Nationwide debit card. Warning!

steverockers · 2 January 2006 at 3:55PM

If you are thinking of giving someone abroad your debit card as a method of transferring money to them cheaply, please be aware that there is a potential problem. I support an Indonesian student on the somewhat isolated island of Lombok,(next to Bali), where there is an almost total absence of cash machines. The only one he can use is a 'Link'. Bless his heart, he sometimes goes to the machine when he shouldn't, (out of desperation), and takes a few pounds before a transfer to the account in uk has been completed. He gets the money and I get a charge from Nationwide of 20 pounds each time for overdrawing. When I queried this with NW, as it is a non overdrawing account, they told me that a Link machine cannot check the balance of an account before paying out. Moral -- be sure you can trust the person you give the card to and ensure that no one else can get hold of the pin number.

homersimpson_3 · 2 January 2006 at 7:05PM

why can't the link machine check the balance of the account? you can print a mini statement and it shows you the balance on the screen.

mhendo · 2 January 2006 at 7:44PM

LINK is a UK only network. Are you sure its a LINK ATM in Lombok? More likely to be displaying the VISA (or PLUS) and Mastercard (or Cirrus) logo's on an overseas machine.

I'm pretty sure 9 times out of 10, my card doesn't have the ability to retrieve the balance via an oversea's ATM.

steverockers · 2 January 2006 at 8:03PM

Nationwide say it is a Link machine. I do know that it does display the visa sign, amongst others. Homersimpson -- I don't think that overseas machines will print a balance sheet. It would appear that some machines which display the visa or mastercard sign are not directly connected into the system. If they were, they would not dish out money that was not in the account.

M_Thomson · 2 January 2006 at 8:25PM

Can you explain a bit more? Have you given him a card in your name to take money out of over there? Also when you refer to him taking money out before a transfer is done in the UK what do you mean?

King_Of_Fools · 2 January 2006 at 8:56PM

steverockers wrote:

Nationwide say it is a Link machine. I do know that it does display the visa sign, amongst others. Homersimpson -- I don't think that overseas machines will print a balance sheet. It would appear that some machines which display the visa or mastercard sign are not directly connected into the system. If they were, they would not dish out money that was not in the account.

The only overseas Link machines I know of are in Gibraltar. All other machines will be on the Visa and/or Mastercard network - these do not have balance checking facilities and will let you take out up to £250 (or so) every day even if there is no money in your account.

steverockers · 2 January 2006 at 9:09PM

Yes, he has my card as it is almost impossible to transfer money any other way to Indonesia. It is not my main account and I only put enough money into the Nationwide account to meet his needs, which are very small as his university fees are under 20 pds a month. He tells me how much he needs and then I put enough in the NW account and then email him when it is available to withdraw. It is difficult for us to realise how poor some of these 3rd world people are. He is always really smartly dressed but, when I offered to buy him a watch, he said that he would prefer a pair of trousers as he only had one pair. Sometimes he gets in a real mess, like when he needed 5 pds worth of paper and computer ink for his exams. Without this, he could not take the exams and he had forgotten to tell me so he was forced to go to the ATM and take some money. There wasn't any, so it cost me 20pds. I know that you should not operate this way but a lot of people do it (see some earlier chatmail on this site) and I trust him. The upside is that he is absolutely penniless, lives in a hut which leaked so badly that I had to buy 10 sheets of plastic to keep the water out, yet is a brilliant student and top of his class. It is worth everything to be able to help someone like this.

digp · 2 January 2006 at 9:46PM

you should get the £20 charges refunded as they are illegal!

i have pm'd you the CEO's email address.

homersimpson_3 · 2 January 2006 at 11:26PM

sorry to be nosy but how did you get involved in helping this student? i find this thread fascinating.

steverockers · 3 January 2006 at 12:16AM

I was in Lombok on a short holiday and met him at the airport where he was with a hire car and driver to meet a Japanese business man, who, it turned out, had missed his flight. I was at the hotel airport desk, which was deserted, and he came up to me and said that he thought the man had gone home. He then offered to take me to the hotel in the hire car (it turned out that he knew the hire car owner). He charged a lot less than a taxi and then offered to show me round the island, with car and driver, during my stay, provided he could get permission from the owner. This he did and, over three days, never asked for any money. We discussed his education plans. He was determined to qualify for University although he had absolutely nothing and really had no hope of doing it of his own bat. He is amazingly impressive with quite good English, although I don't think he did much at school. I am in touch with his university tutor, who says that he is the best student in his year. I am proud to support him.

King_Of_Fools · 3 January 2006 at 12:34PM

Could you not put a buffer amount in the account (say £50) but not tell the student about it? If he ever needed money he could withdraw up to that amount even if you have not yet transferred the money and you would not go overdrawn.

Nationwide debit card. Warning!

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