MSE News discussion. Nationwide kills cheap overseas spending

ViolaLass

But if I want insurance, I can buy it from plenty of other places whereas not being charged to get money out abroad is becoming increasingly rare. I know which I'd vote for.

cepheus

Shouldn't you use the Nationwide credit card for overseas purchases anyway which isn't changing. I think the Santander card can still be use to get nearly 'free' cash

ViolaLass

I tend to get cash out abroad as my purchases aren't big on the whole (try buying an ice cream in a small town with a credit card!).

tummy_tank

leew wrote: »

Edit! think i'll keep my account now after reading what Martin says in MSE news! just to be a pain!!

exactly what i thought, i'm keeping my £9 odd pence in there just to be awkward!!!

northernstar5

I've used Nationwide as my main bank for 3 decades now. Its only benefit in the last couple of years has been the free cash transactions whilst abroad. I will now be transferring my current account elsewhere.

Inactive

Reaper wrote: »

Ah yes that's it. The MSE news story really should have mentioned that as the whole point is they are swapping card fees for free insurance.

For those who have not uncovered the details yet the press release and insurance cover can be found here:
http://www.nationwide.co.uk/mediacentre/PressRelease_this.asp?ID=1590

It is actually better than you might expect as cash and baggage are covered too (which are not always included on cheap policies), though skiing is extra. The excess is a reasonable £50.

Well sorry, free travel insurance will not replace the benefit of free withdrawals abroad for me.

So come November, it will be goodbye Nationwide for me, along with my ISA's and other savings accounts.

Oh and it seems that they have excluded pensioners from the offer as well, how very fair of them.

PolishBigSpender

It's amusing how terrible UK banking products are - I pay nothing for my current account, and foreign withdrawals are charged at the interbank rate plus 2% loading. Given that I'd lose the 2% in exchanging money anyway, it's really not a bad deal at all.

Hungerdunger

Inactive wrote: »

Well sorry, free travel insurance will not replace the benefit of free withdrawals abroad for me.

So come November, it will be goodbye Nationwide for me, along with my ISA's and other savings accounts.

Oh and it seems that they have excluded pensioners from the offer as well, how very fair of them.

I can't see the problem. As a lone traveller, the free insurance should save me well over £40 per year. If I take more euros than usual with me, and pay for major items like car hire with my credit card, I shouldn't incur cash-withdrawal costs of anything like £40.

Pensioners aren't excluded. If you are already a Flex Account holder at the age of 65 you'll benefit from the offer until the age of 75. After that age the cost of travel insurance becomes exhorbitant wherever you buy it from, so I'm not surprised they don't offer it free.

Possibly I'm missing something, but it strikes me there are a lot of moaning Minnies here, when in fact the whole story isn't too bad at all.

virgo17

--
Chris Rhodes, Nationwide’s product and marketing director, said: “The changes are to stop people getting the account just to use overseas. If you bank with Nationwide and support our products we want to give you a reward.
--

I have several products with Nationwide including Gold Credit Card, Flexaccount, eSaver and eISA. I also use my Flex card overseas for cash withdrawls. Therefore I consider myself unfairly treated by Nationwide as my 'reward' is not quite what I expected.

I shall therefore by moving my other money bearing accounts away from Nationwide and will delight in milking the 0% rate on my Gold Card abroard for as long as it lasts.

This is a short sighted plan by Nationwide and I hope it bites them in the @rse as many good customers move away.

chexum

How nice of them. I just opened an account with them this week, and sent the IDs yesterday.... :eek:

Well, my main plan was to have a good spending option for a trip in October, and they are changing fees only from November. :cool: