MSE News discussion. Nationwide kills cheap overseas spending

Marksfish

mervyn11 wrote: »

Mark
The 64 000 euro question is of course what was the exchange rate the you were given compared to the wholesale rate on that day ???
Did you get charged to RECEIVE the money by your Spanish bank ???

Just logging into my account now, I can get 1215.21€ for £1000.00. They quote the rate as 1.2152. There are no receiving fees by Barclays in Spain. There should be no fees for anyone in Euroland if receiving less than 50,000€.

Once you have made your trade, you then have to send money to Xe by BACS which is free and depending on bank, can arrive with them same day. Once they have your funds, they are forwarded to the specified bank. Have used them several times before we got wise to using the Nationwide card, but back then they had a £15 transfer fee. This fee has now been removed if it is all done electronically, so better value for money.

Excellent service for homeowners transferring money to foreign accounts, but no good for holidaymakers i'm afraid.

Mark

iblametheparents

virgo17 wrote: »

How do you work that one out?

The CaxtonFX Euro card has no ATM fee in the Eurozone and no other charges. The Nationwide card (from November) will charge 2% loading plus £1 fee. Even if the Caxton exchange rate is slightly worse when the card is loaded how can the Nationwide be better?

Agree that the FairFX Euro card is not such a good deal due to the ATM charge in Europe.

Have you considered the FairFX Anywhere card which doesn't charge for ATM usage? It only has a 1.5% transaction charge when using the card and uses interbank rates.

virgo17

iblametheparents wrote: »

Have you considered the FairFX Anywhere card which doesn't charge for ATM usage? It only has a 1.5% transaction charge when using the card and uses interbank rates.

Yes, did consider that one, but the CaxtonFX Euro card looks best for our individual spending pattern.

The transfer by xe.com mentioned by Marksfish looks very interesting as we have a Spanish bank account.

iblametheparents

virgo17 wrote: »

Yes, did consider that one, but the CaxtonFX Euro card looks best for our individual spending pattern.

If you don't mind me asking, what persuaded you to choose that one?

kevgy

I've been with Nationwide long enough to have voted to change its name to Nationwide from its former incarnation as the Cooperative BS - were you born then Mr Rhodes?. We've got a mortgage and several savings products with NW. So, Mr Rhodes, how does hiking debit card fees for overseas withdrawals show focus and reward for loyal customers who buy your products? Looks like I need to move to Santander Zero or Halifax Clarity, and then I can ditch my NW Gold card too and save the 1% worldwide purchase fee.

Olipro

kevgy wrote: »

I've been with Nationwide long enough to have voted to change its name to Nationwide from its former incarnation as the Cooperative BS - were you born then Mr Rhodes?. We've got a mortgage and several savings products with NW. So, Mr Rhodes, how does hiking debit card fees for overseas withdrawals show focus and reward for loyal customers who buy your products? Looks like I need to move to Santander Zero or Halifax Clarity, and then I can ditch my NW Gold card too and save the 1% worldwide purchase fee.

oh how the mighty have fallen. and to my mind, this comment is a stellar example of exactly how hollow the Nationwide slogan has become.

ManAtHome

iblametheparents wrote: »

If you don't mind me asking, what persuaded you to choose that one?

I've been tracking load rates of FairFX and Caxton for a couple of weeks now and the gap has narrowed in favour of Caxton. FairFX was slightly better if you drew 300 euros from an ATM, Caxton was better for 100-200 euro withdrawals (all down to FairFX having a slightly better load rate, but charging 1.5 euros per ATM transaction). As the quid has gone up against the euro, the difference has reduced - for the last 5 days, Caxton has been better than FairFX even if you withdraw 300 euros a time (last week rates):
11/08 - Caxton 1.1820, FairFX 1.1875
13/08 - Caxton 1.1960, FairFX 1.2000
15/08 - Caxton 1.2000, FairFX 1.2025

iblametheparents

ManAtHome wrote: »

I've been tracking load rates of FairFX and Caxton for a couple of weeks now and the gap has narrowed in favour of Caxton. FairFX was slightly better if you drew 300 euros from an ATM, Caxton was better for 100-200 euro withdrawals (all down to FairFX having a slightly better load rate, but charging 1.5 euros per ATM transaction). As the quid has gone up against the euro, the difference has reduced - for the last 5 days, Caxton has been better than FairFX even if you withdraw 300 euros a time (last week rates):
11/08 - Caxton 1.1820, FairFX 1.1875
13/08 - Caxton 1.1960, FairFX 1.2000
15/08 - Caxton 1.2000, FairFX 1.2025

Yes but I have the FairFX Anywhere card which doesn't load nor does it charge for using an ATM. It has a 1.5% charge for each transaction and uses interbank rates. How does that compare the Caxton?

Fortyfoot

As far as I see it Caxton does not charge the 1.5% per transaction. It seems to be the best one for my use.

Fortyfoot

iblametheparents

Fortyfoot wrote: »

As far as I see it Caxton does not charge the 1.5% per transaction. It seems to be the best one for my use.

Fortyfoot

There is a hidden charge when loading though, as they do not use interbank rates. If you check their Euro rate today it is 2.02% lower than the interbank rate, more than the 1.5% transaction charge with FairFX.