It’s a quirk of the Natwest Group Credit Card back end (which they still run on despite being independent for 10-15 years at this point). Worth £11.88/year if you spend exactly 99p a month and no more.
Does this apply to an RBS credit card?
Oh no, you’ve let the cat out of the bag now! With a sudden rush of new applications and customers spending only £1 a month they may have to update their systems 
Yes (or Natwest or Ulster Bank NI). Worst case is you’ll be billed 99p 
.
Ha, there’s way lower hanging fruit than this. I remember reading about it on MSE yonks ago, maybe like 2010ish. I think it was described as being in place because the cost of sending a bill, taking payment etc was likely to be more than £1 in the old days it was more cost effective to just write it off. Of course nowadays one would imagine those costs are much lower, I guess it’s either fairly hard-baked in to their system or it’s just not worth writing to all the customers to advise it won’t happen in the future (as they’d have to do, even if it’s not an explicity contractual obligation).
I may not like their new strategy, however, I love this graphic from their Twitter account today 
No prizes for guessing where the inspiration came from 
TB have been functionally separate for years using TSYS. They simply retained some of the backend functionality they had when functioned just like another RBSG brand. The small balance write off could be removed without prior notification as it doesn’t form part of the customer agreement.
There’s an FCA rule regarding this sort of thing which I can’t dig out - it was brought up quite a lot when Tesco Bank suddenly started treating Curve payments as Cash Advances. AIUI the customer has a right to expect their card functionality wont change day-to-day without prior warning, hence for example why Virgin Money had to write to their customers to advise they would soon begin treating cash-like transactions via Curve as Cash Advances, even though it had been in the terms for ages.
1 Like
I’m guessing this is the same reason why Aqua waived my cash advance fee / interest when I complained about my crypto purchase being treated as a cash advance
1 Like
Is Crypto not the equivalent of cash though?
Depends on the crypto currency, but the one I had was more of a value store
It’s not part of the regulated credit agreement and there is zero evidence that the FCA would require any institution to write off any valid balance.
TB would probably give a complainer a token payment to ‘go away’ but that’s it.
Of course they wouldn’t - they do require that consumers are informed ahead of changes which affect the amount they are expected to pay on their statement tho, regardless of whether or not the consumer is protected by terms (case in point - enforcing a previously unenforced term regarding cash advances and/or changing the scope of the charge without changing the wording).
No, the small balance write off has always been a courtesy. The FCA is going to do nothing.
You’re effectively saying that the bank is obligated to write off a transaction that both it and the cardholder acknowledge is valid.
Good luck with that one.
Interesting response from Curve, found via the MSE forums.
the claim that you’ll be able to continue using the cards already in your wallet past the 27th of August until they expire or are manually removed is false.
I wonder how they’ll choose which two cards will survive for those who have more than two and who choose not to pay.
Probably make you remove them upon app opening? It’s the only way I can imagine working well - since you need to open the app to switch active cards anyways
I personally think this is writing on the wall for Curve, they’re a cooked goose.
1 Like
You’ve completely ignored my argument, which is absolutely normal for you.
I’m not going to be arguing anything with the FCA as:
- They don’t deal directly with consumers
- I don’t use the Small Balance Write Off
- The feature is, to the best of my knowledge, still in place.
No luck required, good or otherwise, ta.
Gentle reminder about keeping chat respectful please. (The forum rules are tucked away in the FAQs).
Thanks
1 Like
They could just remove all cards and prompt the user to add up to two cards? Or keep cards which are in the first two places in the cards list and remove the rest.
The fact they’ve given entirely contradictory statements about what’s going to happen suggests it’s going to be another typical Curve mess.