You can STILL get free ATM withdrawals from Nationwide...

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Mosh
Mosh Posts: 149 Forumite
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in Flights, currency & car hire
I've not seen this mentioned on the updated foreign currency article listed in this week's email.

Nationwide offer a pure ATM (not debit) card with their basic account. As this is not underwritten by Visa, there is no fee for them to pass on to the customer and therefore it's immune to the current 0.84% (rising to 1% in July) per-transaction charge of the Visa Debit card you get with their FlexAccount.

Downsides:

1) You cannot have more than one current account with Nationwide. So if you have the FlexAccount, you'll have to close it and open a Basic Account instead. Obviously a pain if you have a load of direct debits and the like.

2) The card is a Cirrus, so will not be accepted by quite so many ATMs as the Visa one. However, having traveled a *lot* over the last 3½ years I can state that I've seen Cirrus badges on Visa machines in plenty of countries. I'm sure there's a web page listing where it's accepted.

So if you travel excessively outside of Europe, it could be worth looking into.
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  • mystic_trev
    mystic_trev Posts: 5,430 Forumite
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    Mosh wrote: »
    Downsides:

    1) You cannot have more than one current account with Nationwide. So if you have the FlexAccount, you'll have to close it and open a Basic Account instead. Obviously a pain if you have a load of direct debits and the like.

    They must have changed the rules then Mosh, as I have two Flex accounts. One is a basic account with the Cirus debit card, then (when I wanted a full account i.e with cheque book etc) they said they couldn't upgrade my existing account, so they opened an additional Flex account with Full banking Facilities. At the time I was pretty annoyed, but as I travel regulary having two accounts is a bit of a bonus - particulary now!
  • Mosh
    Mosh Posts: 149 Forumite
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    Trev,

    If that's the case then yes - they have definitely changed the rules. My intention last week was to open a Basic account along side my Flex so I'd have both cards, but the application form clearly states (in bold blue!) that you can only have one current account at any one time.

    Which is a shame. I've opted to stick with the Flex - by only charging a flat percentage I think they're still cheaper than most other ATM cards anyway. Plus, I'm only outside of Europe for 6-8 weeks a year now. It used to be 12 months...
  • Baldur
    Baldur Posts: 6,565 Forumite
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    Mosh wrote: »
    Trev,

    If that's the case then yes - they have definitely changed the rules. My intention last week was to open a Basic account along side my Flex so I'd have both cards, but the application form clearly states (in bold blue!) that you can only have one current account at any one time.

    Which is a shame. I've opted to stick with the Flex - by only charging a flat percentage I think they're still cheaper than most other ATM cards anyway. Plus, I'm only outside of Europe for 6-8 weeks a year now. It used to be 12 months...
    From memory, posts elsewhere on this board or the Budgeting & bank accounts board (from posters who have both cards and have made ATM transactions with both on the same date) appear to suggest that the Cirrus exchange rate offered by the Cash Card has been significantly poorer than the VISA exchange rate - so even with the 1% Visa fee, the Debit Card may still offer a better deal than the Cash Card.
  • Mosh
    Mosh Posts: 149 Forumite
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    A fair point and not one I looked into!
  • mystic_trev
    mystic_trev Posts: 5,430 Forumite
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    Baldur wrote: »
    From memory, posts elsewhere on this board or the Budgeting & bank accounts board (from posters who have both cards and have made ATM transactions with both on the same date) appear to suggest that the Cirrus exchange rate offered by the Cash Card has been significantly poorer than the VISA exchange rate - so even with the 1% Visa fee, the Debit Card may still offer a better deal than the Cash Card.

    Strange? The last time I used it (Jamaica and Antigua) back in February the ROE's were identical :confused: Perhaps it's changed since then.
  • benjus
    benjus Posts: 5,433 Forumite
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    There's no good reason why they should be significantly different... Visa and Mastercard/Cirrus have similar positions in the foreign exchange markets, so should be able to obtain more or less the same rate (i.e. the mid-market rate).

    I think the main reason for these rumours is that Visa publishes their exchange rates whereas Mastercard don't, so you can't compare the rates directly.

    Comparing the rates shown on bank statements is only going to be approximate as the transactions will inevitably take different lengths of time to process, so unless the exchange rate is very stable the different transactions may attract different rates.
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  • neas
    neas Posts: 3,801 Forumite
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    I've got a Nationwide Cash card, Can i use this to get cheap foreign money out abroad?

    Its linked to my flex account. Its a cirrus/link card.

    Thanks
  • Mosh
    Mosh Posts: 149 Forumite
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    neas wrote: »
    I've got a Nationwide Cash card, Can i use this to get cheap foreign money out abroad?

    Its linked to my flex account. Its a cirrus/link card.

    Thanks

    See my original post - yes you can, but only from machines that accept Cirrus/Link. Using this card there is *no* transaction fee at all, exactly the same as the Visa Debit card was until recently.

    These facts according to the nice chap I spoke to at Nationwide in Perth last week.

    The only thing to note is that Cirrus-accepting machines are not as common as Visa ones so do check (if possible) that they're available where you're going.

    [as an addition, I wish I could get one linked to my Flex account - as far as I'm aware the only way to get one of these Cirrus cards now is to open a Basic Account. Ideally I'd love to keep my Visa Debit *and* have a Cirrus ATM card on the same account... Hmm...]
  • neas
    neas Posts: 3,801 Forumite
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    Well they say ican upgrade after 6 months to get visa debit card!

    And i got an ebond with 10k in it with them lol. And they wotn even give me a debt card. As you say though I want it for cash withdrawal dont like using debit card abroad for hols, so so long as i can find link machine i'll be fine.
  • neas
    neas Posts: 3,801 Forumite
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    I believe its cirrus i need to find so i dont get charged? link is a uk network?
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