MSE News discussion. Nationwide kills cheap overseas spending

SallyMC

How strange that Nationwide Customer Services (NCS) are working on one of our rare 'bank' holidays - I wonder why!
I emailed NCS to question the conditions for the 'free' travel insurance - the response was:
In order to continue to qualify for the free travel insurance you will need to ensure that at least £750 per month is deposited into your account (excluding internal transfers from other Nationwide accounts).
We are not eligible! We are in our late 50s/ early 60s, with low wage seasonal jobs and disappear to our 'hovel' in Greece for a couple of months eeking out the money we have earnt in the summer & dipping into our ever diminishing savings - so that's us out! As will be anyone who earns/receives less than £750 a month (like people on state pensions). And like so many of you who have contributed to this 29 page expression of anger, misery and disappointment, we have loyally banked with Nationwide since 1989, have had ISAs, have got 6 savings accounts, direct debits, internet banking, have put up with lower interest rates & bonuses than their competitors.
Their email went on to say : '
'Over time we have found it has provided a huge benefit to a tiny minority of our current account members, such as regular business travellers. At the same time it has benefited others by only a modest amount and it has not benefited the majority of our current account members at all. It is simply not an equitable way to share member value. However, the majority can benefit from free travel insurance if they make FlexAccount their main account and the value they would receive will be shared more equitably.'
This is quite obviously nonsense, and clearly untrue judging by the huge amount of responses here on MoneySavingExpert. If it's a 'tiny minority of current account members' who benefit from free ATM in the EU, why give out travel insurance at all? Why not reinstate the flexaccount interest payment? That would then benefit the majority that, according to Nationwide, don't travel. We're customers - not stupid!
I am so angry to be treated in this way that I have joined both Facebook 'reinstate free EU ATM' campaign groups (can't they be amalgamated?) invited ALL of my 'friends' that might use a flex card & asked them to invite their 'friends' in turn. And will be writing to Moneybox, the Board of Directors etc. My reply to NCS:
'As stated, we are not in a position to be able to benefit from free travel insurance and we are to be penalised for our loyalty to Nationwide by having to pay to withdraw our own money from our own account whilst in the EU. A sad state of affairs indeed and one that is not of our making. We are not regular business travellers, nor are our friends, we are Nationwide customers who travel to the EU where we wish to use our Flex account as we are able to in the UK. We do not accept that it is impossible for Nationwide to differentiate between genuine Flex account users and those who are just free-loading for zero cost EU withdrawals - they are the ones who should be charged, not those who have stuck by Nationwide despite lower interest rates on some products, higher prices on others and so on.
We have always promoted and recommended Nationwide as a truly equitable building society who values its loyal customer base, but do not feel that this is now the case. We have also trusted the board of directors to make equitable decisions on our behalf & have voted annually accordingly, again we do not feel that this is still the case.
If, as a company, Nationwide do not show loyalty to their longstanding customers, then the longstanding customers will undoubtedly be unwilling to continue to support Nationwide. Again a sad state of affairs. We ask that both our emails are forwarded to the Board as we wish them to be aware of the strength of feeling we have regarding this matter.'
And all this after a working night! :mad::mad::mad:

chriskross

Like others I am furious at Nationwide about this (even though they would still be the cheapest for me, I tend not to draw huge amounts of cash at a time, so the £1/withdrawal would be a lot). Was already annoyed that my partner will not be able to access her cash abroad with her new debit card. Have opened a Santander account, hoping to upgrade to a Zero account shortly. I know about their reputation here, but I just want to send the message to NW.

Anyway, in case no-one else has seen it, for people making intra-Europe transfers there is an interesting article in the Independent:

http://www.independent.co.uk/money/spend-save/it-will-soon-be-easier-to-move-cash-around-europe--except-in-the-uk-2064188.html

Shah79

chriskross wrote: »

http://www.independent.co.uk/money/spend-save/it-will-soon-be-easier-to-move-cash-around-europe--except-in-the-uk-2064188.html

Thanks for this!!

Shah79

Quite sad that Nationwide is withdrawing their free withdrawal abroad - which is the only reason I am keeping the account. I switched to Santander to benefit from their £100 cash back - but reviews on their customer support is horrific. In fact, we have just registered with Santander and my partner use to have an Abbey account which he cancelled yonks ago and the welcome letter from Santander was sent to his old address - which is rather odd. Does anyone know about the small prints on free withdrawal abroad on Santander?I don't trust this Spanish bank!

northernstar5

Shah79 wrote: »

Quite sad that Nationwide is withdrawing their free withdrawal abroad - which is the only reason I am keeping the account. I switched to Santander to benefit from their £100 cash back - but reviews on their customer support is horrific. In fact, we have just registered with Santander and my partner use to have an Abbey account which he cancelled yonks ago and the welcome letter from Santander was sent to his old address - which is rather odd. Does anyone know about the small prints on free withdrawal abroad on Santander?I don't trust this Spanish bank!

My understanding is that withdrawals are free in Spain at Santander branches - but some branches have outside cashpoints that are not run by Santander. Don't know how you can tell though. I'll be using inside machines when I can.

Nicholas

When I was in Australia earlier this year, the most I could withdraw was 400AUD (roughly £235) at a time. The way around that was to use each of our four flex account cards (2 for our joint account and 1 each for each of our sole accounts) to withdraw a decent amount in one go.

From November that will cost £4 just for the ATM element for what I would effectively deem one withdrawal. What a ripoff!:mad:

marklee

Nicholas wrote: »

When I was in Australia earlier this year, the most I could withdraw was 400AUD (roughly £235) at a time. The way around that was to use each of our four flex account cards (2 for our joint account and 1 each for each of our sole accounts) to withdraw a decent amount in one go.

From November that will cost £4 just for the ATM element for what I would effectively deem one withdrawal. What a ripoff!:mad:

Or you could speak to NW about the withdrawal limit on your account? Or pay for whatever you need 1600AUD for by card? Most places that charge that much for goods or a service should take plastic, and to be honest, if they didn't, I'd be a little suspicious.

Olipro

Nicholas wrote: »

When I was in Australia earlier this year, the most I could withdraw was 400AUD (roughly £235) at a time. The way around that was to use each of our four flex account cards (2 for our joint account and 1 each for each of our sole accounts) to withdraw a decent amount in one go.

From November that will cost £4 just for the ATM element for what I would effectively deem one withdrawal. What a ripoff!:mad:

if you want to withdraw larger amounts you need to do it over the counter such as a bank or post office cashier.

System

Nope, it's limited to the standard £300 (or local equivalent) daily limit unless it's direct with Nationwide.

If you can afford to take out circa £920 daily out of cashpoint, you can afford a £4 (0.5%) withdrawal charge.

Olipro wrote: »

if you want to withdraw larger amounts you need to do it over the counter such as a bank or post office cashier.

Biggles

Heng_Leng wrote: »

If you can afford to take out circa £920 daily out of cashpoint, you can afford a £4 (0.5%) withdrawal charge.

Needing to withdraw 4 x £235 doesn't quite mean the same as being able to afford a charge of £4 a day. However, £4 for £940 is hardly a 'ripoff'. But Nicholas doesn't seem so concerned that it will, in future, cost him £18.80 in addition in foreign exchange charges.

Hey ho, it's still one of the cheapest available debit cards: my Lloyds card would cost £42 on that basis!