Nationwide Card-overseas Use

eeja

I Have Spent Over A Whole Month Trying To Find Out What Exchange Rate Is Used On Foreign Usage Of N/w Credit Card And Still Have Not Been Able To Discover The Facts !! Balking, Stalling And Ignorance Again And Again !
Yes We All Know That The N/w Cards Give The Best Rates With No Charges No Commission And No Currency Loading...or So They Advertise.
My Question Is Where They Get Their Rate From, As In One Day Many Currencies Can Move Several Percentage Points . A Cash Withdrawal Timed Correctly Can Mean Tens Of Pounds More.
Here's The Position I Have Discovered So Far.
The Rate Used Is The 'visa' Rate.
So What Is The Visa Rate ?
Answer From Visa : Rate Fixed The Previous Day And Stays The Same Despite All Subsequent Fluctuations. All Further Requests For Info Denied ! The Only Way Therefore To Discover The Facts Is To Experiment. I Have Discovered The Following :
1. Rate Applied Is Rate Of The Day. The Day Starts At 5am Uk Time Or 00.00 New York Time.
2. The Rate However Changed Today At 2am Uk Time Even Though The Day Had Not Changed !...that Happened Three Hours Later.
3. Monies Withdrawn Before 10am Uk Time Are Processed 18 Hours Later When They Appear On Ones Oneline Statement.
4. Monies Withdrawn Later Than 10am Take 36 Hours To Process When They Appear On Ones Online Statement.
Wow !! This Is Complicated And Still Experimenting And Still Not Got To The Bottom Of This.
Does Anyone Else Know The Facts ?

ioscorpio

http://www.corporate.visa.com/pd/consumer_ex_faq.jsp

KTF

Visa have a calculator on their site:

http://corporate.visa.com/pd/consumer_ex_rates.jsp?src=ex_faq

I wouldnt worry about it too much as the rate will be better than the ones you will find at Travelex, etc.

eeja

The Above Two Very Vague Url's Which I Am Fully Aware Of Prove The Point !
They Say Nothing About What Time Gmt The Rate Changes Which Is Essential Information.. How Can One Otherwise Know The Rate One Receives/ Wants To Receive Is Right What With Intra Day Swings Of Several Percent Possible ? There Is No Past Or Historical Visa Rate Sheet Facility Available Against Which One Can Check Previous Rates . No Email Address To Contact. Then Today The Rate Changed During The Day Which Contradicts The Visa Statement Saying Rates Change Only Once A Day. Today 1 June There Were Two Rates !
In Fact The New 'rate Day 'came In At 00.00 Ny Time But There Was A Change Three Hours Earlier !
Anybody Done A Study On Rates..probably Not In This Thread As This Will Probably Affect Only Cardholders Outside The Uk.

grumbler

Why Do You Type This Way? It. Is. Very. Difficult. To. Read!

Which Is Essential

What is essential? What alternatives do you have? All alternative ways of obtaining foreign currency will cost you at least 2.5%-3% more than Nationwide card. Small fluctuations of Visa exchange rate are well within this spread.

KTF

Have you contacted Nationwide and asked them? You could also look on https://www.xe.com as the rates on there are very similar to the one you will get from Nationwide.

Btw, not capitalising each word in your post will make it a lot easier to read.

eagle

grumbler wrote:

Why Do You Type This Way? It. Is. Very. Difficult. To. Read!

It's! All! Part! Of! The! Yahoo! Culture!

GlennTheBaker

By using the Nationwide Credit Card abroad you get the best rate and, therefore, the best value for money. Who gives a toss how many times the rate changes during the day?

nomoneytoday

The cable (USD / GBP) rate is currently 1.8650
High street banks offer between 1.72 and 1.80
Nationwide would give around 1.82, most other cards around 1.76

Unless you are spending £1000s I doubt you would get a better retail rate..

eeja

The same old reply ! N/w give the best rate so why look a gift horse in the mouth.
I'll tell you why. Thousands upon thousands of expats now use their N/W card as a UK bank as no charges whatsoever are levied. At supermarkets in Dubai, gas stations in USA etc etc Thus in a normal year expediture might easily reach 10k-20k.
Were one to be allowed to chose a favourable time to exchange , as one can most other times one could save thousands of pounds each year.
Trust you UK based readers who can use sterling just about everywhere now understand. Our currency is the Nationwide so we must know the facts.!

ManAtHome

But can't they only 'time things correctly' if they can forecast currency movements? Or are you considering monitoring the rate after the exchange rate has been set for the day then dashing out and filling the car up. Hmmm won't you then have lost out if it goes up again tomorrow?