Advantage Blue
This account is no longer available to new customers. It has been replaced by the Select Silver Account.
- Travel insurance: two weeks, single European trips – save up to £25
Straightforward cover for you and your partner. It's perfect for your summer holiday. Simply call the Advantage Blue membership helpline to register your trip.
- Family & Friends Railcard or 16-25 Railcard – save up to £26
Travelling at weekends or after rush hour? Make big savings on those family days out – with a Family & Friends Railcard (previously Family Railcard), as long as at least one adult and child are travelling together. Up to two adults and four children can travel on one card.
A 16-25 Railcard (Previously Young Persons Railcard) offers big savings too, but for the cardholder only.
- Advantage Blue retail discount card -potential saving up to £25
Save up to 25% at leading high street names in store and online
- 25% cash-back on top gigs and live shows – save up to £30
Save money when you book your tickets through the Advantage Blue membership helpline. There’s a maximum of two tickets for every event.
- Mobile phone insurance - potential saving of £95
Covers loss, theft, and accidental damage. Each Advantage Blue customer can register one SIM card and one mobile phone or PDA with an original retail cost or value up to £750 (including VAT).
You're also covered for unauthorised calls to the value of £1,000 for monthly contract phones and £100 for pay-as-you-go phones (including VAT).
You can choose mobile phone insurance or car breakdown cover – you can’t choose them both. However, you can get them together with Advantage Gold.
- Accidental Death Insurance – potential saving of up to £12
Your next of kin automatically receive £10,000.
- 10% off your first year’s car insurance premium – potential saving of up to £54
NatWest car insurance is already good value. This extra discount on your first year's premium could help you save even more.
- Car breakdown cover – potential saving of up to £37
Green Flag cover is there to help if your car breaks down. You can choose mobile phone insurance or car breakdown cover – you can’t choose them both. However, you can get them together with Advantage Gold.
- Backup the numbers on your mobile with Numbers Vault™ – potential saving of up to £24
Save all your important information from your mobile to our secure online service, and transfer them to your new phone with ease.
- Mobile phone banking and text alerts
Get mini statements showing your last six transactions, and a weekly balance sent straight to your mobile. Plus, get text alerts when your current account hits limits that you decide, and top-up as many as five mobile phones.
Potential Savings
| Account Benefit | Potential Savings |
|---|---|
| Numbers Vault™ | £24 |
| Railcards | £26 |
| 25% cash-back on top gigs and live shows | £30 |
| Accidental Death Insurance | £12 |
| Travel Insurance | £25 |
| 10% car insurance discount | £54 |
| Advantage Blue retail discount card | £25 |
| Mobile phone insurance OR car breakdown cover* | £95 |
| Total value | £291 |
| Annual Subscription (A monthly fee of just £6.95) | £84 |
| Save up to | £207 |
Mobile Phone Insurance
Saving based upon Executive Plan from Insure My Mobile Phone at £7.99 per month (April 2010).
Car Breakdown Cover
Saving based on Green Flag Motoring Assistance level 1 Roadside Recovery Service for a 22 year old male living in Leeds driving a 2004 Ford Fiesta (April 2010).
Travel insurance
Saving based on NatWest travel insurance single trip ‘Europe’ (April 2010). As a member you must contact Advantage Blue travel insurance to pre-register before travelling.
Advantage Blue retail discount card
Saving based on the cost of a Total Discount Card for 1 year (April 2010)
10% off NatWest Car Insurance
Saving based on 10% off first year's premium for fully comprehensive cover on a Peugeot 206 1.4L SW VERVE for a 25 year old female driver with a licence for over 3 years, 5 years No Claims Discount, £250 voluntary excess and mileage of 8,000 living in DN12 4TR (April 2009).
16-25 Railcard (formally Young Persons Railcard)
Saving based on the cost of a 16-25 Railcard for 1 year (April 2010).
Family & Friends Railcard (formally Family Railcard)
Saving based on the cost of a Family & Friends Railcard for 1 year (April 2010).
25% cash-back on top gigs and live shows
Saving based on 4 tickets costing £30 each when booked through Advantage Blue Membership Services (April 2010).
Accidental Death Insurance
Saving based on accidental death cover up to £10,000. Save £12 based on Aviva £1.99 per month, providing £20,000 worth of cover (April 2010).
Numbers Vault™
Saving based on Phones 4u standalone pay monthly fee of £1.99 (April 2010).
* Saving based upon Executive Plan from Insure My Mobile Phone at £7.99 per month (April 2010). You may only choose Mobile Phone Insurance OR Car Breakdown cover. The value shown above is for Mobile Phone Insurance only.
Stay in control with online banking
Advantage Blue gives you a package of great benefits. Add online banking and you've got an account that's hard to match.
Bank when it suits you
Available day and night, you can do your banking whenever it suits you.
Pay bills
Forget cheques - it's quicker and safer to send money online. You can even set up standing orders for regular payments and manage your Direct Debits.
Transfer money
Make instant transfers to any NatWest account - and transfer money to any other UK bank account.
Manage your account
Check balances and statements, searching through up to seven years of transactions. It's easy to find what you're looking for.
Stay safe
With secure servers, free security software and Card-Readers, we're working hard to stamp out fraud.
Seeing your account in online banking
Signing up to online banking
It's easy. You'll be given the opportunity to sign up when applying for an Advantage Blue account.
Already bank online?
If you already bank online with NatWest you should automatically see your Advantage Blue account once it has been fully opened.
Already have an Advantage Blue account?
If you’ve already got an Advantage Blue account, but not online banking, signing up is simple and you could get instant access. Sign up now if you already have Advantage Blue.
This page provides a summary of the rates and charges that apply to NatWest current accounts.
Full copies of the fees and interest rates, and terms and conditions that apply to our personal accounts can be downloaded from our terms and conditions page.
You may need Adobe Reader to view some of these documents. Get Adobe Reader. Visit access.adobe.com.
We also have a separate page providing an update on unarranged overdraft charges.
Common definitions
Throughout this page, you'll see various terms being used. Here's what they mean:
- Annual Equivalent Rate (AER) - this is a notional rate used for interest bearing accounts which illustrates what the gross credit interest rate (excluding any bonus interest payable) would be if paid and compounded on an annual basis. It helps you to compare the effective rates of credit interest on different accounts.
- Effective Annual Rate of Interest (EAR) - this is the real annual cost of an overdraft, stated as an annual rate, which takes into account how often interest is charged to the account. All other charges, such as arrangement fees, must be shown separately from the EAR.
- Gross Rate - this means the interest rate you are paid before the deduction of income tax.
- Net Rate - this means the interest rate you are paid after the deduction of income tax.
- Nominal Rate - the rate charged excluding compounding of interest and other charges associated with a borrowing, e.g. arrangement and security fees.
- p.a. - per annum (per year).
Subscription fees
Monthly subscription fees are payable on the following accounts. Membership includes access to all the benefits listed in the appropriate brochures and user guides.
| Type of current account | Subscription fee |
|---|---|
| Advantage Blue | £6.95 per month. Payable from your Current Plus, Step or Current Account |
Application of subscription fees
The subscription fee for each monthly charging period will be debited from your account 21 days after the end of that charging period (or on the next business day if this is a Saturday, Sunday or Bank Holiday). The fee will appear on your statement as ‘CHG’. The charging period normally ends on the date that we issue your statement to you.
Interest due on arranged overdrafts
1. Arranged overdrafts
If you have arranged an overdraft facility with us in advance and you use this facility within the thresholds shown below, you will not pay any interest.
If the amount you overdraw under an arranged overdraft facility exceeds these thresholds, you will pay interest at the rates shown in the tables below on the overdrawn balance – even the part of the balance which is within any interest free threshold that applies to your account. However, we will not charge interest on any part of the overdrawn balance which is an unarranged overdraft or represents fees, charges or costs of the kind described in section 7 of our leaflet: Personal and Private Banking - A Guide to Fees and Interest (PDF File 685KB) under the heading Sums which do not bear interest.
If you have arranged an overdraft facility with us in advance under which you pay interest at a rate other than the rates shown in the tables below, the interest free thresholds shown below will not apply to your account.
