JohnP Posted June 30, 2008 Share Posted June 30, 2008 Now that SAGA are moving away from Liverpool Victoria, who are no longer in the credit card business, I am looking around for best deals. eg no commission charges when making purchases in Europe. Any recommendations? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordThornber Posted June 30, 2008 Share Posted June 30, 2008 John, you may wish to view this, if you already haven't... http://www.moneysupermarket.com/cards/credit_card.asp Martyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hopesy Posted June 30, 2008 Share Posted June 30, 2008 After recommendations from this forum I've applied for Nationwide account don't know if this helps (?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnsandywhite Posted June 30, 2008 Share Posted June 30, 2008 B-) We applied 10 months ago. TWICE. Just received another set of forms. Although they did mention we have been accepted. Sandy went down to the local village Nationwide today with the forms and ID. She explained what had been happening in the past. They suggested we start again from the beginning to open a NEW account. >:-) Sandy declined and insisted they went ahead with the already accepted one. *-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Highe Posted June 30, 2008 Share Posted June 30, 2008 I can recommend the Nationwide. We have just opened a flex account which comes with a Visa debit card and a gold Visa credit card with a surprisingly high credit limit. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob M Posted June 30, 2008 Share Posted June 30, 2008 Hi, I did not want the bother of opening a Nationwide a/c so obtained a Post Office credit card this year. Excellent, used in garages, supermarkets etc. No charges, I think the rates are a little bit better than you would have been given in an exchange shop in the UK. Set it so the balance is paid by your UK bank and stay away for ever!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyishuk Posted June 30, 2008 Share Posted June 30, 2008 Nationwide were giving us 1.265 to the pound (no commission) on recent credit card transactions. Cheapest eurocash we could find was Natwest, (1.20) which was cheaper than the postoffice. Still a long way to go to the good'ol'days :-( rgds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankkia Posted June 30, 2008 Share Posted June 30, 2008 We use Nationwide for the Debit a/c and Coop for the Credit card. 1) Nationwide give the bank rate at the time of the cash withdrawl 2) Coop give cashback (divy) - and as the other lot says - "every little helps" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phantom Posted July 3, 2008 Share Posted July 3, 2008 Hi Just signed up for the Caravan club credit card and got 2 free site night vouchers and you get one after spending a couple of thoussand pounds on it. Not a lot different from the other cards around - call centre very friendly but you can always not use it if you just want the vouchers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel E Posted July 3, 2008 Share Posted July 3, 2008 For use abroad there really is no alternative to Nationwide: - the Debit Card (Visa) allows cash withdrawals all over the world without any reduction in the exchange rate and without any per transaction fee. I have run it in parallel with a Morgan Stanley card (now Goldfish) for 3 months and the difference in conversion rate from the foreign currency was 2.5% to 3.5% LESS for Nationwide, with no transaction fee. You need to apply for a Flex Account at any Nationwide Branch to get the Debit Card - and, of course, put enough money into the account before you travel. (But you can operate it online so you could transfer into the account at any time.) - the Credit Card has the same conversion rules and no transaction fee for purchases abroad. However, cash withdrawals using the credit card are subject to the same charges as others - so use the Debit Card for cash as you would in the UK. You can get the Credit Card without banking with Nationwide. One more important tip: make sure you and your partner have differently numbered credit and debit cards. If you don't, then when your's are reported lost or stolen, your partner's cards will be stopped too, and you have no way of making purchases and getting cash! Mel E ==== Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeddykay Posted July 3, 2008 Share Posted July 3, 2008 Take a look at Abbey Zero card. They claim no fee for cash withdrawals and no fee for foreign exchange abroad. Off to Switzerland on Tuesday so I will put it to the test. Also 6 mths interest free balance transfers and on purchases. Is it too good to be true? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted July 3, 2008 Share Posted July 3, 2008 Mel E - 2008-07-03 12:15 PM For use abroad there really is no alternative to Nationwide: .................. One more important tip: make sure you and your partner have differently numbered credit and debit cards. If you don't, then when your's are reported lost or stolen, your partner's cards will be stopped too, and you have no way of making purchases and getting cash! Mel E ==== Seconded! To make sure of this you will need two separate credit card accounts, preferably with relatively low credit limits, one for each of you. Second cards issued on a single account carry the same number, with only the bearer's name differentiating them. Report one card stolen and the account is closed, instantly rendering the other card useless! If you have a Flex Account, you can have the balances repaid in full automatically each month, so you avoid any nasty interest charges because you