NatWest Introduces Transfer Limits To Help Prevent Fraud

NatWest has introduced a new online banking feature for all customers that allows them to set a maximum limit for daily transfers from their account. Once the customer reaches that amount, they won’t be able to transfer any more money until the following day.

The new tool is designed to help customer combat fraud. If they are concerned about identity theft or other forms of fraud leading to them losing large sums, they can impose a limit that would prevent everything from being taken in one go, giving the customer more time to react.

The move comes after UK Finance reported that there were £784 million in unauthorized financial fraud losses in 2020 alone.

Flexible Limits

As an initial step, NatWest has set a blanket limit of £5,000 on every customer who has never made a transfer of more than that amount. NatWest’s data shows that this covers 95% of their customers.

Customers are able to increase or decrease their limit whenever they want to, so it shouldn’t cause issues if large payments need to be made in future. Customers will just need to verify their identity in order to change the limits.

NatWest has made it clear that it will never ask customers to increase their payment limit and that, if customers are contacted by someone asking them to do so, they should reject it and report the contact immediately.

For the first time customers are being given the ability to set a payment limit most suitable to their needs which in turn will help to protect them from the life changing impacts of fraud and scams.

Jonathan Leslie, fraud prevention manager at NatWest

Preventing Fraud

As part of the launch of the new tool, NatWest has also given customers some free software and given more guidance on what customers should look for when trying to avoid fraudulent activity.

The software is Malwarebytes which will help detect scams being run on the customers’ devices. Customers can install it at no extra cost to enjoy a safer experience online.

NatWest’s tips for preventing fraud include:

• If you see a deal that looks too good to be true from a website you don’t know, check the refund policy, and look for a landline number that you can contact if something goes wrong. Always check reviews too.
• If an online seller asks you to send money directly from your bank account to theirs, it’s probably a scam, and if you don’t receive your items the money will be lost.
• Carefully follow the advice on auction sites like Gumtree and eBay to protect yourself as a buyer.
• Don’t give away your personal bank details for giveaways or competitions when the data could then be used for something else.
• Protect your data with unique passwords — don’t recycle them, and always use a different password for your online banking than you do for email accounts or other easier-to-hack accounts.