alan Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 Hi All Like most of us who travel throughout mainland Europe, we've used Nationwide which was an exceptionally good deal, but now has sadly come to an end! Has anybody any suggestions or advice? We've looked at the Sunday Times Money section which has suggested Norwich & Peterborough Building Society but the deal is rather complicated and still not as good. We've looked at the Post Office which seems slightly better but is connected with the Irish Banks (making us very nervous). We tend to travel in Europe 6-8 weeks at a time and like to avoid carrying large amounts of cash. Any suggestions would be gratefully received. Alan :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spospe Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 Alan Like you we travel for between 6-8 weeks at a time and like you we have been looking at the future. The Nationwide still seems fairly cheap and we already have the account and cards in place, so unless a free or really cheap and simple to use account comes along, I feel that we will stay with them, at least for the short term. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean Ray Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 Hi there, Have a look at the Halifax Clarity Card. Jean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithR Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 unfortunaltely there is no such thing as a free lunch, and as i understand it the nationwide card deal came to an end because many people used it purely for the free european benefit. the n&p deal is only different to the nationwide in that you have to deposit a monthly amount (£500 or more) or use it at least 5 times a month. where is the difficulty? if you use it as (one of ) your main current accounts, you get the benefits. if you prefer to keep your money where it is, why do you expect then to give you something for nothing?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ris Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 On a slightly different tract has any used their new Travel Cover being offered in place of free Flexaccount withdrawals from overseas ATM's. Particularly inerested in anyone aged 65 -79 as this requires medical screening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan Posted November 9, 2010 Author Share Posted November 9, 2010 Hi All Spospe - I do tend to agree with you and will probably stay with Nationwide ourselves pro-temp. Jean - We had a look at Halifax but this is a credit card and it would mean us going online to pay this credit card from our main account, which we try to avoid when travelling. If we can explain, we saved our money in our Nationwide Savings Account and before travelling we transfer the money into our Nationwide Current Account, which has a £50 overdraft facility. This meant we were only using one card whilst away so if the worst came to the worst any thieves could only steal our holiday money. We felt this was the safest way of handling our finance. KeithR - If you see my reply to Jean, you will I hope see our logic. I have no desire to use my main bank current account on the internet which has a fairly hefty overdraft facility - I'm not after something for nothing, just playing by the rules the banks set down. The banks are so fond of charging us the extras and for once I managed to get a good deal out of one of them. Alan :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithR Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 i fully understand alan, nothing personal, just that over time many people have shown that they want something for nowt and get upset when it is taken off them. it gets my goat up, but then, i am the original mr angry of purley (lol) :-D im just upset cos i never get owt fer nowt :-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJay Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 Ris - 2010-11-09 6:29 PM On a slightly different tract has any used their new Travel Cover being offered in place of free Flexaccount withdrawals from overseas ATM's. Particularly inerested in anyone aged 65 -79 as this requires medical screening. Yes have just taken out an annual travel policy with them. Not exactly free, but cheaper than others. We are both mid 70,s, one with diabetes. Annual cost for £220 for annual trips of up to 90days a time it is covered buy UK insurance. Previous policy last year was with LV (Via Nationwide) they wanted £325 this year. I found this to be the best offer, for us, as we go away for periods of three months . with a smaller trip will be cheaper. They "build in " the "Free" element, if you are a Nationwide customer, which I have benn for 40 years. PJay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Jones Posted November 10, 2010 Share Posted November 10, 2010 I'm with Michael and Alan here. It's been good to have the "free lunch" temporarily, but I still find the Nationwide a good deal so I'll stay put until/unless I see a much better one. I tend to use it just for holiday money though, both for security (like Alan) so no-one can get at the rest of my vast wealth :D - and because they don't have a branch near me for day-to-day use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomad Posted November 10, 2010 Share Posted November 10, 2010 Hi, at 2% plus £1 for cash and 2% on card transactions I am stopping with the Nationwide for European travel as its probably still better than most, however as there is no surcharge on credit card transactions I will use that whenever possible. Colin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ris Posted November 10, 2010 Share Posted November 10, 2010 Thanks PJay. Did the medical