, no offers from any card provider that offered both 0% and no fee. I pointed out that the 2% she proposed was a sizeable sum, and that this was not that which had been anticipated at application. I suggested that she was factually incorrect regarding the fee-free BT elsewhere, and asked for the supervisor.

The unctuous supervisor eventually came on the line and I provided the same information. He excused himself and his staff by suggesting that there were a host of offers currently on the table, and that he would consult the T&Cs. Very shortly he came back and confirmed Dan's information that the BT was both fee- and interest-free. The transaction was done there and then. There are no rules about keeping some of the credit limit available to spend.

Desired result, but this outfit clearly has no act, and as for keeping it together...don't even entertain the thought.

thor

Is this card an SBT card? There was some talk in this forum a month or so ago that you could ask for a BT to your current account if you called them. Has anyone tried this?

MSE_Martin

NatWest and RBS do not charge a BT fee.

Please can you clarify when you say it did above 'was this a new customer balance transfer' how long did you have the card when you did the transfer?

Also this 'there are no 0%, no BT cards' is absolute unmittigated Bull - there are still plenty!

martin.

YorkshireBoy

thor wrote:

Is this card an SBT card? There was some talk in this forum a month or so ago that you could ask for a BT to your current account if you called them. Has anyone tried this?

I e-mailed NatWest regarding their "phone transfer" a few weeks ago, and pointed out that their ambiguous wording implied that current account balance transfers were possible as part of the 0% deal.

Anyway, they e-mailed back and said that, despite the wording, "SBT's" (although possible), could not be done at 0%.