Norwich and Peterborough Current Account - no fee foreign cash

madmish00

I have just been speaking to an advisor at Norwich and Peterborough Building Society about a mortgage and she mentioned their Gold Current Account to me.

I currently bank with Nationwide who last year starting charging to use my debit card abroad. N&P offers free cash withdrawals and free card use abroad with this current account so I am thinking of switching.

Just wanted to know if anybody else has used this account and if there are any catches I should be aware of? Also any general reviews of N&P would be great

Thanks

Lith

Hi there,

Do you know about Nationwide Flex account? (apparently you can use that abroad and no charge) (someone on this forum has mentioned it. )

unless its changed now im not sure.

dzug1

Lith wrote: »

Hi there,

Do you know about Nationwide Flex account? (apparently you can use that abroad and no charge) (someone on this forum has mentioned it. )

unless its changed now im not sure.

It changed last year and now does charge - as OP makes clear in his/her question.

baby_frogmella

I opened a N&P Gold account recently and overall been very impressed. Superb customer services (ala First Direct) and secure messages sent through internet banking answered within a few hours. After you apply for a new account, they email you whenever your application status changes. Their new internet banking system is very user friendly and no ads all over the screen like HSBC or Nationwide. You also get free Sentinel Gold cover as long as your account is open.

A few downsides:

1) They don't support Faster Payments though i have been told they will implement it from 1st Jan 2012.

2) Their current accounts (sort code 08-60-81) don't accept incoming CHAPS payments or payments from overseas directly. Instead your payment has to be sent to a intermediary bank (Barclays?) and your name & N&P account no has to be quoted as reference. So if the sender fails to do the latter the payment is returned.

3) Lack of branches nationwide. Even after the planned merger with YBS, you won't be able to use any branch of YBS to deposit cash into your N&P current account...initially at least (their staff told me this recently).