screening only consist of a telephone conversation or was a full medical required? Ris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duffers Posted November 10, 2010 Share Posted November 10, 2010 Tony Jones - 2010-11-10 8:57 AM - and because they don't have a branch near me for day-to-day use. wow - someone who actually visits a bank amazing, how do you find the time to join the never ending queue for the one till that's open for about 5 hours a day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Jones Posted November 10, 2010 Share Posted November 10, 2010 You should try it sometime Ray. You can: * speak to a real person, who knows you, without a lot of inane security questions * avoid listening to Vivaldi (unless you CHOOSE to listen to it, at home!) * ask a question that's not on a pre-recorded menu, and get someone to think about the answer * pay real CASH into your account (if you've come across some!) * withdraw an unlimited amount of your own money, in whatever denominations of notes and coin you want it (not just £10 and £20 notes) * feel good about helping keep a worthwhile service in your local High Street - and it's FREE (unlike the phone call)! Don't get me wrong, I use online banking as well but there's nothing quite like human contact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted November 10, 2010 Share Posted November 10, 2010 alan - 2010-11-09 6:51 PM Jean - We had a look at Halifax but this is a credit card and it would mean us going online to pay this credit card from our main account, which we try to avoid when travelling. Alan :-D You don't need to. We have it set up so that our credit cards are automatically paid off in full each month from our normal bank account. We don't have to do a thing other than make sure we have enough in our bank account to cover it which isn't difficult as we have a good idea of how much we spend so just transfer some money into it if there isn't enough in already. We use the Nationwide credit card for all our foreign transactions and put as much on that as we can, just using cash when we have to, or for small amounts. We take an amount of cash with us and split it between us (ie don't keep all our 'euro' eggs in one basket), along with back-up credit cards etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 Tony Jones - 2010-11-10 5:08 PM * withdraw an unlimited amount of your own money, in whatever denominations of notes and coin you want it (not just £10 and £20 notes) I thought most 'banks' now imposed a limit on the amount of cash one can withdraw without giving prior notice. Santander allows a daily maximum of £500 across the counter and £300 from an ATM (ie. £800 per day). I think Nationwide's daily limit is £300 from a branch or £300 from an ATM. (This is using a debit-card to make the withdrawals.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 Mel B - 2010-11-10 10:29 PM alan - 2010-11-09 6:51 PM Jean - We had a look at Halifax but this is a credit card and it would mean us going online to pay this credit card from our main account, which we try to avoid when travelling. Alan :-D You don't need to. We have it set up so that our credit cards are automatically paid off in full each month from our normal bank account. We don't have to do a thing other than make sure we have enough in our bank account to cover it which isn't difficult as we have a good idea of how much we spend so just transfer some money into it if there isn't enough in already. We use the Nationwide credit card for all our foreign transactions and put as much on that as we can, just using cash when we have to, or for small amounts. We take an amount of cash with us and split it between us (ie don't keep all our 'euro' eggs in one basket), along with back-up credit cards etc. The snag with using a credit-card for obtaining cash is that, although there may be no 'fees' as such, interest will be payable on the 'cash advance' until that advance has been paid off. I have a direct debit that pays off the debt on one of my credit-card in full on the 20th of each month. The statements I receive cover periods from the 27th or 28th of one month to the 26th or 27th of the next. So there's more than three weeks between the end of each statement period and when the debt covered by that statement will be paid off. This means that any cash amount obtained via that credit-card during a statement-period will accrue more than 3 weeks interest, even though no 'fee' may have been imposed when the cash was obtained. As I understand it, Alan would be attempting to avoid (or minimise) the interest charge by using the credit-card to obtain a cash advance from an ATM and then immediately going on-line to pay off that debt. I've no experience of managing credit-card accounts on-line, so I can't comment on the practicality of this approach. In principle the ploy sounds OK, but it's not something I could be bothered with and, of course, to make the best of it you'd have to be very well orgainsed and be confident of gaining on-line access to the credit-card account as soon as you had obtained the cash advance. That was the beauty of Nationwide's FlexAccount debit-card 'eurozone free ATM cash' arrangement - it was simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan Posted November 11, 2010 Author Share Posted November 11, 2010 Hi All Grateful thanks for all the participation and the followers of this thread. I tend to stay in the background most of the time and have great fun listening to the arguments going to and fro. It's very satisfying to see one's own thread going back and forwards. Alan PS - look out, about to post another one! :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Momma Posted November 12, 2010 Share Posted November 12, 2010 alan - 2010-11-09 2:30 PM Hi All Like most of us who travel throughout mainland Europe, we've used Nationwide which was an exceptionally good deal, but now has sadly come to an end! Has anybody any suggestions or advice? We've looked at the Sunday Times Money section which has suggested Norwich & Peterborough Building Society but the deal is rather complicated and still not as good. We've looked at the Post Office which seems slightly better but is connected with the Irish Banks (making us very nervous). We tend to travel in Europe 6-8 weeks at a time and like to avoid carrying large amounts of cash. Any suggestions would be gratefully received. Alan :-D www.caxtonfxcard.com/cardholder-offers.asp? