Last day to use your NW debit card for....

[Richard51]

[quote user="Richard51"][quote user="pouyade"]I have just got us the new Halifax clarity credit cards which have no charges. I called Halifax and they said that, if I withdrew CASH on the CREDIT card and paid off the card (via our online bank account) immediatley there would be no charges. Would this not work on the nationwide card?

Pouyade[/quote]

We have one of those as well.  It was recommended as being cheaper than using the NW debit card (post 1 Nov) - even allowing for the interest charge that would accrue from the withdrawal until the due date.  I'm going to withdraw €50 on each card when we are in France next week to compare.

Mrs R51

[/quote]

Outcome of our test.  We actually withdrew €40 on each card at, as near as possible, the same time - i.e. an interval of maybe 2-3mins.

The cost using the Halifax Clarity (credit) card - £33.80

The cost using the NW debit card  - £33.95 (i.e. €40 at that day's NW exchange rate) plus £1.67 in fees (£1 for a 'Non-UK cash wdl fee' and 67p for a 'Non-UK commission fee') i.e a total of £35.62

Halifax Clarity wins hands down!  If you clear the balance online straightaway it's actually cheaper than a NW debit card withdrawal before the recent changes as the exchange rate we got was better.  Not sure if the better exchange rate was a one off, as a result of the tiny timing difference or whether Halifax just offers better rates.

You need to manage the Halifax Clarity Card on line to transfer / settle the amount as soon as you have withdrawn (subject to a max 3 day transfer time.)  Next time I will try to put a credit balance on the Halifax card first roughly equal to the amount I want to withdraw.

Mrs R51

Edit: Maximum daily withdrawal is £500 - subject to credit limits of course. 

[mint]

Uh-huh, I don't want to talk cash withdrawals.  I see that today's exchange rate is nearly 1.2 and, in the golden past, I would have used our NW cards to withdraw the max.

As it was, because I had to use the FX people to buy a fair few euros, I took out a bit extra to put into our French bank account.  Of course, because of the timing, I only got 1.16.  So, thank you, Nationwide, because I blame you completely....

Anyway, I have got hardly anything left there now, having determinedly emptied both our accounts, only keeping small sums in to enable us to have a vote when those exec bods want us to put them back in office!

And to think I recommended them to friends and colleagues and could never praise them highly enough.....[:'(]

[Chancer]

Granted none of us were happy at the withdrawal of the priveledge that we have enjoyed for years but I still think they are an excellent building society/bank, the best of a bad bunch perhaps but if you compare them to a French bank [Www]

[cooperlola]

[quote user="Chancer"]

Granted none of us were happy at the withdrawal of the priveledge that we have enjoyed for years but I still think they are an excellent building society/bank, the best of a bad bunch perhaps but if you compare them to a French bank [Www]

[/quote]Quite.  Anybody on here ever had to use their French debit card in the UK? 

I'm sure that there are better cards available in the UK but sadly for those of us who have moved permanently, we cannot take advantage. 

[Benjamin]

[quote user="Chancer"]

Granted none of us were happy at the withdrawal of the priveledge that we have enjoyed for years but I still think they are an excellent building society/bank, the best of a bad bunch perhaps but if you compare them to a French bank [Www]

[/quote]

Being paperless with them, I needed a proper actual statement last year for other purposes.

'Phoned up and requested one and confirmed there would be no charge. Of course the inevitable happened and £5 was deducted from my account. When questioned I was told it was the standard charge for a duplicate statement.

"But how can this be a duplicate when I've never had an original?"

Suffice to say I got my £5 back but I probably spent a tenner on 'phone calls.

And I'm not saying other institutions wouldn't have done the same.

[mint]

Benjamin, could you not have printed your own?  Or have I missed something vital?

[Chancer]

I had a big clear out and threw away all my paperwork including bank statements that were over 2 years old, no sooner had I done so when I realised that I would need &ctually them to prepare my defence case against a planning enforcement order at a public enquiry.

I too had to pay but it was a standard fee for as many statements as I wanted, which was just as well as I needed 60 monthly statements to prove my periods of residence in France and the UK going back 5 years.

Needless to say I was very happy to pay the £5 [:D]

Editted, you can only print statements gong back a certain time.

