Backpacking and the Nationwide CIRRUS card

malandlu

Hi

Following the advice of the folks at mse I traveled last year using a nationwide card and some useless travelers cheques all over South East Asia and only had to break out the extortianate Halifax card trice.

I am back in England and am planning to travel again, and found out some additional information regarding the nationwide cards:

MSE: advertises that a Nationwide debit card adds 1 % for ATM withdrawls outside of Europe. this is not strictly true as today i have found out that nationwide actually offer TWO debit cards. a Visa card AND a basic Cash card with CIRRUS. If using the CIRRUS card there are NO charges whatsoever. no Load fees, no visa charges, nada! plus Cirrus is actually more widely accepted in developing countries (despite what Visa tv adverts would lead you to belive). plus developed country ATM's usually accept both.

I am not sure if Nationwide allow you to have two cards or accounts but if you use a nationwide cash card and a 0% credit card for instore purchases then your travel fees are completely zero! yay

in me aand my partners case we have a Nationwide flex account with Visa (for purchases) and then a joint account with only a cash card (cirrus) for ATM withdrawls. the bank had no problems providing both (having 1 be a joint account allows you effectivly 2 current accounts)

hope that helps someoneone!
p.s. update the travel money page!
mal