Surprised me how good it was (Natwest Credit Cards)

Member Name: lynetter

Product:	Natwest Credit Cards
Date:	25/07/04 (2949 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: free insurances, priority pass, concierge service

Disadvantages: can't view statements online unless also have a Natwest current account

I've had a natwest black card for almost 2 years now and highly recommend it. Even though you have to pay a fee (it's around £250 per year from memory), this is more than offset by the savings. You get, for free, with the card (and also for any additional cardholder - such as my husband):
- travel insurance which includes all those more dangerous activites that many policies exclude, like winter sports, etc
- GreenFlag breakdown insurance that gives you the top rate of cover anywhere in Europe.
Just by cancelling our existing travel and breakdown insurance policies we covered the cost of the black card.

The other thing that impresses me about the card is that they keep adding new benefits. In the past few months they've added free home breakdown insurance - ie: if you need an emergency plumber, electrician etc they'll find one for you and pay up to £500 to cover the cost. Considering I pay nearly £20 per month for this cover separately (currently with house.co.uk) , this will add to the savings when I finally get round to cancelling my existing policy!

You also get free priority pass membership, so that if you travel regularly you can use a business class flight lounge at pretty much any airport, even if you're travelling on an economy ticket with a no-frills airline. You get one of these also for additional cardholders - so, since I got him a card on my account, both my husband and I get free entry into lounges. If you want to bring anyone else in you can too, it costs something like £10 per entry. Considering you often get free drinks and food in the lounges, it pays for itself anyway with what you save on spending in the terminal. :-)

The concierge service is not as good as what you can get from specialist companies, but it's OK for travel. From the Natwest brochure you get the impression that they only focus on posh holidays, but in reality that's not the case. Several times n
ow I've booked my el cheapo Easyjet flight, and left it to Blackcard to find me a small low cost but full of character place to stay. It sometimes takes them a bit of hunting but they've always come up with something. They've also helped me out with other odd requests - such as:
- arranging a car to pick up stranded and panicking elderly relatives stuck in Paris in an emergency, with a friendly driver who helped buy their tickets and put them on the Eurostar home. This saved me having to fly over there to rescue them, and it only cost £60.
- check out how much it would cost to purchase a US power adaptor that was big enough to convert a huge KitchenAid foodmixer to work in the UK. I called them in the evening from a motel room in Louisiana, and they had an answer back to me early the next morning before we left town so I had time to go back to the kitchen store and buy it. They even timed calling me back with the answer so as for it to be a wakeup call!
I know these are not common problems, but that's precisely the point - the people at the concierge call centre seem willing to have a go at helping with anything, even if it is unusual. That's why, even though I don't use it very often, I value it a lot.

Bizarrely, the things that Natwest promote the most in terms of selling the card - like access to special offers (e.g., wimbledon tickets), airmiles, and the "posh" connotations of it being exclusive - I don't find very useful. In fact, to me the latter is downright offputting. But if you ignore that aspect of it, the rest is really good value. In fact, one of the biggest things I like about the card - and it's so simple I wonder why other banks never did it - is that every year they send you an itemised statement, which lists *every* expenditure over £100 (with all the rest grouped into one line) split by category. So at a glance you can see how much you spent on food, theatre, clothes,
home/garden, etc. It can be scary to see it all in one place(!) but it's really helpful in terms of budgeting. This, far more than the opportunity to earn Airmiles, is the reason that I now use my Blackcard instead of cash whenever possible.

I have just one issue with the Blackcard service that anyone thinking of getting a card should know. At least as of a year ago when I last tried, it's not possible to get online access to view your Blackcard account unless you have a Natwest current account also. Aside from this being a stupid restriction (e.g., Barclaycard don't require it), it's not easy to get a Natwest current account unless you physically go into a branch. Given there isn't a branch near my work, and I seldom have time to go out during business hours anyway, this is a problem. I've tried applying online, and even asked the Blackcard people to get them to mail me an application, but there was no response. Fortunately the Blackcard telephone line is pretty good so it's not a big problem, but its annoying if like me you're accustomed to doing all your banking/finance by Internet.

Summary: