Coronavirus: help and support.

If you’re concerned about travel disruption, you can check your travel provider’s website – many of them have put useful information on there to help their customers.

If you used your credit card to book travel there may be protection should you need to change your plans. Find out more about the terms of your Credit Card.

If you are abroad when plans change and require emergency credit limit increases, we can help.

If you're having difficulty using your card abroad, call us on  +44 (0) 1733 573 189.
Lines are open Mon-Sun, 7am-11pm.

If you are an Ultimate Reward Current Account holder, travel insurance is included as an account benefit. To check what you are covered for, if you’re abroad or if your travel plans have been impacted by coronavirus, you can find further information on our Ultimate Reward Current Account page. You can also register, service and check for updates on a claim online.

We understand that this is a very confusing time, so we’ve answered some of your frequently asked travel questions to help make things simpler.

We’re here to support you as much as possible with your finances during these challenging times. We know you might be worried about finding time to manage your money, and we’d like to reassure you that we’re committed to helping you, as you’re helping us. Although we encourage everyone to continue using our online services, we understand that you sometimes will need to speak to a person. So we’re giving you priority access to our call centre. We’ve also listed a number of different ways that we can help you manage your money in these times

We have automatically applied a £300 overdraft buffer if you have an existing arranged overdraft on your current account. This buffer will be interest-free from 6th April to 6th July 2020. More information about our overdrafts.

If you’ve been financially affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, you can ask us for a payment holiday. If we agree, you won’t need to make the usual payments to your personal credit card for 3 months

To ask us for a payment holiday, please complete our credit card payment holiday form and we’ll take care of the rest for you.
 
If your payment is due now and you can’t make the minimum payment, we won’t charge a late payment fee or remove any promotional interest rates in the short term. However, this could affect your future credit score.

If you need to increase your existing arranged overdraft limit, you don’t need to call us – you can apply online.

• Using our mobile banking app, select ‘Overdrafts’ from your bank account menu and follow the on-screen instructions.
• Using Online Banking, just sign in and select ‘More actions’ on the bank account that you have the arranged overdraft set up on. Then select ‘Overdrafts’ and follow the on-screen instructions.

Please find more information about our Online Banking or help on signing up.

If you want to apply for an overdraft, you can do this online.

• Using our mobile banking app, select ‘Overdrafts’ from your bank account menu and follow the on-screen instructions.
• Using Online Banking, select ‘Our products and services’, then ‘Overdrafts’ and follow the on-screen instructions.

If you need to increase your existing Credit Card limit, you don’t need to call us – you can apply using Online Banking.
Using Online Banking, just sign in and select ‘More actions’ button next to your credit card, then select ‘Manage credit limit’.
 
To request a credit limit increase, you’ll need a payment history of at least six months on your account. We’ll only offer you an increase if we think you can afford it. You can ask to lower your credit limit at any time.

You can ask for a repayment holiday of up to 3 months without needing to speak to us. To ask for a repayment holiday, please complete our loans repayment holiday form and we’ll take care of the rest for you.
 
If your payment is due within the next 7 working days, you will still need to make this payment and any repayment holiday you are given will start the following month. If you have a joint loan, any repayment holiday will be given to both of you.

 We will charge interest during the repayment holiday which is added to the balance.
 
You will only be given a repayment holiday if your loan payments are up to date. If your loan is in arrears, we have other ways of helping you. Please visit our Money Worries page to find out more.

If you’re going to struggle to make your monthly mortgage payment because of COVID-19, you may want to consider a payment holiday. We can offer you a 3 month payment holiday on your mortgage.

To apply, please complete our simple Mortgage repayment holiday form and we’ll take care of the rest for you.

You can apply for a payment holiday:

1. If you have a joint mortgage, and everyone agrees to the payment holiday.
2. If your mortgage payments are up to date, or if you are up to 2 months in arrears because of COVID-19

At the end of the payment holiday, we'll recalculate your monthly payments and the amount you owe will go up. That's because even though you miss payments due to the payment holiday, we will still add interest to your mortgage. You can find more information.

If you need access to your savings held in a fixed term account, we will be waiving the charge. To access your savings please call us and we will arrange for your money to be moved into an account of your choice.

We’ve extended the length of time you can leave your property empty for.  Usually it shouldn’t be left empty for more than 30 days (60 days for some policies).  However, if your property is empty for longer due to the coronavirus outbreak (for example if you’re stuck abroad or staying with family) we will still cover your property for as long as it takes for the situation to be resolved.

From the 1st April you can spend up to £45 on your contactless debit or credit card. We’ve increased contactless payment limits in line with the national roll-out.