Interest free thresholds
| Type of current account | Interest free threshold |
|---|---|
| Current Account | £100 |
| Current Plus | £100 |
Current rates
The following rates are effective from 02 August 2010
| Type of current account | Nominal monthly rate % | Nominal annual rate % | EAR % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current Account and Current Plus Account Credit Zone Overdrafts | |||
| All amounts | 1.52 | 18.28 | 19.89 |
We'll arrange a Credit Zone Overdraft, depending on your circumstances. Your overdraft may be subject to an arrangement fee.
Our unarranged borrowing fees will apply if you borrow over your arranged limit. Please see the 'Unarranged overdrafts and returned items - Charges' section below for details.
Previous rates
The following previous rates were effective from 28 April 2008
| Type of current account | Previous nominal monthly rate % | Previous nominal annual rate % | Previous EAR % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current Account and Current Plus Account Credit Zone Overdrafts | |||
| All amounts | 1.48 | 17.73 | 19.24 |
2. Unarranged overdrafts
With effect from 01 February 2011, we do not charge debit interest on unarranged overdrafts
The following previous rates were effective from 02 August 2010
| Type of current account | Previous Nominal monthly rate % | Previous Nominal annual rate % | Previous EAR % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current Account | 1.52 | 18.28 | 19.89 |
| Current Plus | 1.52 | 18.28 | 19.89 |
Calculation and application of interest
Interest on arranged overdrafts is calculated on a daily basis and charged monthly.
The interest we charge in each charging period will be debited from your account 21 days after the end of that charging period (or on the next business day if this is a Saturday, Sunday or Bank Holiday). The charging period normally ends on the date that we issue your statement to you. If we are going to debit interest from your account, we will give you not less than 14 days’ notice of how much we are going to debit and when.
Sums which do not bear interest
We do not charge interest on unarranged overdrafts. Nor do we charge interest on any part of an arranged overdraft which represents:
- a Default Notice Fee or other sum (apart from interest) you must pay us in connection with a breach of your obligations under your agreement with us; or
- a Returned Item Fee or Unarranged Overdraft Fee (see section 7 of our leaflet Personal and Private Banking - A Guide to Fees and Interest (PDF File 114KB) for details of these charges).
Arranged Overdrafts, Unarranged Overdrafts, Returned Items and Enforcement Charges
The charges shown in this section do not normally apply to the other accounts we offer to Personal and Private Banking customers. However, we sometimes allow other accounts to be operated in a way which enables the customer to give instructions for a withdrawal or other payment which cannot be met from the funds in the account. If this happens, the charges listed below in the sub-section "Unarranged overdrafts and returned items – charges" will apply.
Arranged overdrafts – arrangement and renewal fees
| Fee payable | |
|---|---|
| Current Account, Current Plus, Private Bank Account and Advantage Gold | |
| Credit Zone Overdrafts up to and including £7,500, where interest is charged at the standard Credit Zone Overdraft rate | No fee |
| Credit Zone Overdrafts over £7,500 or Credit Zone Overdrafts where an interest rate other than the standard Credit Zone Overdraft rate is payable | 2% of the new limit (minimum £30) |
| Temporary or increased facilities for all customers | |
| If you wish to increase an existing facility at any time contact your Private Banking Manager or your branch. Any fees payable will be advised to you at that time. | |
Unarranged overdrafts and returned items – charges
Our Act Now Alerts can help you stay in control and minimise or even avoid fees for unarranged overdrafts and returned items. They specify the time by which you should credit your account with cleared funds to cover all payments and/or to bring your account back into credit or within any arranged overdraft limit. Find out more about Act Now Alerts.
If we are going to charge you an Unarranged Overdraft Fee and/or a Returned Item Fee, we will give you not less than 14 days' notice of how much we are going to charge you and when.
Unarranged Overdraft Fee
An Unarranged Overdraft Fee will be charged for each day on which there is an unarranged overdraft of greater than £6 on your account at close of business on that day. Please note: we will only charge an Unarranged Overdraft Fee for a non-business day (i.e. a Saturday, Sunday or Bank Holiday) if there is an unarranged overdraft of greater than £6 owing on your account at close of business on the first following business day.
When charged
21 days after the end of the charging period (or the next business day if this is a Saturday, Sunday or Bank Holiday). The charging period normally ends on the date that we issue your statement to you.
Fee Amount
£6 for each day for which an Unarranged Overdraft Fee is payable.
