paying for something in usd from uk account

lemontart

I have looked at my banks site but not sure if I am reading it correctly.

I bank with Nationwide and want to purchase something from the states, they only take usd - I would speak to nationwide but they seem to be doing maintenance on their lines - do they add handling charges to such transactions or is do they just do as a plain currency exchange using the visa rate -

Many thanks in advance

grumbler

How do you pay? The currency exchange charges depend on what card you use: Your Card's Overseas Charges

Their Select credit card is the best for this.
It's 2% for a Flex account debit card

lemontart

thanks already have a cc with nationwide and debit card - may well cost more to get another card for purchases of 165 dollars

lemontart

ok can some confirm by calculations say bill comes to £110 ($165) the charge would be 2 per cent so around £2.20 ?

grumbler

Why pay 2% if you have their CC and if it's Select?

lemontart

grumbler wrote: »

Why pay 2% if you have their CC and if it's Select?

because not a select card

grumbler

Well, it's ~£109 at today's rate (http://www.visaeurope.com/en/cardholders/exchange_rates.aspx) and about £2.18 fee on the top then.

pmduk

Would paying via paypal be easier/cheaper? I use it for low-value transactions where it's usually cheaper.

grumbler

How can it be cheaper in general and why for low-value transactions in particular?
Paypal charge about 3% for the conversion.

https://www.paypal.com/au/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_convert-currency-generic (you have to be logged in)
http://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/

grumbler

Save £1 (or nothing?) and lose any recourse if things go wrong?

pmduk

grumbler wrote: »

How can it be cheaper in general and why for low-value transactions in particular?
Paypal charge about 3% for the conversion.

https://www.paypal.com/au/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_convert-currency-generic (you have to be logged in)
http://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/

It's cheaper because some banks charge a fee on top of the conversion.