- 17
- Mar
Many credit card holders who are customers of Natwest have accused the bank of introducing stealth charges without giving its customers much notice.
Natwest, the second largest provider of credit cards in the UK, has changed how its reward scheme works for its air miles reward programme, YourPoints.
Part of the change in the way the card worked now means that cardholders have a £3 charge automatically charged to their account unless they spend more than £1000 on the card in a month.
While the scheme for the card was introduced last June the additional charge was added in December. Many customers have claimed that this charge was added by ‘stealth’.
Natwest has denied that the charges are stealth, claiming that the charges were flagged up in the customer information pack which they received when they signed.
Natwest has claimed that the charges were not introduced by the bank for six months because it wanted customers to familiarise themselves. However many customers have claimed that Natwest was being very crafty with the card by introducing the extra bill around Christmas. This meant that many people were going to be busy with all their deals and possibly miss out on the fact that an extra charge had been introduced.
A Natwest spokesperson has stated that: “We refute any claims suggesting that we have not informed customers appropriately. All customers who are receiving a £3 monthly fee have previously been advised of this fee and have actively chosen to opt-in to the YourPoints scheme.”
Customers of all credit cards would be advised to check the small print and to beware of using cards as form of borrowing money longterm. Cards not paid off monthly attract heavy charges in the long term and borrowers would be advised to move the debt to a cheap personal loan.
