MSE News: Nationwide hikes overseas card charges 1 October 2009 at 10:52AM in Flights, Currency & Car Hire 8 replies 1.4K views

Former_MSE_Guy

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

"Nationwide is upping the commission charge to use its credit and debit cards in most non-European countries today.

The fee rises from 0.84% of all transaction amounts to..."

Read the full story:
Nationwide hikes overseas card charges

Voyager2002

The article recommends the Santander Zero card, but when I asked about this in April I was told that it had been withdrawn.

An increase of 16 pence in the cost of obtaining a hundred pounds. Not really big news.

PolishBigSpender

It's not really a 'hike', is it?

mystic_trev

No - the Title is misleading

Nationwide says it is passing on the fee Visa, the payment vehicle behind most Nationwide cards, charges it for processing transactions in certain currencies.

So should the title should read Visa hikes overseas card charges for Nationwide customers

bryanb

mystic_trev wrote: »

No - the Title is misleading



So should the title should read Visa hikes overseas card charges

As I understood things, Nationwide have absorbed the charge till now. So really Visa haven't hiked. NW have stopped absorbing. But that make poor headlines.

luci

It's a typical dramatic headline by MSE with no substance. I'm starting to think MSE is the online equivalent of the Sun.

N/W have not "hiked" the rate, Visa have put it up slightly and N/W have passed it on rather than absorbing it.

If 16p per £100 is going to affect someone's holiday or trip then perhaps they can't afford to go abroad.

The additional 1% (or 0.16%) is barely noticeable as the rate fluctuates so much.

The N/W cards are still the cheapest method of getting cash and buying goods abroad.

xnikkix

When they started charging 0.84% I'm sure they said at the time it would go up to 1%. Even with the fee the rate I've had while in Tanzania and Hong Kong have been significantly better than bureaux de change.

bagand96

0.84% up to 1%. Hike? No. As pointed out above, Nationwide announced this increase a good while back, and explained their reasons behind it. Nationwide is still one of (if not the) best ways to draw cash abroad.

Yet another sensationalist gutter-press headline from a site I used to respect.

benjus

This change was originally planned for July. Visa then changed its mind and decided to leave it at 0.84% - now it seems to have changed its mind again.

As others have said, it is Visa that is behind this change - some time ago Nationwide changed its policy from absorbing the Visa charge (and therefore charging nothing to the customer) to passing the charge on directly. The reason Nationwide gets blamed for this is because it is (AFAIK) the only bank/BS that passes the Visa charge on directly to customers - most banks add an extra cut of their own, so will now be 0.16% worse off.

I agree with others about the sensationalist headline - what's up with MSE these days?

Voyager2002 wrote: »

The article recommends the Santander Zero card, but when I asked about this in April I was told that it had been withdrawn.

It was re-introduced earlier this year - I obtained one a couple of months ago. However, being a credit card there are issues with being charged interest if you use it to withdraw cash (unless you pay it off immediately) - so it has a higher hassle-factor than the Nationwide debit card.