Stuck in the dark ages when you had to grovel to your bank (Airmiles Mastercard)

Member Name: jenningsn

Product:	Airmiles Mastercard
Date:	29/06/04 (566 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Can't think of a single 1

Disadvantages: Low limit, Poor statement service (not online), Awful communications

I took an airmiles card to, well, collect airmiles. I found Natwest unhelpful and difficult to deal with. e.g. -

- Will not give you online statements unless you bank with Natwest! What this really means is they don't have the technology and are using an excuse.

- Useless £1,000 credit limit & refused to increase it in the 1st year!! - even though I earn £40k +, have no debts other than a small mortgage & now have 2 cards each with £7k limit!

- My card was used freudulently & had to be cancelled. It took them 2 weeks to send a replacement during which time I had to pay my work expenses from my current account overdraft! They refused to help when I most needed help. To make matters worse they didn't even send me confirmation of the fruedulent charges until I had asked 3 times.

- Calling them is painful - several layers of automated response stuff, i.e. chose 1 of the following 5 option, then 1 of the following 6 options, then punch in your card number & your security details. Natwest people are obviously expensive and computers / IVR kit cheaper.

In can't think of anything positive except the airmiles and even then they are useless. These days airmiles do not offer value - it's difficult to get a flight that you don't have to pay cash as well as airmiles - even if you have '000's airmiles - so you may as well log onto easyjet or even ba.com as you'll probably pay the same as the cash element with Airmiles. So, Airmiles are a con - they used to be a good loyalty scheme but not anymore.

Summary: