Visa Debit card in Canada

Legacy_user

We have the Nationwide Visa Debit card (Flexaccount) and loaded it before we went on holiday to Canada. We have never had a problem withdrawing money from that account via an ATM whilst in China, Hong Kong, Germany and the US but Canada is a different ball game.
Whilst we could pay with it everywhere we went when it came to finding an ATM which accepted VISA cards, to withdraw a little currency, we had difficulty. Mastercard, Cirrus and Interac ATM's were everywhere.
Eventually we found we had to go to either a CIBC bank or Scotiabank and access to their ATM's at the weekend depended on whether their ATM's were in the main office floor or in a foyer at the entrance specifically for ATM access.

Just wanted to point out our experience

Steph83

Hi, this is my first post - I wanted to point out that I have never had any issues using the Nationwide Flex debit card in Canada, both at ATMs and shops/restaurants. I went to University in Quebec several years ago and used it there all the time, and again on holiday in BC last summer. However, my partner was not able to use his Cahoot debit card in in shops or restaurants. I would recommend the Nationwide card although do bear in mind they are now introducing a charge for overseas transactions.

Steph

System

The only problem we had was finding an ATM which would accept a VISA card when we wanted to withdraw some money. We never had any difficulty paying in restaurants, shops etc. We found this inconvenient especially when some of the B&B's we stayed in wanted paid in cash.

However I still love our Flexaccount and would not consider changing it for any other account at the moment.

withabix

The only problem in Canada is usually selecting the correct button to press on the ATM.

You must select CREDIT CARD from all of the options, otherwise you will not have any success. Cheque Account, current account, bank account are all wrong and only apply to accounts with that bank.

We bank with Barclays hence always use Scotiabank machines when there is one, as the charges are lower, however as long as you select CREDIT CARD we've not had a problem with any machine.

humfer

withabix wrote: »

The only problem in Canada is usually selecting the correct button to press on the ATM.

You must select CREDIT CARD from all of the options, otherwise you will not have any success. Cheque Account, current account, bank account are all wrong and only apply to accounts with that bank.

We bank with Barclays hence always use Scotiabank machines when there is one, as the charges are lower, however as long as you select CREDIT CARD we've not had a problem with any machine.

Very interesting. Just searching this forum as last year we had exactly the same problems with getting cash out of ATMs in Canada with both our Nationwide flex account and also our Lloyds TSB. In the end called Nationwide and they reckoned it was all to do with ATMs in Canada not recognising chip and pin, and in the end told us that Scotiabank was the only place to get money out, which was true. Interesting theory/fact on the CREDIT CARD vs chequing account, current account, etc. Off to the US at the end of the month, so just a little worried we might have problems again but having searched this forum can only find issues with Canada and not the US so fingers crossed

dzug1

Quite a few years ago I had problems in Canada - in the area I was in every machine seemed to take Mastercard only, not Visa.

This was pre C&P though, but just wondering if it was a different manifestation of the same problem?