Nationwide's free foreign withdrawals smoke and mirrors ?

eeja

ozzage wrote: »

Well they are Visa cards... credit and debit... it's pretty clear in the link that it applies to both and I'm sure if they were excluding a certain type of transactions (ATM withdrawals) from the fee they would be yelling in loudly in that text.

Have I missed your point?

Yes you have, as every holder of a N/W cash card knows !!!
Can one such card holder please post here as its not the Visa organisation that N/W uses !

rl290

I am currently spending many months a year abroad, and have only been using a Nationwide debit card - the rates are excellent and there are no fees. Do not confuse this with the CREDIT card, which charges you interest on withdrawals.

R

eeja

rl290 wrote: »

I am currently spending many months a year abroad, and have only been using a Nationwide debit card - the rates are excellent and there are no fees. Do not confuse this with the CREDIT card, which charges you interest on withdrawals.

R

Well as stated above, there WILL be fees charged later in the year on the N/W debit card . There may however be a loophole if any saver holding a N/W CASH CARD knows and posts here .
Yes the cash card can also be used overseas with ATM'S .
In fact there MIGHT possibly be widespread migration from N/Wdebit cards to N/W cash cards , so can a N/W CASH card holder PLSE WRITE IN.

apt

A cashcard holder won't know as the charge is only being levied from June. S/he could look at the card and see if it's got a VISA symbol anywhere or a Maestro/cirrus symbol.

ozzage

Isn't the great foreign transaction deal only available on the VISA that you get with the flex account anyway?

Does the Cash card also have no-loading, fee-free foreign withdrawals then?

Biggles

ozzage wrote: »

Isn't the great foreign transaction deal only available on the VISA that you get with the flex account anyway?

Does the Cash card also have no-loading, fee-free foreign withdrawals then?

It does, which is why I assumed it was also on the Visa network.

If not, I imagine it will soon be brought into line with the Visa cards from a charging point of view, otherwise they'll have a flood of enquiries asking whether you can have a cash card as well as a debit card on your Flexaccount.......

neil324

I have been looking into this today. I have the cashcard on one of my accounts and it comes under CIRRUS. I have used this before and the exchange rate is not the same as VISA and they even do not show the exchange rate on your statement if i remember correctly, but it was 3 years ago now.

CIRRUS comes under mastercard, so any charges or exchange rate comes through them.

It looks like mastercard do not chrage fees at the moment so it just depends if they use a good exchange rate like VISA do.

http://www.mastercard.com/us/personal/en/cardholderservices/atmlocations/atm_faqs.html#5

Just to add the new charges also include ATM usage for the VISA debit card,Nationwide will be using VISA to exchange the money so indeed incur their costs.

eeja

neil324 wrote: »

I have been looking into this today. I have the cashcard on one of my accounts and it comes under CIRRUS. I have used this before and the exchange rate is not the same as VISA and they even do not show the exchange rate on your statement if i remember correctly, but it was 3 years ago now.

CIRRUS comes under mastercard, so any charges or exchange rate comes through them.

It looks like mastercard do not chrage fees at the moment so it just depends if they use a good exchange rate like VISA do.

http://www.mastercard.com/us/personal/en/cardholderservices/atmlocations/atm_faqs.html#5

Just to add the new charges also include ATM usage for the VISA debit card,Nationwide will be using VISA to exchange the money so indeed incur their costs.

You hit the nail on the head Neil !!
The N/W notification covers only VISA cards and the N/W cash card is under Cirrus . Since Visa and Mastercard work differently it could well be that the 1% charge will not be imposed. After all it was a Visa charge not a N/W charge . Yes Neil you are right ...the rate does not come on the statement and differs. I found it about half a percent less than Visa rates.
That being the case for heavy users it might pay to switch from a Flexaccount debit card to a N/W cash card.

dougz_2

neil324 wrote: »

It looks like mastercard do not chrage fees at the moment so it just depends if they use a good exchange rate like VISA do.

According to what Fairfx told to me about the Mastercard wholesale exchange rates for cards, it is usually only 0.25-0.75% away from market spot interbank. Thus it should be better than Visa with that whole 1% added as a fee on top. So it looks like it will be shame that NW do not have a Mastercard/Maestro as debit card for purchases.

PS: Does anyone know if there will be another 1% deducted from any refunds reversed back to the Visa card?

eeja

dougz wrote: »

According to what Fairfx told to me about the Mastercard wholesale exchange rates for cards, it is usually only 0.25-0.75% away from market spot interbank. Thus it should be better than Visa with that whole 1% added as a fee on top. So it looks like it will be shame that NW do not have a Mastercard/Maestro as debit card for purchases.

PS: Does anyone know if there will be another 1% deducted from any refunds reversed back to the Visa card?

So it seems that the financially astute who travel and use their Flexaccounts overseas will have to consider switching to a N/W cash card.
A small caveat ; some branches refuse to issue a cash card saying that the customer in question's credit rating entitles him/her to a debit card and not a cash card !