NatWest starting to charge fees for topping up prepaid cards

I have just received a letter from my bank ( Natwest) telling me that any further top ups to a prepaid credit card will incur a 3% charge per transaction plus 1% fee for the amount I top up. I’m absolutely disgusted. Does anyone know away around this ? I top up using Apple Pay with my credit card.

Can’t you use the account number and sort code for your revolut to make a transfer from your bank instead? Save as a payee in Natwest and will be instant.
I do that sometimes as it doesn’t show up as pending for the day on the card.

From my Barclays I set up Revolut as a payee and pay immediately.

You should start a thread on that topic.

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you can top up for free using a faster payments transfer. it’s instant these days.

They were probably topping up via credit card which means it was counted as a cash advance, I’m guessing.

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@Ady_mills, this is a little confusing. One’s “bank” usually means one’s debit card issuer, as opposed to one’s credit card issuer. You mention both your “bank” and your “credit card”. It is increasing common for credit card issuers, but not banks (debit card issuers), to charge a fee for money purchase transactions as if they were cash withdrawals, despite these transactions not incurring fees by ATM operators. If your credit card issuer happens also to be a bank (as many are), then it’s confusing to refer to them as your “bank” in this context.

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You just added another level of confusion to this thread. That’s hilarious. :grinning:

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As mentioned just make a transfer from Natwest to Revolut using the sort code and account number. Instant and free isn’t it? Should be as you are not loading a pre-paid card, you are making a fast transfer.

This is what users need to do every time with Starling and Monzo.

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He’s not transferring money from a bank account to Revolut.
He’s topping up from a credit card (from that bank)

In this case charges are fine. Let’s be

So, UK banks doesn’t allow users to store (and spend) their own money on credit card accounts and play this game instead: “spend banks money” and repay us? And if you fail to do so in correct timeframe, penalty (fees) occurs.

What are you talking about? It’s mainly that NatWest now categorizes it as credit card cash advance. Which some banks did from the beginning.

If you dont owe them, I would ditch such bank for this gready behaviour.

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It’s not clear to me if the same bank has this fee also for debit cards. Since the original poster seems to have lost interest in this, I am also on my way out. What a fun thread.

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I was suggesting an alternative so he doesn’t get charged.

You have two options to top up revolut.
Either by Load from a card or bank transfer.

I thought this thread was about looking for a solution to Natwest charges.
Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

Given the condition that he loads from a CREDIT Card, there’s no alternative.

He can’t send a bank payment from a credit card as it could do it from a debit/ checking account.

+1, it’s fairly common for credit card issuers to categorise prepaid card top-ups as cash advance. Which makes sense, since it’s essentially what it is (once the money is on your Revolut card, you’re one step away to withdraw it as cash for free). Makes even more sense (for the credit card issuer) if your card offers rewards. OP was just lucky to be able to ride that train while it lasted :slight_smile:

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No, it doesn’t make sense at all. The fees charged by credit card issuers for cash advances (which often have a minimum fee) are to cover ATM fees. Where there’s no ATM or physical cash involved, it makes no sense to charge a cash fee. Creation in the UK, which is otherwise a credit card issuer with terrible technical functionality, doesn’t charge for Revolut top-ups as cash advances, but it does recognise them as money purchases and limits them to £300 per day, £500 per rolling 7 days and 20% of one’s total credit limit. Credit card issuers that treat money purchases in exactly the same way as cash withdrawals are doing so just to catch people out unfairly. Some, such as Affinature, don’t even cover this in their terms and conditions.

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I cannot be certain that this would work, but you might try obtaining a Curve card (Curve Blue is free), and adding your Nat West credit card to your Curve app wallet. Then top up :r: using your Curve card. Curve is a debit Mastercard. It might obfuscate the link between your credit card and :r: which might avoid those new fees. A small test transaction would be wise first.

https://curve.page.link/2P1z

No, this doesn’t work. I’ve tried it with other merchants. The credit card issuer’s fee is not based on the merchant, but on the transaction type. There’s a specific code that a merchant uses on money purchase and similar transactions and another for genuine cash withdrawals. These codes get passed through Curve to the underlying card. It’s a good idea, and one that I tried myself, but without success.

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I don’t get it.

Just make a fast transfer from Natwest without using any cards!