my reasons for changing from nationwide to natwest

wheelz

As some of you know (opening nat west account thread) I have decided to leave nationwide (current account) and open a bank account. Lately three things happened that made me decide that it was time to leave.

First of all I wanted to get £2000 out and I asked beforehand as I had had this before whether they needed any notice. yes they do, depending on how much cash they have in the safe they need a few days warning. Then chatting a bit more it was one day's warning was enough. It didn't suit me as I was going to go away then wanted the money on the day I came back and I couldn't book the money far in advance, I thought this was silly and wouldn't happen in a bank. I asked natwest and you can take up to £25000 apparently.

My second reason is that nationwide are going to stop the free cash withdrawals abroad one of the things I rather liked about my nationwide account.

Lastly I wanted to transfer money to buy a new motorbike and because I forgot my code someone else did it for me. I then discovered that you can transfer money from bank to bank instantly and with nationwide this takes 3-5 working days. In this day and age electronic transfers should be direct why would the money be hanging in cyberspace and nationwide getting interest on my money.

So here you have it.

Any reasons I might not know about that will be good to know?

CLAPTON

wheelz wrote: »

As some of you know (opening nat west account thread) I have decided to leave nationwide (current account) and open a bank account. Lately three things happened that made me decide that it was time to leave.

First of all I wanted to get £2000 out and I asked beforehand as I had had this before whether they needed any notice. yes they do, depending on how much cash they have in the safe they need a few days warning. Then chatting a bit more it was one day's warning was enough. It didn't suit me as I was going to go away then wanted the money on the day I came back and I couldn't book the money far in advance, I thought this was silly and wouldn't happen in a bank. I asked natwest and you can take up to £25000 apparently.

My second reason is that nationwide are going to stop the free cash withdrawals abroad one of the things I rather liked about my nationwide account.

Lastly I wanted to transfer money to buy a new motorbike and because I forgot my code someone else did it for me. I then discovered that you can transfer money from bank to bank instantly and with nationwide this takes 3-5 working days. In this day and age electronic transfers should be direct why would the money be hanging in cyberspace and nationwide getting interest on my money.

So here you have it.

Any reasons I might not know about that will be good to know?

your 1; I rather agree; its a poor service

your 2: does natwest offer free withdrawals abroad

your 3 : if you mean you wanted to transfer money from your nationwide a/c to an account at another bank, then nationwide does do faster payment but bear in mind that both companies must support FP.

wheelz

As far as I know Nationwide is the only building society/bank type organisation that does free cash withdrawals abroad so if they're stopping one reason to stay is gone.

Well I rang them and when I transferred money recently it states it takes 3-5 working days (electronic transfer you do yourself). They have to say 5 days but in general it takes 3 days (she admitted when I asked). A friend transferred from hsbc to natwest and from natwest to Loyds tSB within minutes. I'd like that too, esp if buying something large like a motorbike (you don't want to wait 3-5 days).

Olipro

Nationwide offer Faster Payments on amounts up to £1000 with a cumulative limit of £1000 a day - any further amounts will be sent by BACS.

NatWest on the other hand will let you send up to £10,000 per day by FPS, however, the total limit is £10k, if you want to send any more than that, unlike Nationwide however, you have to go in branch and they will force you to pay for CHAPS.

gt94sss2

wheelz wrote: »

As far as I know Nationwide is the only building society/bank type organisation that does free cash withdrawals abroad so if they're stopping one reason to stay is gone.

Metro Bank also offers this.

While you have given several reasons valid reasons for wanting to leave Nationwide - why Natwest? Any of the big high street banks will fulfill your requirements

Regards
Sunil

wheelz

Olipro wrote: »

Nationwide offer Faster Payments on amounts up to £1000 with a cumulative limit of £1000 a day - any further amounts will be sent by BACS.

NatWest on the other hand will let you send up to £10,000 per day by FPS, however, the total limit is £10k, if you want to send any more than that, unlike Nationwide however, you have to go in branch and they will force you to pay for CHAPS.

*sigh*

I am talking about the normal payments you do online on a sunday from your computer at home.

There was no faster payment option for transferring money electronically, believe me I would have pressed that button and known esp as I rang them up to double-check how long it would take.

wheelz

gt94sss2 wrote: »

why Natwest?

Why not?

They're advertising that they're still offering over the counter service and stay open as a physical building.

Didn't know about metro bank but then have never heard of them (not around in the area here) so wouldn't move my current account there.

I have in the past been with them and they were good, just at the time didn't need two accounts and closed it down.

Don't like Lloyds and Barclays (have heard bad stories when dealing with fraud - something I must give Nationwide praise for - they handled it well when my card was cloned). Don't like the big Santander bank (also heard bad stories about them) so Nat West has generally a good feel to them, plus a friend has good experience with them and recommends them.

usedandabused

TBH I think Natwest are FAB!!!
also the banks do the 'banking services' a lot better than the Building Scoiety's, whom always seem a bit prehistoric when it comes to things such as FP etc

wheelz

I dont' know what FB is but every time I get some money from my parents abroad. You wouldn't believe the trouble I have to go through to find out 'who' it is from. I then get a handwritten piece of paper from the branch to tell me who it is from. Talking about the dark ages....

You almost feel that there's something wrong. Hush hush if we don't tell you who the money is from then you don't tell anyone understood?! Nah don't like that. Could be from a film!

fawinds

wheelz wrote: »

*sigh*

I am talking about the normal payments you do online on a sunday from your computer at home.

There was no faster payment option for transferring money electronically, believe me I would have pressed that button and known esp as I rang them up to double-check how long it would take.

Faster payments don't come as an option. When you send a payment, it will tell you whether it will go by FP or BACS. I have an HSBC and Natwest accounts, and used to have a Halifax too, and money could be transferred among them instantly by FP. However I have another account with Citibank and they don't do FP, thus have to wait 3 days for money sent or received to arrive. They say they will have FP by late 2010 though.

There have been some posts saying that Nationwide had FP for some of their sort codes, but not all. Maybe yours does not admit FP. You can look it at http://www.ukpayments.org.uk/sort_code_checker/

Regarding getting cash abroad, it you mean in the eurozone, my advise is that you get the Citibank euro current account that I have. You pay euros into your account and can withdraw money fee free anywhere in the eurozone or pay for your purchases with your visa debit card.

You may wonder, if I do the exchange through citibank, how good is it? Well, not the best but definitely not the worst. Right now it is 1.1911 euros per pound, as compared to 1.1975 with FairFX and 1.1980 with XE.com

The Natwest debit card is one of the most expensive to use abroad a it charges 2.75% exchange fee plus a POS per transaction fee of £1.25 or ATM fee of 2%.

wheelz

Thanks Fawinds, yes I'm going to look into a euro card/account for when I am abroad. You're the second person recommending that. Is that one you top up before you go and then just take the money out while abroad?