Nationwide Flex Account - Cheap Foreign Money....

phs_2

Hey guys.

As part of my job I'm doing a lot of travelling around Europe. As a result I'm spending a fortune on cash withdrawals/loading etc etc the list goes on.

I'm led to believe that the best way to avoid this is to go and set-up a Nationwide Flex Account?

My question is, would nationwide accept this as a reason for opening an account or would they want it to be my "main" bank account??

Any help would be appreciated!

onlypaddy

I would fib and tell them it will be your main account.....you will want to aim to get a Debit Card, as from June they will be giving out CashCard+ on all other accounts, which doesn't allow cash machine withdrawals.

I think if you tell them it will be your main account or if you open a savings account (and not necessarily use it) then you will have a better chance...

seven-day-weekend

I opened a Flex Acount and got the Debit Card last June without it being my main Bank Account. It might be better if you can have some regular moiney going into it, even if it is a small amount and even if goes straight out again. I opened mine with nothing, but I did tell them my State Pension would be going into it when I started to receive it in February (which it does). Between June-February there was not more than around £20 in it.

Be sure to get the Visa Debit card, not the Cashcard as the facility to draw free money out with the cashcard is being withdrawn.

interbear

I currently have a BoS Reward account but have just opened a joint Flex account with Nationwide (application successful with visa debit card). The intent is that my wife will use the joint Flex account as her day to day bank account. She doesn't work so it won't have salary paid into it, but it will get regular monthly credits as a transfer from my bank account and the account will therefore be used constantly. Given that my wife is French and travels there fairly often to see family, clearly we'll also use the Flex account abroad to get fee-free ATM withdrawals and purchases.

Is this likely to meet Nationwide's requirements to keep the Flex account up and running, as opposed to me moving all DDs and salary into it?

premierfella

interbear wrote: »

I currently have a BoS Reward account but have just opened a joint Flex account with Nationwide (application successful with visa debit card). The intent is that my wife will use the joint Flex account as her day to day bank account. She doesn't work so it won't have salary paid into it, but it will get regular monthly credits as a transfer from my bank account and the account will therefore be used constantly. Given that my wife is French and travels there fairly often to see family, clearly we'll also use the Flex account abroad to get fee-free ATM withdrawals and purchases.

Is this likely to meet Nationwide's requirements to keep the Flex account up and running, as opposed to me moving all DDs and salary into it?

Yes - there is no need to move the DDs and salary across to Nationwide to keep the FlexAccount up and running.

usedandabused

onlypaddy wrote: »

I would fib and tell them it will be your main account.....you will want to aim to get a Debit Card, as from June they will be giving out CashCard+ on all other accounts, which doesn't allow cash machine withdrawals.

I think if you tell them it will be your main account or if you open a savings account (and not necessarily use it) then you will have a better chance...

REWIND

you can't you a nationwide cashcard+ debit in cash machines?
in the uk? or abroad? :eek:

onlypaddy

usedandabused wrote: »

REWIND

you can't you a nationwide cashcard+ debit in cash machines?
in the uk? or abroad? :eek:

only abroad, UK is fine

usedandabused

I was going to say LOL

Biggles

phs wrote: »

My question is, would nationwide accept this as a reason for opening an account or would they want it to be my "main" bank account??

Does the question ever arise?

I've opened many bank accounts over the last few years and the only times I've had to pretend it was going to be my main current account was when I was after a bonus for 'switching' accounts; apart from that I've never been asked 'Why do you want this account?', they're usually just happy to have extra customers.

JA1000

I opened a flex account jointly with my girlfriend, we were going to use this as a working account, food, bills, going out, holidays etc. With a transfer from our main account going in monthly.

The issued us with cash cards and not the debit card we need as a result we only transfer a nominal ammount, pay for anything ourselves and have to do an online transfer back to our accounts. We are not in a position to go for another account due to a remortgage, I don't want to risk any further searches.

To me this just shows how inconsitent they are in offering accounts.

onlypaddy

Biggles wrote: »

Does the question ever arise?

I've opened many bank accounts over the last few years and the only times I've had to pretend it was going to be my main current account was when I was after a bonus for 'switching' accounts; apart from that I've never been asked 'Why do you want this account?', they're usually just happy to have extra customers.

When I opened mine last july, they asked on the form if this would be my main account (answered no) and if I would transfer salary payments (no). They only gave me a cash card and told me to apply for a debit card after 6 months, which I have now. Wasn't too much of a pain though, I just got a FairFX card to do food shopping with here in Germany.

I opened a flex account jointly with my girlfriend, we were going to use this as a working account, food, bills, going out, holidays etc. With a transfer from our main account going in monthly.

The issued us with cash cards and not the debit card we need as a result we only transfer a nominal ammount, pay for anything ourselves and have to do an online transfer back to our accounts. We are not in a position to go for another account due to a remortgage, I don't want to risk any further searches.

To me this just shows how inconsitent they are in offering accounts.

How long has it been? See above, maybe you could do this? And if not, the CashCard+ will let you do transactions on it with chip and pin, but lose the overseas withdrawal facility