were away when the bills should have been paid!The debit cards, on the other hand, are individually numbered, so if you have one each on a joint account, the loss of one doesn't affect the other - unless the thief has cleaned out your account, of course! As Mel suggests, debit card for cash and credit card for purchases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Like Mel and Brian, while abroad we use a Nationwide debit-card to obtain foreign currency from ATMs, plus a Nationwide credit-card for purchase transactions. Perhaps worth emphasing further that the Nationwide debit and credit cards are completely independent of each other. If you've got a Nationwide Flex Account (that the debit card draws against), then this can, as Brian says, indeed be used to pay off the Nationwide credit-card balance automatically each month, but a non-Nationwide bank account can also be specified to do this. Our primary bank current-account is not with Nationwide and we use that account for all direct-debit payments including fully settling our monthly credit-card debts. The Nationwide Flex Account is used solely for obtaining money abroad and I load it up with cash immediately before each trip and virtually empty it afterwards. For what it's worth, when we obtained Euros on June 21 from a French ATM using our Nationwide debit-card, the exchange-rate provided was 1.2634 Euros to the Pound. Debit- and credit-card terms and conditions can be a minefield and, even if a card claims to charge no specific transaction fee, some sort of 'invisible' loading may still be applied. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyishuk Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Mel E - 2008-07-03 12:15 PM One more important tip: make sure you and your partner have differently numbered credit and debit cards. If you don't, then when your's are reported lost or stolen, your partner's cards will be stopped too, and you have no way of making purchases and getting cash! Mel E ==== I asked this question @ Nationwide, and I received the following response; If the transactions are stopped due to suspect trading, the account is blocked and both cards will be inoperative until Nationwide are satis fied that trading can continue (or new account ) If onecard is stolen, the system will revert to the above. If the card is lost, the card can be stopped. The second card is identified by its pin number and can still be be used. Although the card number is the "same", the card is unique. Well thats what was said. Could be left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Why does that not surpprise me ? Although take Mels advice and have a seperate plan B ;-) Rgds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 phantom - 2008-07-03 11:57 AM Hi Just signed up for the Caravan club credit card and got 2 free site night vouchers and you get one after spending a couple of thoussand pounds on it. Not a lot different from the other cards around - call centre very friendly but you can always not use it if you just want the vouchers. We have the Caravan Club credit card, however, we've just about stopped using them now. You have to put through £2,500 to get a free night voucher and, I suspect, that before long they'll be raising this limit as they did before from £2,000 without warning, due to the increase in the cost of the night fees for sites. We rarely use their sites anyway so I just sell them on a certain website! For UK we have the Capital One card which had an introductory offer of 4% cashback on transaction for 3 months, then 1% for all transactions thereafter. As 1% of £2,500 is £25.00 from a purely 'cash' point of view this is a better deal. I've had that many problems with the people on the end of the phone for the Caravan Club (Goldfish or whatever the heck it is now) credit card that when the Capital One card 'offer' came into being, I was very glad to change to it. We are just in the process of getting our 'points' up on the Caravan Club cards so that we can then redeem them for vouchers and ditch the cards altogether. For Europe we have the Nationwide card, we also found that the exchange rate was very good, between 1.26 and 1.27 euros to the £1 when we were away in May. We do not have a Nationwide account so don't have the debit card and instead take cash for the normal type of day to day spending and use the card for fuel, campsite fees, entrance fees etc, even supermarkets if we've gone a bit mad with the shopping! For all our credit cards we have arranged for the balances to be paid off in full each month automatically from our bank account so don't have to worry about missing a payment or, worse still, paying it off in advance and then forgetting about an odd item for £20 or so and return to find you've been 'penalised' for it! Had we not arranged for the auto pay-off when we were away in May that's exactly what would've happened!!!! 8-) A word of warning - don't go applying for cards just for the 'freebies' with no intention of actually using them. As I understand it, a note of the cards you apply for goes on your credit record and if you don't use them I think you may end up with a bad rating eventually and may not in future be accepted for one that you really want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Just opened a post office card account yesterday on line. They only charge 15.9% , do not charge for transactions abroad which is what I want and I do not have to have a current account with them. Check out moneysupermarket.com. Told the cards will be through in 5 days chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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