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted November 12, 2010 Share Posted November 12, 2010 Derek Uzzell - 2010-11-11 9:57 AM Mel B - 2010-11-10 10:29 PM We use the Nationwide credit card for all our foreign transactions and put as much on that as we can, just using cash when we have to, or for small amounts. We take an amount of cash with us and split it between us (ie don't keep all our 'euro' eggs in one basket), along with back-up credit cards etc. The snag with using a credit-card for obtaining cash is that, although there may be no 'fees' as such, interest will be payable on the 'cash advance' until that advance has been paid off. Just to clarify, we don't draw cash OUT on our credit card, we use the card for purchases in shops etc, and take actual cash away with us, so don't incur any interest at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 Big Momma - 2010-11-12 6:30 PM www.caxtonfxcard.com/cardholder-offers.asp? The CaxtonFX Euro Card product http://www.caxtonfxcard.com/cards_description.asp may well be the best pre-paid 'eurozone' debit-card currently being marketed in the UK, but it's not the same as a debit-card linked to a current account (eg. Nationwide's FlexAccount debit-card) and it's not as 'cheap' as the FlexAccount card used to be prior to November 1. Caxton makes its profit from the currency conversion rate it applies when the card is used abroad. Today's 'Caxton rate' is £1:€1.1540, whereas the Interbank rate is £1:£1.1774. While the Caxton rate may compare well with the rate you'd get, say, obtaining Euros from the Post Office, it does not match the Interbank rate that would be applied when using the FlexAccount debit-card. Of course, since November 1 Nationwide has been imposing charges on obtaining Euros abroad and these charges would now need to be factored into any comparisons. As I said previously, the Nationwide Flexaccount debit-card was simplicity itself for obtaining Euros, particularly when the account it was linked to was your normal current account. You stuck the card into a eurozone ATM, out came the Euros, you received the Interbank conversion rate, and there were no fees whatsoever. Pre-paid debit-cards avoid having to carry a wad of cash with you, but their operation is more complex than simply using your current account's debit-card. They will be an attractive proposition to some travellers; less so to others. In the past we've used our Nationwide credit-card abroad mainly for reasonably-large transactions, but, on each trip, we've still got through a fair amount of cash euros for inexpensive mid-day meals, occasional light shopping, etc. The cash euros were withdrawn from ATMs via our FlexAccount debit-card, so it didn't cost us anything and we obtained the money as and when we needed it. In future we plan to use our Nationwide credit-card much more frequently, reducing our need for cash euros and, as we intend to continue to use our Nationwide Flexaccount debit-card for eurozone cash advances, consequently reducing the fees associated with that practice since November 1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Porky Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 Does Nationwide use the same curency exchange rate for anything purchased on their debit or credit card? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duffers Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 difficult to tell because it's always the most uptodate rate and so is constantly changing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randonneur Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 duffers - 2010-11-13 10:52 AM difficult to tell because it's always the most uptodate rate and so is constantly changing Apparently it will be Business Rate on the exchange. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy_C Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 Randonneur - 2010-11-13 3:54 PM duffers - 2010-11-13 10:52 AM difficult to tell because it's always the most uptodate rate and so is constantly changing Apparently it will be Business Rate on the exchange. I think that Nationwide's currency exchange rate is no longer as good as it was, despite the claims on their website that they use the Visa Europe wholesale rate. In fact when Nationwide send or receive funds from overseas they now use HSBC as an agent and it is HSBC who provide them with the exchange rate. AndyC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Porky Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 Randonneur - 2010-11-13 3:54 PM duffers - 2010-11-13 10:52 AM difficult to tell because it's always the most uptodate rate and so is constantly changing Apparently it will be Business Rate on the exchange. So if I purchase something on my debit card the same day my direct debit goes to pay off my credit card they use the same rate then do they? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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