[Benjamin]

[quote user="sweet 17"]Benjamin, could you not have printed your own?  Or have I missed something vital?[/quote]

You don't get a normal statement, it's more like a screen dump of all the transactions and I needed a "real" statement to prove identity to a financial organisation.

[cooperlola]

[quote user="Chancer"]

 you can only print statements gong back a certain time.

[/quote]However, if you go "paperless" this length of time extends.

No matter how much I try to use the computer to store stuff, I still can't quite bring myself to cancel the hard copy versions!

[Martin963]

Logging into my Nationwide account this morning I've only just been made aware that I DO NOT qualify for the free travel insurance,  because

1)   I did not pay £750 per month from Nationwide sources into my Flex account every month from Apr to Jul 2010

and

2)  Because  I (currently) don't want to transfer my Direct Debits from another bank to my Flexaccount.

In reality this makes no difference to me as I've never in my life taken out travel insurance and have NO INTENTION WHATSOEVER of doing so in the future,   but even so I'm pretty angry that the qualification conditions were NOT POINTED OUT at the relevant time  (ie last spring).

Or did I miss something and were they in fact flagged up?

Personally I think the way Nationwide is going stinks.   I've lost a useful element of the service,    whilst they're paying me a derisory rate of interest on my esavings account and using my money to charge 7.9% interest on their loans to other people.

Problem is who is any better in the current conditions?

[mint]

Well, Martin, that's banks for you!  I was so cross that I emptied out both our accounts and I am even more cross when I see the exchange rate at 1.18 and I can no longer benefit from that as I'd got all of 1.16 when I emptied the accounts![:'(]

Not having the debit card advantage means that we will now have to change money in large lumps (the FX companies give rubbishy rates for small sums) and will not be able to spread the risk and even out the fluctuations of the rate throughout the year by taking out small amounts at different times.

I think you should grill them about putting in the £750 monthly as I don't remember any of that being flagged up in the spring of last year and you could legitimately argue that  you could have done that if you'd known.

[Steph1]

My Nationwide credit card expired at the end of November, I emailed them about 10 days before and received a message that someone would contact me, it didn't happen. I telephoned them last week and they said they would send new cards, still nothing. Anyone had a similar experience?

[Oboulez]

Re posts about Nationwide delaying processing pre 1 Nov transactions - thanks for the heads up. Just checked my statement after I did the same - withdrawing cash before 1st Nov. Guess what - the b***ards have done the same to me!

[mint]

Steph, no, never had to chase them for new credit cards.

Louise & Gary, it's no excuse but I don't think it helped that 31 October fell on a Sunday.  OH and I both withdrew the max on Sat 30 and Sun 31 Oct and I was just waiting for them to charge us so that I could then give them a good piece of my mind.  But, despite minute searchings on our statements, I couldn't find any charges...hhrrrmmmppphhh!  No cause for complaint THIS time.... 

[Chancer]

I have just totted up what it cost to run my account in November the first month of the new charges.

It was a pretty ordinary month for me with my basic living expenses and purchases of building materials.

I withdrew €200 in cash from a distributeur

I spent £386.36 in Euro purchases on my debit card

I paid total commision and cash withdrawal charges of £14.14.

 

Significant enough on what for a lot of people would be a low monthly expenditure but still not much more than if I were to use a French bank account with carte bleue and I would also lose money on the transfer.

Granted over the course of the year with my bigger material purchases and the cash withdrawals to pay my taxes using my French bank in the regular manner would prove more economical but purely for the reason of good customer service (versus none!) and protection (versus non again!) I choose to stick with the Nationwide for the time being.

I have never forgotten when I lost money to Speedferries, NW did a Visa chargeback immediately whereas an English guy I know paid who had paid with his Visa carte bleue lost all his money (£250), his French bank just gave him the bums rush, he has lived here 30+ years is bilingual and cadre, he even went back to the bank with all the details of visa chargeback in French and they refused to even look at them.

[Chancer]

I have also found a way of mimimising my Euro cash withdrawals, whilst I have always taken orders from people to bring goods from England when I return, I am now more the happy to order stuff from UK web-sites for them for delivery to France.

Its a win win situation, I get the Euros commission free, they get the goods at a decent price, dont have to pay commission charges themselves and get a degree of purchase protection.

