Greed since Santander took over

zephyr_uk

Let's clear this up - a lot of people seem to be getting confused with withdrawing currency abroad, or in a bureau de change / travel agent here.. Under the terms of the Visa scheme, when you by currency at a bureau de change or travel agent, the bureau de change or travel agent is entitled to a fee as they are providing what Visa defines as a 'cash advance.' You don't have to pay this when you buy currency from your own bank as they process it differently and bypass Visa altogether - look at your statement, it won't show it as a debit card transaction. They act as if you'd just withdrawn the cash over the counter to pay for your currency purchase.

This is completely different from using your card abroad. A percentage is charged, just as it was for Maestro transactions. Some banks choose to absorb some of this, such as nationwide. Interestingly though, Nationwide are starting to back off this. They used to absorb charges for using your card anywhere in the world - now it's just Europe.

simax

Thanks for dredging up a thread thats 363 days old :think::whistle:

bengal-stripe

simax wrote: »

Thanks for dredging up a thread thats 363 days old :think::whistle:

I suppose, it was just to celebrate the forthcoming anniversary.

Consumerist

There's a list of cards to use and not to use on the MSE Travel page.

Go to the section: Beware when paying on credit OR debit cards! (about half-way down the page)

Click on: full list of cards that charge for a drop-down list.

A bit lower down the page there is a list of the cards from hell for spending abroad puposes

Hope this helps.