NATWEST is slashing the rate of cashback for Reward current accounts customers from 3 per cent to 2 per cent from June.
It is also introducing a hefty minimum monthly deposit requirement of £1,500 for new customers.
There are 1.7million Reward current account customers, who currently earn 3 per cent cashback on household bills including council tax, mobile, gas, electricity, water and broadband.
From June 26, new and existing customers will see cashback (or “Rewards” as NatWest refers to it) on bills drop to 2 per cent.
It means that customers could lose out on more than £70 in cashback over a year, depending on how expensive your bills are.
In good news for customers, the monthly account fee will also fall – from £3 a month (£36 a year) to £2 a month (£24 a year).
MOST READ IN MONEY
New customers who sign up to the current account after June 26 will have to meet the £1,500 monthly deposit requirement, and will have to register for online or mobile banking – and login every three months.
Existing customers don’t have a minimum monthly pay-in requirement.
The exact same changes also apply to the Reward account offered by RBS – NatWest’s parent bank – which is available to Scottish customers only.
The accounts that pay the most interest
IN the current climate of low interest rates, savers are turning to current accounts to earn interest on their money. You can get up to 5 per cent with some accounts, but they come with catches.
- Nationwide’s FlexDirect account pays 5 per cent on balances of up to £2,500, but only for the first year. After 12 months, the rate drops to a lowly 1 per cent.
- Santander pays 1.5 per cent on balances up to £20,000, but there’s a £5 monthly fee. The 3 per cent cashback on utility bills offered by the account usually covers this fee.
- Bank of Scotland offers up to 3 per cent interest on balances between £3,000 and £5,000. Customers will need to pay in £1,000 each month and have two different direct debits set up on the account.
- Tesco Bank pays 3 per cent on balances of up to £3,000. You need to pay in £750 a month to get the interest and customers will also earn ClubCard points for purchases made with the debit card.
A spokesman for NatWest said: “In a lower for longer interest rate environment we are having to make changes to our Reward current account.
“While others have cut the benefits for their accounts, we have held our Rewards as long as we can.
“Now that we are reducing the benefit we have also reduced the cost to minimise the impact on customers.
“The changes we’ve made keep our account competitive and ensure our customers can continue to benefit from cashback on their household bills.”
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Money team? Email us at money@the-sun.co.ukor call 0207 78 24516