Nationwide's free foreign withdrawals smoke and mirrors ?

ozzage

There seems to be a lot of assumption around this, so I wouldn't be too quick to state that as a definite. It would be good to get a statement from Nationwide about it.

Bear in mind as well that for many countries the Visa will continue to be FREE! So if you travel mostly in Europe you'll probably still be better off with a Visa Debit card.

Chadsman

Nationwide will start charging a forex transaction fee on certain currencies (in general those outside Europe and dependent territories) from 6 May on credit cards and 1 June on debit cards initially of 0.84% rising to 1% from 1 July.
http://www.nationwide.co.uk/current_account/foreigntransactions.htm

eeja

Chadsman wrote: »

Nationwide will start charging a forex transaction fee on certain currencies (in general those outside Europe and dependent territories) from 6 May on credit cards and 1 June on debit cards initially of 0.84% rising to 1% from 1 July.
http://www.nationwide.co.uk/current_account/foreigntransactions.htm

Read the link carefully ....it refers to Visa cards only !!!

Biggles

Chadsman wrote: »

Nationwide will start charging a forex transaction fee on certain currencies (in general those outside Europe and dependent territories) from 6 May on credit cards and 1 June on debit cards initially of 0.84% rising to 1% from 1 July.
http://www.nationwide.co.uk/current_account/foreigntransactions.htm

See posts #29-31 and onwards.

LongTermLurker

eeja wrote: »

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 !

Saw this earlier on the link above http://www.nationwide.co.uk/current_account/foreigntransactions.htm (click the last + under Questions & Answers

Your cash card is a MasterCard and therefore, initially, only Visa debit transactions will have a fee applied. However, we are looking to recover fees on all accounts shortly.

edit - when all's said and done, the 1% is still a lot less than the competition's 2 - 3% and I suspect Post Office and Abbey Zero won't be far behind Nationwide

neil324

LongTermLurker wrote: »

Saw this earlier on the link above http://www.nationwide.co.uk/current_account/foreigntransactions.htm (click the last + under Questions & Answers

edit - when all's said and done, the 1% is still a lot less than the competition's 2 - 3% and I suspect Post Office and Abbey Zero won't be far behind Nationwide

Interesting it says on Mastercards own site they don't charge a fee.

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

So why are NW saying their looking to pass on all costs.

Biggles

No, that link says they don't make ATM charges. This thread is about foreign exchange charges, which they carefully avoid mentioning.

eeja

LongTermLurker wrote: »

Saw this earlier on the link above http://www.nationwide.co.uk/current_account/foreigntransactions.htm (click the last + under Questions & Answers

edit - when all's said and done, the 1% is still a lot less than the competition's 2 - 3% and I suspect Post Office and Abbey Zero won't be far behind Nationwide

So for the moment there is/will be no FX charge on using the cash card. Presumably N/W will give adequate notice should a charge be introduced.
Note also that all N/W intends to do is to recover/ pass on any charge N/W has to pay ! They do not disclose what that charge is ....if any, UNLIKE THEIR DISCLOSE OF THE CHARGE VISA MAKES..

LongTermLurker

eeja wrote: »

Presumably N/W will give adequate notice should a charge be introduced.

er, they haven't given me any notice as yet about the new Visa charges. I don't use their internet banking, so don't count posts on the website as adequate notice - the first I knew was when I read it on here.

There was nothing in with this month's statement, that's for sure. Although I think the fees are modest, I don't think it's reasonable to hold off telling customers when it's hidden on their website in an arae that normally only potential new customers would look at.

omelette451

thumshie wrote: »

Maybe next time I'll do lots of transactions through a day noting the time to see when it changes and if it changes more than 1 for a 24hr period..

I've had three (slightly) different rates for the same day before now. It wasn't a deliberate test of the system, I just noticed it when I got my statement. I assumed this was because rates were constantly changing, but having read that Visa web page I'm not so sure. Not that it matters of course.

apt wrote: »

The second is that you get your money from an ATM that levies a service charge for all withdrawals. NW will pass this on. This is not a big problem in Europe, but can be harder to avoid in America.

Does this mean it is possible to avoid ATM fees in the US? Does anyone have any info/advice about such fees and how to minimise them? Maybe I'm just being dim but I can't find a thread on here about it, and I'm planning a trip this spring so it was on my mind...