Looking for an account with good overseas ATM use

Susievintage

(Apologies: posting again because I forgot to ask to be notified of replies. Fool that I am.)

I travel quite a bit, and have always valued my Citibank current account because it offers the facility to withdraw local currency from overseas ATMs at a good exchange rate and without charging for the withdrawal. However, they have just notified me that they are about to start charging (very handsomely) for this service.

Can anyone recommend a personal current account that offers overseas ATM use - perhaps even for free? I never go overdrawn and do not need other fancy services, but it would be my main account and so I need to get it right. I would also prefer to do my banking online.

Many thanks for any suggestions.

Olipro

if you have a mortgage or over 50k savings with Santander you can get their Zero Current Account.

alternatively, you can get a Nationwide Flexaccount which gives spot rate on transactions in the EU and charges 1% on anything out of the EU (which is still exceptionally low as no fixed fee of any sort is tacked into that and currencies fluctuate more than 1% daily anyway)

zppp

Nationwide is worth a look;

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/current_account/foreigntransactions.htm

scottishblondie

Nationwide (as above) is pretty good. I've been using them abroad for years now, no problems and the fee outside of Europe is very reasonable (it's free inside Europe).

dzug1

What is the 'very handsome' charge they are introducing?

It could be that it's very much the same as other banks (Nationwide excepted) and that if you can't get a Nationwide account you might as well stay

Many (well some anyway) people have tossed their nationwide account out of the pram because of the 1% charge and turned to getting cash instead. Forgetting it may well cost them 5%.

glider3560

Susievintage wrote: »

(Apologies: posting again because I forgot to ask to be notified of replies. Fool that I am.)

For future reference, just click "Thread Tools" when viewing the post. Then click "Subscribe to this thread". You can then choose to receive email replies without needing to post again.

Susievintage

Many thanks, everyone, for your help.

The "handsome fee" I mentioned is 2% on overseas ATM withdrawals (minimum £2, maximum £5). I contacted Citibank, pointed out that I had been a customer for twenty years, and asked whether they could reconsider this fee. I got the standard (mis-spelt) response from India.

So I have applied for a Nationwide account, and will move across to them. A great shame, but Citibank's service has been deteriorating for years and this was the final straw for me.

(Thanks also to glider3560 for the explanation of thread tools - v helpful.)

Bloomberg

Susievintage wrote: »

Many thanks, everyone, for your help.

The "handsome fee" I mentioned is 2% on overseas ATM withdrawals (minimum £2, maximum £5). I contacted Citibank, pointed out that I had been a customer for twenty years, and asked whether they could reconsider this fee. I got the standard (mis-spelt) response from India.

So I have applied for a Nationwide account, and will move across to them. A great shame, but Citibank's service has been deteriorating for years and this was the final straw for me.

(Thanks also to glider3560 for the explanation of thread tools - v
helpful.)

For overseas usage the Flexaccount is A1. Just be warned that the Nationwide cannot do weekly standing orders, full statements are a day behind and also their paperless statements are conditional. Basically you cannot view your charges on line, if you are charged even 1p interest they sent this notification in the post along with a full statement. The in branch service is also not very lively.

They have only just got around to introducing faster payments after numerous launch dates came and went. That said their internet banking is very good.

Susievintage

Excellent tips, Bloomberg - thank you. I'm planning to do internet banking, so hopefully the other shortcomings won't bother me too much.

I don't know about others, but I find it astonishing that a sleepy little bank like the Nationwide offers a better international service than Citibank - or perhaps it's because they don't realise how much money they could make from it!

glider3560

Susievintage wrote: »

sleepy little bank like the Nationwide

As much as they aspire to be a bank these days, Nationwide are still only a building society.

Susievintage

Quite right - my apologies. And arguably therefore even sleepier.