starvin marvin Posted August 24, 2010 Share Posted August 24, 2010 I'm pretty much confused over what I should be doing about Nationwides change to their charges for cash withdrawals. Which is now the most cost effective way of accessing your cash in Europe? As far as I can see Nationwides Flexaccount may still be the cheapest or am I missing something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spospe Posted August 24, 2010 Share Posted August 24, 2010 I think Marvin that we will all have to wait and see who comes out the best as time rolls on. One thing seems certain and that is what is the best today, probably will not be the best tomorrow and we will all have to be more prepared to change (or pay!) We have Nationwide accounts and according to the leaflet they sent last week, they will still be cheaper than the others in the short term, especially if you withdraw large(ish) sums. This is because of the fixed £1 per transaction which is added to the 2% charge. We normally get out €350 at a time, so the cost to us will be circa £6-60 at todays exchange rate (€1 = £0-80). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 spospe - 2010-08-24 10:02 PM ...We normally get out €350 at a time, so the cost to us will be circa £6-60 at todays exchange rate (€1 = £0-80). That's interesting. On the French ATMs we've used in the past, there SEEMED to be a limit of €300 per withdrawal. We did once try to withdraw a significantly larger sum and the card was just spat back out. Reducing the request to €300 (the maximum amount that could be selected from the set of predefined sums offered on the ATM's menu) allowed the transaction to go through and we then withdrew a 2nd tranche of cash from the same ATM to bring the value up to what we wanted. The £1 per foreign-ATM transaction that is being introduced by NW has negative security implications regarding theft and loss, as it may well encourage people to withdraw and hold larger quantities of cash than they've been accustomed to previously, just to minimise the number of £1 fees they incur. €900 in 3 'goes' will cost you £3, whereas €900 in 9 goes will cost £9. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnerontheroad Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 Have a read of this http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catinou Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 spospe - 2010-08-24 10:02 PM We normally get out €350 at a time, so the cost to us will be circa £6-60 at todays exchange rate (€1 = £0-80). That makes a rate of 1.25 euros to the £ ?? 8-) Having just changed the money to pay for our new French place the best we could get for a large transfer was 1.204.....did we miss out somewhere? :-S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rowan Lee Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 Have you looked at the C&C Club's Euro cash card? No charges for withdrawals or transactions, all depends on the exchange rate applied when you load it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 Like Derek says we have never been able to get more the 250 euro out at a time...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 catinou - 2010-08-25 9:51 AM spospe - 2010-08-24 10:02 PM We normally get out €350 at a time, so the cost to us will be circa £6-60 at todays exchange rate (€1 = £0-80). That makes a rate of 1.25 euros to the £ ?? 8-) Having just changed the money to pay for our new French place the best we could get for a large transfer was 1.204.....did we miss out somewhere? :-S For what it's worth, the VISA Europe website calculator gives today's (25 August 2010) 'zero conversion fee' exchange rates if you were using a VISA card to exchange currency as: 1 EUR = 0.819494 GBP 1 GBP = 1.220265 EUR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cattwg Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 I've just looked at Moneysavingexpert as suggested above. Crown Currency Exchange is offering from €1.20 to €1.22. And the further in advance you order the better the exchange rate! (!) This seems almost too good to be true. Personally I’ve never heard of these people before. Has anybody used them? Are they actually Crown i.e. a branch of Government? And that's delivered by Special Delivery! Cattwg :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rupert123 Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 Cattwg - 2010-08-25 3:22 PM I've just looked at Moneysavingexpert as suggested above. Crown Currency Exchange is offering from €1.20 to €1.22. And the further in advance you order the better the exchange rate! (!) This seems almost too good to be true. Personally I’ve never heard of these people before. Has anybody used them? Are they actually Crown i.e. a branch of Government? And that's delivered by Special Delivery! Cattwg :-D Always use them, in fact just got a delivery today at 1.21 to £, ordered ten days ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spospe Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 For the benefit of the doubters, we have often used ATM's for amounts greater than €300 It does vary from ATM to ATM and also there is a marked variation between Banks and countries, but 'usually' there is an option on the ATM instructions to choose, "other amounts" and that is the way we do it. Derek Uzzell: perhaps your problem was that you were exceeding your card's limit rather than the ATM's limit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cattwg Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 Thanks Rupert123. May well give them a try. :-D Cattwg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thai Bry Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 We loaded a pre paid Euro card obtained from "Going PLaces" & have had no issues whatsoever accessing our money or paying for goods. No charge whatsoever as it was loaded with Euro currency prior to us leaving the UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 spospe - 2010-08-25 4:56 PM For the benefit of the doubters, we have often used ATM's for amounts greater than €300 It does vary from ATM to ATM and also there is a marked variation between Banks and countries, but 'usually' there is an option on the ATM instructions to choose, "other amounts" and that is the way we do it. Derek Uzzell: perhaps your problem was that you were exceeding your card's limit rather than the ATM's limit? I've no reason to doubt what you said. I just know that, when we once tried to obtain a fairly large chunk of euros in France using our NW debit-cards and choosing the ATM's "other amounts" option, the machine refused to provide any cash. No indication was given why the system acted that way: the card was just ejected. We tried twice, once with my wife's card and once with mine, with identical results. It's not a happy time when you are in head-to-head confrontation with a mute ATM over obtaining foreign currency. Having decided to try opting for the ATM's maximum predefined amount of €300 and finding that this caused the requisite amount of cash to appear, that's what we've always done since when we wanted large amounts. As I said earlier, if we want more than the ATM's predefined maximum, then we repeat the process (eg. if we want €500, then we make two successive withdrawals, one of €300 (which is the highest predefined amount I've come across in French ATMs), followed by one of €200). It's perfectly possible that the particular ATM that rejected our card might have provided an amount above its predefined maximum but below what we had originally requested, but I don't play games with ATMs to see what they will, or will not, do just to satisfy my