MSE News: Nationwide revives fees-free overseas use for 400,000

Former_MSE_Guy

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

"The building society will give eligible members a new plastic, that also includes cashback on UK purchases at 0.5% ..."

Read the full story:
Nationwide revives fees-free overseas use for 400,000

interbear

As I understand it, having had my NW Gold credit card switched to one of the new NW Select cards, the "fee-free" use overseas only applies to using the card to make purchases. It does NOT provide fee-free ATM cash withdrawals overseas. So - in that respect it's exactly the same as the NW Gold credit card I had previously. With a bit of cashback added on.

I'd rather have had fee-free ATM withdrawals, which is why I also use the Halifax Clarity card.

Personally, I still think that NW have made an error by removing what was a key differentiator on their Flexaccount current account by removing the "fee-free" facility on their debit cards.

buffman

My NW Gold CC gives me a one year extended warranty on electrical purchases. Will the new Select Card?

Dorset_Scarlet

buffman wrote: »

My NW Gold CC gives me a one year extended warranty on electrical purchases. Will the new Select Card?

The new card does not have the extended warranty option.

Wammer

The Select Platinum card is of no use to me. I now have a Halifax Clarity for overseas withdrawals from ATM's and purchases and a Post Office credit card for fee-free purchases if I wanted to use it. I also have a Capital One World card which gives 1% cash back and get £5 for spending £300 on the Clarity card so 0.5% cash back would mean a lower return.

I was dreading the new cards coming as the one thing I found of benefit with the Gold Card was the extended warranty. Our current cards were due to expire at the end of November and when the envelope arrived last week I didn't open it right away. However when I did I was surprise and delighted to find 2 replacement Nationwide Gold cards.

I called to check there hadn't been a mistake and was told that we would eventually be "upgraded" to the Select card, but they had sent us replacement Gold cards so that we wouldn't be without a card in the meantime.

I said we didn't want to be upgraded and wanted to keep the Gold cards. The advisor spouted off the "benefits" of the Select card and asked why I wanted to keep the Gold card. When I said it was for the extended warranty I got some bull about purchases made with the card being covered if I bought an item and it was broken and needed replaced. What garbage. That would be covered even without being bought with a credit card.

I was eventually told that I would have to "opt out" of the Select card if I wanted to keep the Gold card. However I was told I would have to call them to opt out. I said I was already calling them so why couldn't I opt out now? She wasn't authorised to do that. Eventually she spoke to a manager then told me that if I were to opt out, I would no longer be eligible for the Select card, as if that was something bad. Perfect I said, opt me out.

Venusflytrap

Shame i didn't joint NW before now. I have the Clarity which I used to use for both foreign purchases and cash withdrawals, but now that I have the NW CC - converts 20% of UK purchases to fee free spending abroad - I'll use this more for purchases and the Clarity for cash withdrawals.

magpiecottage

"Classic, Gold and Cash Reward credit card holders are charged 1% of the transaction amount in most non-European countries, so a £100 purchase in euros would cost £101. This is still less than the typical 3% fee levied by other providers."

Am I missing something here, Guy? Would not a purchase in € be in a European country?

dggar

The thread title is misleading.
This issue has been discussed in other threads over the past two months and is hardly "news".

When seeing the headline I thought Nationwide had decided to restore the Fee free use of Flexaccount debit cards in ATM's in the eurozone.

At least it didn't say "Nationwide causes (or cures) cancer"

callum9999

dggar wrote: »

The thread title is misleading.
This issue has been discussed in other threads over the past two months and is hardly "news".

When seeing the headline I thought Nationwide had decided to restore the Fee free use of Flexaccount debit cards in ATM's in the eurozone.

At least it didn't say "Nationwide causes (or cures) cancer"

I thought (well, hoped!) that too but the "for 400,000" was a bit cryptic.

I guess from Nationwides point of view, their customers are now actual customers (though I'm sure some of them left as well) and not just using the account for the occasional holiday. So I can't imagine they would restore it. I think they should extend the 20% thing from the credit card to the flexaccount as well - I'd go back to using Nationwide as my main account if they did that.

KTF

Bit late really on their part really as I moved to the Halifax Clarity card dont see any point in moving back.

Wammer

KTF wrote: »

Bit late really on their part really as I moved to the Halifax Clarity card dont see any point in moving back.

That's what I told the advisor. I said that if they hadn't mucked about with taking away the benefits of the FlexAccount then putting 1% onto non-Europe credit card purchases, I might not have gone elsewhere and got better products.