Using Nationwide CC Abroad

dickydonkin

As Nationwide extol the virtues of the use of their credit cards abroad, please ensure that they have not removed your credit card account or decreased your credit limit before you travel. I have over £30,000 in Nationwide savings accounts/bonds and my wife (joint cardholder) also has savings with Nationwide. We have both been members for some time, have no debt whatsoever and own our house outright. I always pay my credit card on time and in full (here the problem lies I believe), however, without prior notice they decided to reduce my credit limit from a reasonable £2,300 to a meagre £850.00 while I was on holiday in the Far East. I had hotel bills of around £750.00 to pay, (which left me perilously close to my 'new' limit of which I was unaware of). Fortunately, I over compensated for the poor value of the pound abroad and I had taken extra cash. I used the extra cash I had brought for other purchases, and fortunately, this kept me below my amended credit limit, however I still believed I had £2,300 worth of credit.
On my return home, I checked my credit card account online and although my hotel transactions were visible, my "available credit" showed just over £150.00 which led me to believe that my card had been used fraudulently as there was apparently over £1,500 unaccounted for.
I immediately contacted Nationwide and they informed me that my credit limit had been reduced on the day I travelled. Apparently, "their system" had reviewed "many factors" which decided the reduction, although they could not explain specifically as to why my reduction in credit had been applied,
I did receive notification by letter of the amended credit limit after I returned - nearly three weeks after they implemented it which is dispicable and could have left me stranded at worst or embarrassed at best.
I will show the same loyalty to this bunch of cowboys as they have shown me. When my savings mature - they will be removed - I just cannot trust this institution anymore - and you should'nt either. But once again, dont assume your CC provider will give you notice of a reduction in your credit limit and if you do require the fallback/safety net of a credit card while abroad, PLEASE ENSURE YOU CHECK THAT THE RUG WILL NOT BE PULLED FROM UNDER YOUR FEET WHEN YOU ARE ON YOUR TRAVELS!

normanmark

Its just bad timing that the change in credit limit happened on the day of your holiday. If you're not regularly hitting the limit of the card, they'll shift it to a limit that's acceptable for your spending habits.

I think the rule of thumb is just to take back up finances with you & not put all your hopes on a single credit card to cater for the majority of your holiday

CLAPTON

normanmark wrote: »

Its just bad timing that the change in credit limit happened on the day of your holiday. If you're not regularly hitting the limit of the card, they'll shift it to a limit that's acceptable for your spending habits.

I think the rule of thumb is just to take back up finances with you & not put all your hopes on a single credit card to cater for the majority of your holiday

If credit limits are revised downwards without adequate notice, then it's certain that a considerable number of people will suffer 'bad timings'.
For delinquent accounts, no notice might be appropriate but for well managed accounts there is simply no excuse.
Sadly just another example of the arrogance of financial services.

But I certainly agree about not trusting only one card

normanmark

Well those systems look at the pattern of spending on the account, if it doesn't see it creeping over that limit then as a financial lender why should it lend more to the consumer? They're trying to protect their initial risk of 'fraud' by tailing appropriate limits to customers.

I can certainly see the frustration from the consumer, but i can understand why banks do it. Credit isn't a right unfortunately.

CLAPTON

I have no problem with a CC company reducing a CC limit or even withdrawing the card.
The point is about doing this without adaquate notice that it certain to cause much inconvenience to some of its customers (who manage their accounts well).

normanmark

An automated system would never take into account someones holiday in terms of making decisions or notifying customers.

CLAPTON

normanmark wrote: »

An automated system would never take into account someones holiday in terms of making decisions or notifying customers.

an automated system can easily give credit worth customers e.g. 3 months notice.

normanmark

CLAPTON wrote: »

an automated system can easily give credit worth customers e.g. 3 months notice.

Pointless though, just purely in the sense that Nationwide review their accounts on a month by month basis.

Its unfortunate but thats the banking system.

CLAPTON

normanmark wrote: »

Pointless though, just purely in the sense that Nationwide review their accounts on a month by month basis.

Its unfortunate but thats the banking system.

Whats the relationship between reviewing once a month and not giving e.g. 3 months notice???

confused.

normanmark

CLAPTON wrote: »

Whats the relationship between reviewing once a month and not giving e.g. 3 months notice???

confused.

I don't get what you mean by '3 months notice'?

3 months notice of what? That they perform these things every month? So what is the benefit of giving someone 3 months notice of something that happens every month?

tomwa

this seems to explain my post about the problems in getting through to their don not what i'm doing call centre..

I spoke to someone at Nationwide cc and asked about Merchandise intrest of £12.43p but they claimed to have no knowledge of the 'merchandise interest' and why its on our cc. when asked for a manager we where kept on hold for 50 mins:mad: , then redailed explaining again to a guy who did not even what Merchandise payment was!!:eek:

Whatever this is totally unacceptable- They appear to be be taking our money without explanation and not letting us contact them to query it

I'm sadden and shocked by nationwide customer services very bad, treat this as a warning.

and watch out if your cc goes into errors which it did because we where waiting for a reply from them, they will start an automatted call system..

Saturday Morning at 08.13am again 13.00pm. on and again 16.40pm

sunday morning 08.16am..:mad:

watch out!!