Nationwide Student Card instead of exchanging currency

ashleymac1999

I have a Nationwide student debit card, and on the Nationwide website they appear to advertise that purchases and withdrawals abroad will have no charge to them. I am really inexperienced with this kind of thing and I just wanted to double check if there are any hidden fees, or am I good to use my card for my trip to Finland later this year?

I can't post the link to the Nationwide fees page due to my account age but if you Google "nationwide charges abroad" it's the first link.

EveryWhere

If it is this one; https://www.nationwide.co.uk/products/current-accounts/flexone/whats-flexone and it's the Debit card and not the Cash card, you are all set. No charges anywhere.

If it is this one; https://www.nationwide.co.uk/products/current-accounts/flexstudent/features-and-benefits Ditto.

NoodleDoodleMan

No charges anywhere

The ATM owner bank may impose their own surcharge for using their machine. Nationwide have no control over that.

However individual banks in Finland do not appear to operate their own ATMs - see the link below.

https://transferwise.com/gb/blog/money-and-banks-in-finland

Note that ATMs may be hard to find in rural Finland.

Remember ALWAYS elect to pay in Euros, the local currency.

zagfles

Even if the ATM charges, the charge will almost certainly be less than changing cash. Not sure about Finland but I've been to Sweden, Norway and Denmark and no ATM there ever charged me.

Generally when you change cash, there's a 5% "fee" or so hidden in the exchange rate they use. Some misleadingly claim they are "commission free" while they hide a large commission in the exchange rate.

When you use a card, there's a very small VISA or Mastercard fee (a small fraction of a %) in the rate. Usually, banks add their own charge to this of around 3%, but in the case of some accounts eg the Flex Student there is no additional charge. So you'll likely be around 5% better off using your card than changing cash.

Also it's easier, you don't need to withdraw the wrong type of cash and change it to the right type, or carry large amounts of cash around. Just pay and withdraw money as you would here.

But watch out for DCC as mentioned above. (you can read more about it here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_currency_conversion )
If you get a choice of paying in GBP or in EUR, always choose the EUR option. Take the "without conversion" option at ATMs, if offered. You'll probably find most places won't offer it - so you'll just get charged in EUR which is good.