NatWest refuse to protect poorer customers from Covid 19

[Tempertamtrum]

I have been refused a contact less debit card by Nat West on my current account.

Have banked with them for 15 years but they say I have to upgrade bank account to go contact less.

Some people are unable to do so.

AmI unreasonable to think this policy is putting poorer people at risk from Covid 19?

Thank you Slith, will do that - can have Google Pay. Still changing bank account though

Do you not feel contact less is safer with Covid

yes but you have to put in your PIN every five transactions anyway.

@TheTrollFairy

Contactless limit used to be £30. It is now £45, everywhere.

It’s got nothing to do with finances, just upgrading to a newer account type.

It’s got lots to do with finances if you don’t have a credit history, or have a poor credit rating and so have little chance of passing the credit check needed to upgrade your account.

OP that sounds bizzare. I am rather poor and always had a contactless card for my current NatWest account.

Hmmm, AnotherMurkyDay, think there is a strong correlation between debt and povery

yes but you have to put in your PIN every five transactions anyway

Eh? What bank are you with? I don't have to do this with any of my cards!

So you didn't want to adjust your account with them because it was too much hassle but you were fine with moving banks entirely to Halifax?

Contactless limit used to be £30. It is now £45, everywhere.
Are you sure about that?

It's up to the retailer to update each of their chip and PIN machines for the new limit. My local Tesco Express only did this a couple of days ago even though the new limit was available from the 1st as their IT staff are in India and most of them aren't working.

Their normal current account has contactless and is accessible by most people. But they aren't going to give somebody with a history of serious debt the same facilities to spend, Because they are being responsible providers to that group.

They are a business anyway. If you don't want what they are offering, change banks, or get a post office account

Didn't say there was no correlation did I? Of course there is a relationship. But the bank didn't say you are too poor for a contactless card, they said your debt issue (CCJ) prohibited it. I am poor, have debt, and also have had contactless since it came out. But I don't have a CCJ

Nope, they said I had to open a new current account, not upgrade, was easier to open a new account elsewhere.

So you could have opened a new account with them that had the facility but chose not to? Then it has nothing to do with poor at all or in debt, it was a personal choice to stay with an account that was ineligible for contactless instead of opening an account that did

It will be the type of account you’ve got. Until recently I worked for a different financial institution. It’s not as simple as requesting a contactless card there will be rules set up on the account type that prevents certain transactions from happening or certain card functionality. These are placed on the PRODUCT and not the ACCOUNT or CUSTOMER.
The only way around this is to open a different account type.

I don't have a CCJ, I was a homeless single parent escaping an abusive husband.

Now own property and my children are qualified professionals but still feel poverty is not a crime or a bad reflection on a person.

If you’ve got 4K in the account & own a property you are hardly the poor!
So how are they victimising the poor?

So the problem is that you have an old account. I opened an account more recently in similar circumstances as you were in years ago, and it came with contactless. It's not the banks fault.

I’ve had the same current account with natwest for 16 years and they made it contactless. It’s the basic, no monthly charges or any special ad ons so I don’t understand why they haven’t made the switch on yours. Mine was made contactless at the first card change after they were introduced

It was an account I opened when I was very poor PinkHeart. It did the job but Nat West said I needed to open a new account to have a contactless card.

There is likely people who have not been as lucky as me still with that account.

Your thread title is very sensationalist. This is nothing to do with covid you just happened to have an account that didn't facilitate contactless payment.

I store my card details in my phone and use ApplePay as contactless. Personally I think it's more secure as it needs my fingerprint to work.

Could that work for you?

I had to leave NatWest because they tried to fob me off with one of the very basic accounts without even a proper debit card rather than a graduate one... Because they wouldn't give me an ordinary student account because I was not a British citizen 4 years earlier.

On that same lunch break I went to Lloyds and they couldn't be happier to help, and opened the account I wanted there and then.

I am never going back to NatWest... Just open a Monzo or Starling account and screw NatWest.

Probably SureTry but the contactless limit has been raised to £45 as the banking industry response to Covid.

So why should people on lower incomes with basic/foundation accounts be excluded from this?

For security the chip and PIN machine will ask you to input your PIN every so often. The number of transactions varies from bank to bank, but if you're using contactless a lot (as many are at the moment), it may well ask in the supermarket or somewhere else you aren't keen to touch the machine!

It's so that, should anyone have stolen your card, they can only use it contactlessly so many times before they'll be stopped by not knowing the PIN and therefore, theoretically, can't empty your account.

Most shops are sanitising chip and PIN machines after every use.

Why is it safer? You press 5 buttons on the machine, sanitise hands before and after which you should be doing anyway.

Going contactless also means you can only contact less £30 at a time... so if you’re good shopping is more then you have to press 4 buttons

Alternatively you could ask to sign and use your own pen