Withdrawal Charges - Help Please

Tebacious_C

I saw Martin on TV recently regarding the extortionate charges banks charge for going over drawn etc and what you can do about it. I read a bit about it on the site a while ago. I was wondering though if anyone knew whether that kind of thing stretched to the extortionate charges they apply for withdrawing cash from your bank account while abroad? Basically when my girlfriend was travelling she didn’t realise but every time she withdrew money she was charged and over the period of time she was away she’s paid a lot in these charges. For example she withdrew £160 on one day for which she was charged £6.50 to withdraw. I think these charges seem quite extortionate similarly to the way that the overdue charges are. Does any one know if you have any grounds to complain about these kind of charges and if so what would be the best way to go about it?

Thanks in advance for any help that can be offered.

Tebacious_C

nationwide are indeed guilty of this too, they've charged me stupid charges just for withdrawing money before but this was with Barclays in this instance. she's paid a hell of a lot in these charges, it seems rather extotionate to me.

grumbler

Tebacious_C wrote:

I saw Martin on TV recently regarding the extortionate charges banks charge for going over drawn etc and what you can do about it.

All this fuss was about punitive charges for breaking T&C.

Does any one know if you have any grounds to complain about these kind of charges

No grounds, because these charges are not punitive. It was your gf's choice to use this service and it was very easy to find out in advance how much it would cost. If the charges look extortionate she could have bought foreign currency here in UK of could have taken ££s abroad and exchenged them there. While having a lot of trouble with cash, she wouldn't saved a lot ...

The best way to save is to do some research before going abroad: Spending Overseas: Cut the cost by over 6%

Tebacious_C wrote:

nationwide are indeed guilty of this too...

Really? Nationwide is the rare BS that doesn't charge for drawing cash abroad ...

Tebacious_C

ok well thank you for your help. she wasnt aware of this site prior to her traveling or im sure she would of done some research. It was her choice to withdraw the cash however i think carrying £4000 round in a backpack for 4 months would of been a worse choice. it would not of been practical to take the money with her already eaxchanged.

thanks for your help

omega27

Which is why Travellers Cheques were invented. You don't say where she was travelling, but they're available in £, US$, CDN$ & Euros.

Tebacious_C

i may be gettin confused as ive had a few bank accounts in the past but ifelt sure i got charged in the past by Nationwide. sorry if im wrong but i have a bad memory.

she travelled south east asia and for the most part there weren't many places that she could change travellers cheques. i was merely asking if there was anything that could be done about the charges now after the event. it appears not so thank you for your advice.

i did think that the idea of these threads was to help each other after the event of something that has cost you extra money as well as continuing to save money. i dont think it would be majorly helpfull of me to tell people who have got into debt "you should have not got that loan". i cant do anything about how she withdrew her money while she was away now so i was just trying to help her by asking the question on here as ive raved to her about how helpfull people are on here.....

Gordon_the_Moron

If you withdraw cash or make purchases abroad on a Nationwide debit card you won't be charged, all other banks and building societies do charge for this.

If you make purchases abroad on a credit card, again everyone except Nationwide charges you. If you withdraw cash on a credit card abroad everyone including Nationwide charges you for it.

You may have used a credit card to withdraw cash or they maybe used to charge for withdrawals abroad, I'm not sure.

virgin_moneysaver

finance can be a minefield & the press don't help (along with some on this site) there has been so much hoo-hah about bank charges that a regular joe has been led to believe that every charge a bank makes is refundable - this is not the case - the bit in the press is about charges made for going o/d, bouncing direct debits etc, fines if you like. For services like buying a bankers draft, buying currency & using your card abroad to obtain foreign currency, these are charged a fee which is published in any banks tariff.

So in this case your GF shouldn't be able to get a refund but as pointed out earlier for future reference the best card to take at present is the Nationwide debit card.

Your GF trip abroad was longer than the norm & in the country she was travelling carrying large wads of cash in her backpack wouldn't have been safe - maybe the safest way to go was to use her card in the cashpoint (as the majority of these are outside banks, maybe travellers cheques could have been used then) & even if she was aware of the card charges before she went may have still have opted to use the card for the safety aspect of not carrying cash