The Cheapest Way to Spend Overseas Discussion Area

JimJam_2

Does anyone know if crediting the Egg money card would allow it to be used without cost abroad as it does in the UK? Travelling Friday9/02 but left it a bit late to read this article!

RaspberryFool

Nationwide's credit card may well be the cheapest for spending abroad. However, since they have such a short period between issuing a statement and one having to pay the bill - you can never afford to go abroad in case you miss the deadline! i.e. our most recent bill arrived last Saturday. We were away for the weekend so did not open it until Monday. It had to be paid the following day (Tuesday) in order to arrive before a penalty would be payable. A good job we were not away for a week's holiday! This is not the first time it has happened either.

RF

Voyager2002

RaspberryFool wrote:

Nationwide's credit card may well be the cheapest for spending abroad. However, since they have such a short period between issuing a statement and one having to pay the bill - you can never afford to go abroad in case you miss the deadline! i.e. our most recent bill arrived last Saturday. We were away for the weekend so did not open it until Monday. It had to be paid the following day (Tuesday) in order to arrive before a penalty would be payable. A good job we were not away for a week's holiday! This is not the first time it has happened either.

RF

That is why God created direct debits. So long as you have enough money in your bank account, no problems.

samcat_2

RaspberryFool wrote:

Nationwide's credit card may well be the cheapest for spending abroad. However, since they have such a short period between issuing a statement and one having to pay the bill - you can never afford to go abroad in case you miss the deadline! i.e. our most recent bill arrived last Saturday. We were away for the weekend so did not open it until Monday. It had to be paid the following day (Tuesday) in order to arrive before a penalty would be payable. A good job we were not away for a week's holiday! This is not the first time it has happened either.

RF

Thank you for the warning Raspberry. I know someone planning to do this for a long trip and will pass this tip on.

Voyager2002 wrote:

That is why God created direct debits. So long as you have enough money in your bank account, no problems.

:shocked:

Formula_1

I have a Barclaycard Platinum Visa and asked Barclaycard to explain the 2.75% commission charge on non sterling currency transactions. They said the charge was raised by Visa International on all cards. They said that whilst other card suppliers passed on the charge as a separate fee on customers' statements, Barclaycard absorbed it into the currency exchange rate and did not pass it on. If this is true (hard to prove as the exchange rate can change several times per day), it would appear that there would be no advantage in changing to Nationwide's credit card, especially if the latter has a very short payment period (as highlighted by Raspberry Fool, above). Can anybody throw any light on this?

falc_2

Hi there, can anyone tell me the latest state of play on spending abroad? I am possibly going to China as well as Rome on business, and am wondering which credit cards to use abroad? At the moment I use Liverpool Victoria in Europe and Nationwide Classic abroad. The latter are proving very stingy with their credit limit (£1700 after 1 year), so I am thinking of taking out another card as well just in case as there's nothing more annoying than running out of credit on the other side of the world! I saw an ad for the Goldman Sachs credit card (can't remember which one!) saying it also gave free spending abroad. Anyone know of this? Is it a good deal? Are Goldman Sachs reliable? If I spend with Liverpool Victoria in China will I get charged?

FYI, Nationwide have not been exceptionally easy to work with, although not dire. If you get even one letter of your address wrong (e.g you say 7 instead of Flat 7 when they have your address written down as Flat 7) when buying something on the internet they will refuse the purchase. It took about two months for the application to go through in the first place, so I missed being able to use it on my holiday! Then despite perfect credit rating they wouldn't extend my limit on my card - given that most family holidays seem to reach the £3k limit without too much difficulty, a £1k limit is a bit of a nuisance.

confused1

Try Citibank - very international and more user friendly than the high street banks.

ManAtHome

Not had a problem with Nationwide - statement normally turns up a couple of days after the "cut-off" date, then around 3 weeks to payment date. My cut-off date is the middle of each month, dunno if that makes any difference?

Dr_Drapster

Does anyone know of any bank in malta that does not charge their own fee when using nationwide via debit card.

pattayalob

In my opinion, the best way for spending money abroad is this. Use Nationwide debit card. Have an e-savings account. Withdraw money at any ATM, the exchange rate is slightly better than the posted rate. Check your balance on the internet and top up Flexaccount debit card as and when necessary from e-savings account. This is a win - win situation, there are NO charges for the withdrawel from the ATM, you get a slightly better rate than advertised and you are gaining interest on your money by keeping most of it in the e-savings account.