Scalextric seems to be quite popular at the moment as it is a lot cheaper in the UK.

[AnOther]

For those interested I read in the current edition of Which that The Norwich & Peterborough BS are scrapping foreign fees and commission from Jan 2011.

The really interesting bit from their web site is this http://www.nandp.co.uk/mortgages/proving-your-identity

Can I open an account if I don't live in the UK?

If you are a non-UK resident you must apply for your chosen product or service in person at one of our branches.

As evidence of personal identification you must provide your passport or, for EU nationals, a national identity card.

For address verification you will need to provide the name and address of your bank in your normal country of residence that will be able to provide a reference for you.

We will not be able to provide any account or service until we have received a satisfactory reference from your bank.

A potential alternative to the NW card then but quite how you go about getting said reference from a French bank, and in English presumably, is another matter completely.

I do note that their stated identity requirements do seem somewhat less onerous than some.

[mint]

For me, Erns, the difficulty would be to apply in person.  I have been to the UK once in the nearly 4 years we have lived here and that was a special one-off request from one of the kids.

 

[AnOther]

Sorry sweets, nobody said it would be easy [kiss]

Actually I'm 1/2 minded to phone their HO tomorrow to relate the dilemma of hundreds, if not thousands, of loyal but disenfranchised NW Flexaccount holders in France - and elsewhere - desperately seeking a replacement facility just to see if there is any room at all for flexibility.

Money laundering rules are not set in concrete and institutions are only required to perform due diligence and satisfy themselves as to a persons identity so it's conceivable that they might be pursuaded to accept other means of reference such as from another UK bank where prospective customers hold established well conducted accounts.

Nowt to be lost is there [;-)]

[Baz]

[quote user="AnOther"]For those interested I read in the current edition of Which that The Norwich & Peterborough BS are scrapping foreign fees and commission from Jan 2011.

[/quote]

I will make no comment.

http://blogs.thisismoney.co.uk/2010/10/norwich-peterborough-building-society-greed-and-mismanagement-led-to-betrayal-of-its-members.html

Baz

[AnOther]

Interesting but I wasn't suggesting moving your life savings to them. For a simple current A/C holder their money will be as safe as in any other institution and if it procures a debit card to replace the NW one I'm prepared to give it a go.

[Llantony]

'I have never forgotten when I lost money to Speedferries, NW did a Visa chargeback immediately whereas an English guy I know paid who had paid with his Visa carte bleue lost all his money (£250), his French bank just gave him the bums rush, he has lived here 30+ years is bilingual and cadre, he even went back to the bank with all the details of visa chargeback in French and they refused to even look at them.'

That's a very good reason for keeping a UK credit card! Thanks for pointing that out. Also for ordering things from UK/while in UK.

[mint]

I'm surprised, Chance that you use your debit card to pay for purchases.  I have used my debit card on very, very odd occasions when I didn't want to pay 5% just for the privilege of using my credit card.

Rightly or wrongly, I used to be told by one of my banks (Lloyds TSB, I think) that you have no protection with using a debit card because debit cards were like "cash in the hand" and that once it's gone, it's gone.  They said that they couldn't stop any transactions you'd agreed to even if the transactions hadn't gone through because debit card transactions weren't "cancellable" like cheques.

With credit cards, however, there is often recourse to your credit card issuer and, indeed, I have claimed back on credit card purchases many times, including sums paid twice to airport car parks who refused to re-pay me and, on one glorious occasion, I was successful in getting money back for an imaginable tank of petrol from a car hire firm in Sardinia when I'd returned the hire car with a full tank.

[Chancer]

They dont blow their trumpet about it like credit card protection but Visa Chargeback worked fine for me with the money I lost to Speedferries. In fact most Visa card issuers try to keep chargeback a secret or to deny its existence, iniitially I wasnt getting anywhere with NW, girl eventually spoke to her supervisor after I insisted, still nothing we can do etc, I boned up on the subject, phoned again, insisted on being put through to the disputed payments department and would not give any details until I got through and it was handled without any fuss, "I have already put through loads of these regarding Speedferries, you wont have any problem" she said.

[mint]

Interesting, Chance:  Visa Chargeback, I'll remember that one!  But, I'm still wary about using my debit card to pay for things.  I have visions of someone having access to all my millions![geek]