MSE News discussion. Nationwide kills cheap overseas spending

Ian3_2

Am I right in thinking that using a Nationwide debit card is cheaper than a Halifax Clarity card for cash withdraws in North America until 1st November, as with Halifax you would pay 12.9% mimimum from the moment you withdrew the cash?

If you withdrew cash on a Clarity card and than paid it off straight away, allowing for three days mimimum at 12.9% for the payment to arrive, I wonder which would be cheaper?

gwapenut

Ian3 wrote: »

Am I right in thinking that using a Nationwide debit card is cheaper than a Halifax Clarity card for cash withdraws in North America until 1st November, as with Halifax you would pay 12.9% mimimum from the moment you withdrew the cash?

If you withdrew cash on a Clarity card and than paid it off straight away, allowing for three days mimimum at 12.9% for the payment to arrive, I wonder which would be cheaper?

12.9% pa is about 1% a month so as long as you pay any withdrawals off within a month of making them, they should cost you less than 1%

marklee

fightbacknow wrote: »

For those who don't actually bank at Nationwide and just use the account for the benefits and are going to close their accounts because of this then off you go because obviously that isn't the type of customers that Nationwide want and probably a reason for this change in account benefits.

Some of you are being rather narrow minded as Nationwide does offer rewards for banking with them, for example if you're ever in a position where you needing a loan, as an account holder you can get a 7.7% rate loan (UK's lowest) excellent 90% mortgage products for first time buyers as well as this new travel insurance covering UK and European travels. Clearly withdrawing the overseas free withdrawals, Nationwide are looking for loyal customers and those who actually pay in to their accounts and therefore should be rewarded with some of the above offers, customers that just used the account for overseas withdrawing actually cost the building society a lot of money and therefore are not worth having as customers.

I don't blame them for taking this reward away and will continue to bank with them and always look at their products first before other banks and building societies (which are usually a lot quicker to remove offers than the four/five years Nationwide have been doing this!)

You are assuming that there are no customers who use this feature and get their monthly salary paid in to their account, have other savings / loans from the society, etc. Unfortunately you're wrong. Whilst there are people who abuse this feature, there are plenty of 'genuine' customers who use this feature, and who use the Flex Account as their primary account.

As has been said elsewhere, the easiest option would have been for the society to make a £750 / £1000 monthly payment into the account a pre-requisite for fee-free overseas use. I know a couple of people who travel a lot with their work and are on good salaries - and they bank with Nationwide because of their fee-free overseas use - with this move, the society risk pushing away many high-earning high-value customers too.

It's also worth remembering that people are in effect 'paying' for the fee-free use from Nationwide, through the 0% interest rates paid on the account.

Stormy

Hi,

Just read the news.

Thought I would add my voice here, I like many have used my Nationwide Flexaccount as my main account for many years and I have always liked their ethic and I travel to Europe on a regular basis and loved the fee free ATM withdrawals as it meant I could get the amount of money I needed and never have to mess around with getting foreign currency here in the UK.

I again like others have half heartedly looking at other better current account deals out there and this will be the straw that breaks the camels back for me so I hope they will be happy losing my salary each month, and all my day to day banking.

Where is the current account of choice these days?

I do however want to write a letter of complaint, who should this be sent to?

Also what will people like me do, I travel to Europe on a regular basis, is the Halifax Clarity card the best thing to go for? I assume I should use it to withdraw cash, and then pay it off instantly as soon as I get home. What a pain compared to the 'old' Nationwide service.

Cheers,

Mike

Megalomaniac

What I am doing is switching to First Direct - it sickens me that they have such an uncompetitive account now. Once that's accepted, I'll apply for a Clarity card and then ditch my Nationwide Credit Card. Let's be honest, if they've done it to the current account, they'll have to bring it in on the credit card soon! Even if they don't, I don't want them making any money out of me. This is how it feels to be alienated I suppose. It amazes me that they have done it to all their customers!

Olipro

Gamegal wrote: »

So .. we're getting a Halifax Clarity card. We have our main a/c with them too so will receive £5 monthly if we spend £300 on purchases which isn't difficult.

The lowest APR they give is the "typical" which means they must give it to 2/3 of applicants.

As for interest charges, You should find that any overseas cash withdrawal will take at least 1-3 working days to actually be shown on the account, so assuming you are crediting the card from your halifax account or by faster payments, I find it unlikely you will incur any interest charges at all.

Do beware however that Halifax operate a negative order of payments; if you make £500 in purchases and £300 in cash and then pay £300 back into the account, they will count it against the purchases, meaning you will be incurring maximum interest on the cash; in order to avoid this scenario you must clear the balance completely (i.e. pay in £800)

Now, in the interests of keeping this on topic, has anyone caught wind of the real reason behind the postponement (or perhaps in reality, cancellation) of the letters to Flexaccount customers informing them of the changes.

northernstar5

Olipro wrote: »

Now, in the interests of keeping this on topic, has anyone caught wind of the real reason behind the postponement (or perhaps in reality, cancellation) of the letters to Flexaccount customers informing them of the changes.

Ditto - Does anyone out there have an answer?

Stormy

I would urge everyone who uses their accounts as their main bank account and is considering leaving to at least write a letter of complaint, even if its using the online Messages > Current Account (Flex Account) > Complaint one just so they realise how massive this is.

northernstar5 wrote: »

Ditto - Does anyone out there have an answer?

I would guess that because the change is for November the 1st, they will be notifying customers towards the end of August. Isn't it usually common practice for a months notice?

Cheers,

Mike

Olipro

Stormy wrote: »

I would guess that because the change is for November the 1st, they will be notifying customers towards the end of August. Isn't it usually common practice for a months notice?

Cheers,

Mike

Did you not read what I said? they were planning to send them out as of the first monday of this month, that has now been postponed.

Inactive

Perhaps they are sending them out via that oh so annoying tandem that keeps going across their Home Page.

How much lower can they dumb down?:mad: