MSE News discussion. Nationwide kills cheap overseas spending

LondonPerson

KTF wrote: »

So which competitor who provides an all round better service

Yes Metro Bank in London have similar savings rates as Nationwide but don't charge on their Mastercard Debit card for use abroad... pleasant staff, dogs are welcome [seemed to draw the line at cats when I asked], free present when you open your account with money. Oh and I got a welcome card today from the Head Customer Services Representative, maybe I'll get a birthday card and Xmas card... no telling.

The only issue is that you have to visit the "store" in Holborn to open an account up. I lamented about Nationwide dumping the Cirrus card higher up on the thread, so a Metro account gets back what Nationwide dumped ie. access to cash from the MasterCard / Cirrus network when abroad and is 0 percent cost on transactions. So I'm pleased that one doesn't feel exposed when abroad to just VISA card ATMs and it doesn't cost anything unlike Nationwide now.

The internet bank screens could perhaps offer a bit more user friendliness about them. When using the system you feel as if you have a graphical interface between you and some finance system a bit like the old airline systems which transact in code. As long as it doesn't loose my money I can grin and bear this element of it.

Marksfish

I used the trading company I mentioned earlier in the thread (don't want to repeat it for fear of being associated with them) to send a small amount of money to some friends in Spain yesterday, just to test the water. I wanted 55€ and was charged £45.01, a rate of 1.2219. Funds were sent to them yesterday by faster payments and the money was issued to Spain today. Should be with them by around Friday. Not as good as a hole in the wall, but imo, a very good alternative for those with bank accounts abroad.

Mark

chriskross

Biggles wrote: »

I agree but three of those are only limited availability and the other is a credit card.
:-(

well, two of them are credit cards

LondonPerson

London is a big city .... I covered my Oyster card day return charge when I opened my Metro account against the charges that Nationwide will levy in two days of use, so that can't be bad.

ManAtHome

Biggles wrote: »

I agree but three of those are only limited availability and the other is a credit card.
:-(

Would rather use the credit card charging 0.25% a week (max 1% if you set up a DD to pay it off in full) than the debit card charging 2.3%+ (and you have to 'pre-load'!) - we live in interesting times...

Biggles

chriskross wrote: »

well, two of them are credit cards

I assumed he meant the Santander Zero debit card, which I was looking at, though the account requirements are probably too steep; but the reference to 'under 1%' shows he actually meant the Zero credit card.

whitleyforest

Having just bussied myself on the Nationwides website "help us communicate with your needs" where they want our feedback to help them understand where they could do better...,well where to start really. I have now got my Santander zreo current account thet was opened with ease. I was expecting the hard sell, which did not come, a long wait for the cards - no here in a week and a bit of hassle which was not the case so far...
The account was opened with no funding and direct debits will start to be transfered in the middle of September, any errors will be refunded by Santander. The switch team is UK based (I checked) so I am optimistic.

Will Nationwide be bothered? perhaps not, but in over 20 years we have been good customers to them. Perhaps they know that people will be more likely to get divorced than change a bank account.

The stated aim of Nationwide is to reduce costs still further and its in thier interest to do so as thats how they earn thier short, medium and long term bonuses at head office, not the branches.

They pay little heed to us. Very large pay increases for the board were put to the members, not in straightfoward summery where it would be plain to see exactly what was being asked but more of a case of its all here if you want to read through it all. Still Mr Beale waived his bonus this year!

Unless enough people vote with thier feet this will only be the start I think.

glider3560

Just received my letter today. Apparently I qualify for free travel insurance because I'm under 21. Don't ever remember reading this before (perhaps something new?). The insurance is still worthless as I already have international travel insurance and hardly ever travel in Europe.

davidlizard

Without reading all 27 pages of posts here ...

Have my letter today too.

I have read the terms and conditions for the insurance. These are nowhere near as comprehensive as the policy I purchased earlier this year - and it looks useless for independent travel. And it will cost me to add the kids onto the policy - Alliance and Leicester wanted to charge me £40 to add them to their free policy, so I suspect Nationwide's fees will be similar.

I hope next year we remember this at AGM time. From what I recall, the questions were worded as "Elect Mr XYZ to the board". Agree/Disagree/Abstain. A targeted effort here would be great!

In the meantime, I am going to uncheck all the boxes that say I can receive everything paperless. 500,000 "customers" all doing the same thing will cost them.

olly300

davidlizard wrote: »

In the meantime, I am going to uncheck all the boxes that say I can receive everything paperless. 500,000 "customers" all doing the same thing will cost them.

I don't know why people agree to paperless accounts anyway.

It causes trouble in the long run as there is always some organisation who wants your paper records and if you don't have them, you have to wait to obtain them.