Returned Item Fee
A Returned Item Fee will be charged if:
- you informally request an unarranged overdraft by issuing instructions for a withdrawal or other payment; and
- the payment cannot be met from the funds in your account or any unused arranged overdraft facility; and
- we decide in our discretion not to make the payment.
When charged
21 days after the end of the charging period in which we decide not to make the payment (or the next business day if this is a Saturday, Sunday or Bank Holiday). The charging period normally ends on the date that we issue your statement to you.
Fee amount
£6 for each returned item (subject to a maximum of £60 in any charging period).
Making an informal request for an unarranged overdraft means you will normally have to pay a Returned Item Fee and/or an Unarranged Overdraft Fee. Please note that it is possible to incur both a Returned Item Fee and an Unarranged Overdraft Fee on your account on the same day or as a result of a single transaction (for example, where we take a Returned Item Fee from your account and this creates an unarranged overdraft of greater than £6 on your account).
For examples showing how our charges work, please see the section headed Unarranged Overdrafts and Returned Items in our leaflet Our Commitment to You (PDF, 685KB).
Enforcement Charges
| Enforcement | ||
|---|---|---|
| A Default Notice Fee will be payable if we need to serve a default notice on you (for example, if you fail to repay your overdraft on demand or we wish to enforce any security we hold). This is in addition to any other charges that may apply. | Within four days of the Default Notice being served. | £30 per notice |
Additional services
| Stopping payment instructions | |
|---|---|
| Stopping a cheque (unless it has been lost or stolen) | £10 |
| Payments | |
|---|---|
| Obtaining a banker's draft | £12 |
| Obtain a special cheque clearance | £15 |
| CHAPS payments | £23 - between banks £21 - between our branches |
| Obtaining copies of statements | £5 per request |
| Arrangement fee for Advantage Private FlexiLoans | Any fees payable will be advised to you at the time |
| FlexiLoan arrangement fee | 2% of amount borrowed (minimum fee £100 |
| Safe Custody | |
|---|---|
| Annual Holding Charges (payable annually in arrears) | |
|
|
| Initial and subsequent re-deposit(s) | £10 |
Annual Holding Charges are applied in arrears so any withdrawal made prior to the anniversary of the deposit will incur a pro-rated amount of the annual charge. In addition, a £10 fee will be charged for initial deposits and any re-deposits following item inspection or temporary release. The charges set out above are inclusive of VAT.
Please note that we only accept new items into Safe Custody for our Private Banking customers. Items already held by us in safe custody will continue to be held.
If the service you are looking for is not shown in the table above, please ask at any branch or call the number on your statement summary sheet.
Important information
For the full terms and conditions, please download NatWest Personal and Private Banking - Terms and Conditions (PDF 685KB).
Advantage Blue costs £6.95 a month and is an additional service on your Step, Current or Current Plus account.
You must hold a Step, Current or Current Plus account, without which the remainder of the Advantage Blue benefits are unavailable. Advantage Blue runs for an initial period of six months and is renewable monthly thereafter.
You have the right to cancel Advantage Blue during the first 14 days of taking out the service. We will refund you with any monthly fees you have already paid and no future fees for Advantage Blue will be charged.
If you wish to cancel after the cooling-off period, but before the end of your initial six months, you will be required to pay the remaining monthly premiums up to the end of the initial six-month period.
Full details of all benefits and how to access them will be available in your Advantage Blue Welcome Pack. For further details on our insurance products please refer to your insurance policy summaries.
Important Information - Advantage Guarantee
If you open your Advantage Account on or after 7 May 2009, you will be eligible to benefit from our Advantage Guarantee.
If you use any of the Advantage Account benefits within 60 days of your account being opened and are not satisfied within that 60 day period, we will refund all subscription fees you have paid for your Advantage Account in the first 60 days of account opening.
We reserve the right to change or withdraw the Advantage Guarantee at any time without giving you prior notice.
To claim a refund please call our freephone helpline 0800 408 0337 (minicom 0870 600 0856).
Lines are open 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 5pm Saturdays. Max call charge from a BT landline is 8p plus up to 6p per minute. Calls from other networks may vary. Calls may be recorded.
Please also read our website terms and conditions which cover your use of this website.
This account is no longer available
You cannot apply for a new Advantage Blue account.
We have a new range of flexible everyday banking accounts including accounts with benefits.