MSE News discussion. Nationwide kills cheap overseas spending

RobertinHerts

There is now a discussion about Metro Bank. I suggest it would be useful to gather all comments about this new bank in one place:

Metro bank - new customer review

Gamegal

There isalso a discussion started about transferring money from UK to a foreign bank

thethington

I have now heard back from Nationwide about the fee charges:

Dear [snip],
Thank you for your message.

I'm sorry to learn you experienced confusion regarding the changes to fees for overseas use. These charges are incurred based on the actual processing date of the transactions rather than the withdrawal date. If the transactions fall on a weekend then they would not be processed until the first working day when any charges would then also be attached.

Nationwide’s FlexAccount remains one of the most competitive current accounts to use abroad. Its new commission charge of 2% and £1 cash withdrawal fee are lower than those charged by other standard or free current accounts in the market. Up until 1 November 2010, many customers will benefit from both free travel insurance and commission free card use abroad.
Nationwide’s credit card continues to offer free use abroad within Europe and charge 1% worldwide.

I would like to thank you for contacting us. If you need anything else please reply to this message.

Regards
[snip]
Customer Consultant
Internet Services

We've seen in this thread that some people did manage to avoid fees despite using it on the 31st so what they say above about no processing on the weekends doesn't seem to be totally true.

Also, I'm quite surprised that Nationwide would pick and advertise a date that happened to be a Monday so many people who looked at the headline and used it over the weekend would have attracted fees. It seems quite misleading, perhaps even intentionally so.

Even reading the fineprint on all the notices about it doesn't actually clearly specify that the transaction must be processed before the 1st for it to escape fees, only a general statement that fees will be applied when the transaction is processed.

Inactive

thethington wrote: »

I have now heard back from Nationwide about the fee charges:



We've seen in this thread that some people did manage to avoid fees despite using it on the 31st so what they say above about no processing on the weekends doesn't seem to be totally true.

Also, I'm quite surprised that Nationwide would pick and advertise a date that happened to be a Monday so many people who looked at the headline and used it over the weekend would have attracted fees. It seems quite misleading, perhaps even intentionally so.

Even reading the fineprint on all the notices about it doesn't actually clearly specify that the transaction must be processed before the 1st for it to escape fees, only a general statement that fees will be applied when the transaction is processed.

That is blatant bullship, I made cash withdrawals on both the Saturday and the Sunday in Spain, the Saturday ( 30/10/2010 ) transaction was processed as normal without any reference to the " interest " charge.

The Sunday ( 31/10/2010 ) withdrawal was as stated in my earlier post.

thethington

Got a reply from them today after i replied politely but firmly asking them to look into it again.

Dear Member,
Thank you for your message.
This charge should not have been levied and is in the process of being corrected. Please note you do not need to do anything, we are aware of the fault and the charge will be reimbursed to your account in the next few days

This is a result, there may not have been much money at stake here, but its good to get it resolved!

nomorerack

it really is hard to distinguish ya? anyway, be careful out there folks and keep a close watch...if somethin' smells fishy go and trace the stink...:)

EarthBoy

philc_31 wrote: »

Mum spends the winter in Portugal ....
Yearly charge £138

How many months are you counting as winter? She would only be charged £138 if she spent all year in Portugal. If she only spends the winter there she would only pay half, or even less, than that.

philc_31 wrote: »

Some will be withdrawing once or twice a day, small amounts, ten euro for a wash and blow dry and another ten euro later for loaf of bread and a jar of coffee.

Ten Euros for bread and coffee? The cost of living is obviously very expensive in Portugal, so they would be better off moving back to the UK.