Everyone knows that credit card companies hate people (like me) who pay off their balance in full, every month.
Though I could set up a direct debit to pay my credit card bill, I’ve never got round to it. Instead, for the last few years I’ve been manually logging in to NatWest Online Banking once per month to do it manually.
Recently they’ve introduced a new feature ((perhaps it was there all along, I don’t know)) to simplify this process. Instead of having to remember how much your last statement was, there is now a new screen which prepopulates this data with the balance of your most recent statement, as well as giving you the following options:
Yep, the default option is “Pay the minimum amount”.
Sneaky.
3 replies on “Naughty West”
tssk banks.. who’d have them, eh?!
Well…. I dunno…. maybe it’s because accidentally paying the minimum amount rather than the full balance is much less catastrophic than vice versa (for many people). My current account would not withstand any accidental attempt to pay off the full balance (unfortunately)! H
Welcome, H.
Your example is valid, but I don’t think it’s sufficient to classify the credit card companies as altruists just yet.
Fiscally speaking, it’s in their interests (pardon the pun) for their customers to rack up huge debts and pay back as gradually as possible. That’s how they make money. Any positive benefit that their actions may have on their customers is more or less coincidental.