Nationwide cash card expiry - received new card

thelawnet

Any ideas?

I have a Nationwide 'cash card' (withdrawals abroad allowed), which expires 06/12. (I also have their credit card.)

But I've today received a new [STRIKE]crap[/STRIKE] cash card+, which is valid from 08/10 until 05/15.

The new card is completely useless to me, and I'm going to shred it, but I'm just wondering how long I can continue using the old one?

LongTermLurker

Why is is useless? That's the detriment of the "plus"?

lisyloo

You can no longer withdraw cash abroad with this card.
So for people who had it solely for that reason it's useless.

We are closing out Flexaccount also due to Nationwide changes.
They are going to lose a lot of customers.
Perhaps that's what they wanted, but my opinion of them has gone down.
No business should be suprised when people take advantage of a good deal, if that's what they offer.

LongTermLurker

Thanks for confirming, lizy. Yes, I think they know customers will leave and have said they want to focus on customers who use their accounts as everyday accounts. That won't be me. I've had a flex account as long as I can remember and used to use it as my principal account, but they're just not competitive enough and would have been better, imo, graceously accepting the small amount of specialist income that Flex accounts were generating - after all, an unused account doesn't take much servicing and doesn't necessarily require a statement to be sent monthly.

bendix

The nationwide card's position as the only one to allow free withdrawals from overseas ATMs has long been known by expats. Expat forums are full of advice to have funds with this organisation.

I always suspected it was some loophole or a mistake, and it's now obviously being closed up, I suspect because it was costing them too much money. Banks in the UK don't have free access to ATMs run by other banks in other countries - every transaction costs them money, hence the extra cost to punters using them overseas.

I suspect Nationwide made a business decision and realised that - on balance - withdrawing the benefit was worth it.

Fair enough - it's their business.

KingL

Metro bank are now doing no-charge international withdrawals (but I think you have to get to London to open an account). Halifax Clarity Credit card is also a current favourite for cheap international cashpoint withdrawals.

bendix

KingL wrote: »

Metro bank are now doing no-charge international withdrawals (but I think you have to get to London to open an account). Halifax Clarity Credit card is also a current favourite for cheap international cashpoint withdrawals.

Has anyone ever done research as to what exchange rates the so-called free withdrawal overseas cards are charging and how they compare to those with charges?

Surely it's false economy to complain about a nominal charge on a withdrawal if, in fact, the benefit is outweighed by a built-in 'balance' on a worse exchange rate . . .

adindas

This is what most people area saying but is there any T&C that we could see that they are actually offering this perks ?

ADINDAS

KingL wrote: »

Metro bank are now doing no-charge international withdrawals (but I think you have to get to London to open an account). Halifax Clarity Credit card is also a current favourite for cheap international cashpoint withdrawals.

adindas

Also we need to see T&C whivh cleraly stathe this banafit. Up to know I could only see theit cash account on the internet but never see about normal a/c that offer this.

ADINDAS

bendix wrote: »

Has anyone ever done research as to what exchange rates the so-called free withdrawal overseas cards are charging and how they compare to those with charges?

Surely it's false economy to complain about a nominal charge on a withdrawal if, in fact, the benefit is outweighed by a built-in 'balance' on a worse exchange rate . . .

KingL

the Metrobank T&Cs have this to say on exchange rates

10.2 ..where you make a cash withdrawal at an ATM in a currency other than sterling, we will change it into sterling as set out in term 16.7

and then in term 16.7

If you make a debit card payment in a foreign currency from one of your accounts, we will change the amount of the transaction to sterling on the date we pay it out of your account using the rate provided to us by Mastercard. Mastercard's rates generally reflect either wholesale market rates or rates set by government bodies which are collected by Mastercard as part of its daily rate setting process. Blah blah blah.., call us for Mastercard rates for any particular day

There doesn't appear to be any mention in the TnCs about them not charging for overseas withdrawals (I wouldn't particularly expect there to be, as presumably such a policy would be subject to change). They certainly say it direct to you when you talk to them in-branch and if they aren't honouring that promise, then word will soon get around.

The terms and conditions are here on their website available to anyone who wants to read them and 'whivh cleraly stathe the banafits' of their accounts, as you require, adindas.

lisyloo

Has anyone ever done research as to what exchange rates the so-called free withdrawal overseas cards are charging and how they compare to those with charges?

I've done checks on my personal transactions to make sure there's no funny business.

Surely it's false economy to complain about a nominal charge on a withdrawal if, in fact, the benefit is outweighed by a built-in 'balance' on a worse exchange rate . . .

There isn't any built in funny business going on.
There are the visa and mastercard rates.
A card that charges 3% should charge 3% more than one that charges 0%.
Individual banks don't have different rates.
If it's a visa card it will use the visa rate which will be the same as any other visa card.

There are no other differences.