My first choice (Natwest Credit Cards)

Member Name: Edwina Irvine

Product:	Natwest Credit Cards
Date:	26/02/01 (704 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: airmiles and good customer service

Disadvantages: larger apr than some of the new offers

Natwest Credit Card:
The Natwest Visa Card was my first credit card and will remain my main credit card for as long as I can see. Although many new cards offer 0% APR on balance transfers and extremely low rates on purchases, I am extremely satisfied with the Natwest Customer Services and with the Airmiles offer so I will not be changing in the foreseeable future despite an apr of around 17% normally (although i think they have a 5.6% offer on at present).

When you apply for the Natwest card you have a choice of Visa, Mastercard or both. I chose Visa because I have perceptions of it being more widely accepted around the world (although I am sure that they are more or less the same in reality) You should remember that Visa and Mastercard bring with them their own set of benefits both at home and abroad which you can read about in any credit card handbook.

On opening your credit card account you are given 50 Airmiles as a reward and to tempt you into the Airmiles scheme, and therefore into spending as much money as physically impossible on your Natwest Card. I have never consciously been out and used this credit card as opposed to my other card purely because of the Airmiles I would earn but I have noticed that over the past few years my Airmiles balance has been steadily creeping up without me thinking about it. This is a welcome 'thank-you' from Natwest for using their card and at some point in the future when I've saved the million or so Airmiles I need to travel round the world, I'm sure it will prove very useful.

I was given the standard £500 credit limit when I opened the account although they review this after the first year, and then yearly afterwards. If they put it higher than you wish, you can phone, write or email them and ask for it to be lowered, but more often than not, you will want to put it up and this can even be done over the Natwest website.

I always pay my balance off in full so I have
found the Natwest Online Banking facility very useful in paying off my bills. The site shows you exactly what day the money will go from your bank account to reach the card account in time - this way I can plan and make sure that there is enough money in my bank to cover it in time to pay it all off. The added bonus that that I can do this all from in front of the computer so I don't need to worry about finding time to queue in the bank each month to pay it off.

On the one occasion where I had a payment I wanted to query, Natwest were very prompt in sorting it out. I got straight through to them on the phone (with no queuing) and the mistake was sorted out with the dealer within a couple of days.

All in all I have been very impressed with this card because it is almost stress free.

Summary: