Q&A

Is NatWest pulling a fast one?

I took advantage of a '0% for 9 months on balance transfers' offer on my zero balance NatWest credit card and paid off £6600 worth of debt on other cards. With a 3% balance transfer fee, that meant a total of £6798 now owing on my NatWest card. However, what isn't made clear is that NatWest classify the balance transfer fee as a purchase, which is not included in the 0% offer but is charged from the transaction date, effectively making it impossible to have a balance at 0% unless you pay off the balance transfer fee on the same day that the transfer is made! So my June statement shows an additional interest on the fee, charged at the purchase rate of 1.313%. In this case an extra £1.69. Not a huge amount I admit and when I complained to NatWest they pointed me in the direction of clause 5 (b) of the Terms and Conditions but graciously refunded the amount. I have had many credit cards over the years but have never come across this before. Has anyone else fallen for this NatWest ruse or knows of any other credit card company that does the same?