curiosity. And I actively try to avoid having a card rejected repeatedly by an ATM, just in case that might flag up a warning at my bank and result in the card being disabled. I think you are assuming that a debit-card's ATM functionality is the same abroad as in the UK, when it clearly is not. While my Nationwide debit-card limits me to a maximum withdrawal of £300 per day when using a UK ATM, it's plain that, if I withdraw two immediately successive tranches of €300 from a French ATM (which I've done in the past), then I will have massively exceeded that UK daily limit once currency conversion has been applied. When a UK debit-card is used in a 'foreign' ATM, the card's validity will be confirmed there and then via its chip and PIN number, but the related bank account won't be debited immediately. This means that, if you aren't careful, there's always the risk of going overdrawn. This is particularly true if you've done the 'Nationwide Ploy' and loaded up your NW current account before going abroad and then overlook how much you've withdrawn from it during your travels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insignia Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 For what its worth I have used Crown currency exchange a number of times for us$ and euros.They have always given a good rate I have always ordered well in advance to get the best rate,they sometimes have better rates on cancelled orders see their web site for special offers .They have always delivered my currency exactly when they said they would by special delivery I would not hesitate to use them for all my future requirements . The elephant is a graceful bird that flies from twig to twig it builds its nest in a rubarb tree and whistles like a pig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 do you have a Crystal ball or second siight......How on earth do you know buying in advance guarantees a better rate :-S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starvin marvin Posted August 25, 2010 Author Share Posted August 25, 2010 johnnerontheroad - 2010-08-25 8:48 AM Have a read of this http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money Dave Thanks, yes I have. Read it yesterday, does it actually tell you anything? Answer not much that is any use, I found it a rather confusing site which doesn't answer my query, which was the purpose of the thread. All I want to know is who currently offers the best deal? or is it still Nationwide? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnerontheroad Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 starvin marvin - 2010-08-25 7:37 PM johnnerontheroad - 2010-08-25 8:48 AM Have a read of this http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money Dave Thanks, yes I have. Read it yesterday, does it actually tell you anything? Answer not much that is any use, I found it a rather confusing site which doesn't answer my query, which was the purpose of the thread. All I want to know is who currently offers the best deal? or is it still Nationwide? This link from the first link should help you it says ditch it. http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/travel/2010/07/nationwide-kills-cheap-overseas-spending-for-current-account-customers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Porky Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 starvin marvin - 2010-08-25 7:37 PM All I want to know is who currently offers the best deal? or is it still Nationwide? They say it is when I challenged a nice young girl in the local branch. She was well briefed and completely unmoved by my irritation. It may well be they are still the best deal around but I wish they would acknowledge the fact that they have removed a benefit instead of the nonsense of trying to hide it by saying you have free travel insurance. Yeh well it might be for the odd trip but no good to me. I have not tried these people http://www.crowncurrencyexchange.com/content/euros.php but the rates look very competitive. I may use my credit card more next time the exchange rate is better. Roy Fuller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Part Time Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 Just had a look at NW's web site which says max withdrawl per day is £300. I assume this can be one of 300 (or about 360 euros at todays rate) or two of 150 etc. As to better options I guess it depends on how much messing around you want to do or how much you are going to convert. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike88 Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 I use one of these http://www.caxtonfxcard.com/ coupled with a Post Office credit card for purchases (not cash withdrawals)which levies no charges for use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spospe Posted August 25, 2010 Share Posted August 25, 2010 Derek Uzzell I should have said that we normally use a Nationwide card to withdraw from our Flex account. Our usual sum as stated before is €350 (sometimes a bit less) as this corresponds to the daily limit of £300 for this card. Most ATM's will allow you to specify a particular figure instead of their pre-defined amounts. When the exchange rate has been particularly poor, we have had to progressively reduce the figure asked for, until the machine relented and gave us the dosh. We have had an ATM swallow a card once (in Denmark) when my wife used the wrong PIN. In trepidation we went into the bank and the nice lady behind the counter opened the machine and handed us the card with a smile :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randonneur Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 Part Time - 2010-08-25 9:47 PM Just had a look at NW's web site which says max withdrawl per day is £300. I assume this can be one of 300 (or about 360 euros at todays rate) or two of 150 etc. As to better options I guess it depends on how much messing around you want to do or how much you are going to convert. If you have 2 cards (Husband and Wife) then you can draw twice as much out. This is what our Neighbours do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starvin marvin Posted August 26, 2010 Author Share Posted August 26, 2010 johnnerontheroad - 2010-08-25 8:25 PM starvin marvin - 2010-08-25 7:37 PM johnnerontheroad - 2010-08-25 8:48 AM Have a read of this http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money Dave Thanks, yes I have. Read it yesterday, does it actually tell you anything? Answer not much that is any use, I found it a rather confusing site which doesn't answer my query, which was the purpose of the thread. All I want to know is who currently offers the best deal? or is it still Nationwide? This link from the first link should help you it says ditch it. http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/travel/2010/07/nationwide-kills-cheap-overseas-spending-for-current-account-customers Thanks for the reply, so it seems that the Halifax Clarity card is (slightly) better than Nationwide Flex account for accessing your cash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Bulgaria Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 We use Caxtonfx Euro cards. It is a Mastercard credit card, but you load cash onto it from your debit card (which you register with Caxton when you set up the account) whenever you want (minimum load Eu150). Exchange rate good. No fees for purchases or cash withdrawls from ATMs. Load the card and check the balance via SMS text message. Simple, works very well. Never had any problem in 3 years. Richard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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