Jump to content

Flex account, we have been ripping the ar5e out of it.


Chancer
 Share

Recommended Posts

Chancer,

I too have done very well out of them for the last 6 years. I have always had my salary/pension paid into the flex account long before it was obligatory and I also have savings with them and with NW International. Over the years I have had dreadful customer service but have put up with it due to the free withdrawals but now I am going to have to pay for the dreadful service - not on your nelly!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 303
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I have always been mightily impressed with their customer service, and compared to other banks, well no comparison really.

What I like is the fact that  I can phone the branch where I first opened my savings account when I was twelve not some call centre.

I had excellent service from them when my card was lost/stolen in Chile, they also refunded the money instantly that I had paid to Speedferries when they went belly up, my friend who paid with his French debit card was just told tough by his bank of 20 years, even when he gave them all the info re VISA chargeback in French they refused to do anything.

This year they were very quick to detect what we both thought was fraudulent activity on my debit card, it turned out to be LeBoncoin, too late by the time I remembered. I also think that their chip n pin reader security for internet banking was well thought out and ahead of all the others who preferred to allow fraud rather than spend money to avoid it.

None of this will make any difference if I can find a better deal, tis a shame that loyalty is not rewarded these days but I still reckon that they are one of the best of a bad bunch.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will be composing my complaint this evening when I have more time. 

The only consolation as far as I am concerned is that I also have their Gold credit card which remains fee free for purchases (but not for cash withdrawals of course). I rarely use it and can't recall using it in France at all but will probably start flexing it now for the likes of fuel and major purchases when the rate is favourable. Nowhere near as convenient as the previous arrangement though.

Bummer [:(]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I opened an account with Nationwide when I found out that I could make free cash withdrawals.  Whenever I was back in the UK, I put substantial amounts of money into a current account with little or no interest so that I can withdraw money in France.  With these charges, my account will be closed and I shall change to whatever is on offer.

I have been using MoneyCorp recently and they do not charge for money transfers and offer close to the spot rate.  They hold your money in a protected account and all you have to do is telephone them and negotiate a rate of transfer into your French back account.

I have written to Nationwide, letting them know that they will be losing my account in November.

P.S. I am not convinced that other Nationwide members have been subsidising this service.  They have picked up extra business because of free cash withdrawals.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 I agree, Chance.  I was one of their first customers for the Flex account way back in the (I think) early 1980s.

On the whole, have been very pleased.  Recently, I was charged a late payment fee on my credit  card and, as soon as I explained that I was ill with asthma and awaiting an appointment with a specialist (true, as it happens), they immediately agreed to scrap the fee and invited me to contact them to have the interest on purchases scrapped as well.

This, in my experience, is much better than even Tesco (and I love my Tesco credit card) so it would now be hard to sever connections with Nationwide.

Not only that, in my eagerness to "declutter" (see my post on another thread), when I moved here, I cut up all my credit cards from other banks, closed bank accounts with the Halifax and Lloyds TSB, all ready to begin life in France with just the Nationwide account as that is the one that held my savings and the one that I used more than the others.

So, as you say, so much for loyalty these days.  I am beginning to think that loyalty is a much overrated virtue in any case [:(]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bit confused !!! 

This newspaper article tells us all what Nationwide "are going to announce today" .......

Has anyone heard an announcement on TV ?? or anywhere else ??

I have been on to the Nationwide site (I am a customer and use debit card to withdraw euros), but I see nothing to announce this piece of news. Is this another bit of bad reporting ?? just like last time when we were told a very similar story

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK you have sussed me, I made it up!

 

Out of interest what form are your complaints taking?

Are they the English "I protest!" or the French "it's not fair!" or did you have something tangible to suggest to them?

I would happily join a pressure group if it had a sensible and achievable agenda.

Perhaps there is some mileage in asking them to show some fidelity to long standing members who do have their salaries/pensions paid into the account as opposed to charging them 2% plus one pound in Europe to pay for the 1% Visa levy charged outside of Europe.

Any ideas? I want to contact them but with something constructive.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I've written to them on the secure messaging system online.

I hadn't read your latest post, AnOther, so I wrote along the lines of - "I've heard this evil rumour. Surely it isn't true - I've banked with you for yonks, all my money is with you - I'm just a poor old aged pensioner living in France - travel insurance is no good to me if it ceases at 65 - I'll just have to transfer all my dosh to another establishment if this is true - why not make an exception for good established customers who give you all their money every month? (like us)."

Wonder what sort of reply I'll get.

Suggest anyone else out there with online banking at Nationwide writes in a similar vein.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="Chancer"]

Out of interest what form are your complaints taking?

Are they the English "I protest!" or the French "it's not fair!" or did you have something tangible to suggest to them?

[/quote]

I said that I opened an account with them with a goodly sum of money in it for several years because of free cash withdrawals in Europe and that if they are going to be charge for these withdrawals, I shall be closing the account and going elsewhere.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="Cathy"][quote user="Chancer"]

Out of interest what form are your complaints taking?

Are they the English "I protest!" or the French "it's not fair!" or did you have something tangible to suggest to them?

[/quote]

I said that I opened an account with them with a goodly sum of money in it for several years because of free cash withdrawals in Europe and that if they are going to be charge for these withdrawals, I shall be closing the account and going elsewhere.

[/quote]

 Even if you wont be any better off ?

How do their new terms compare ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well I've sent my protest message but I'm not holding my breath [:(]

Sir/Madam,

I

read with dismay your press release to the effect that cash withdrawals

in the EU are to be subject to commission and fees from Nov 1st. Whilst

I freely admit that one of my motives for opening my account was

to take advantage of this facility it is also the case that I use it as

my main account and in fact have transferred virtually all my business

to you from the other UK accounts I hold.

You will note that I

currently have some £xxxxx in my various accounts with you on top of which I

deposit a salary of £xxxx+ each month so I hope you will appreciate

my feeling let down, slighted, and snubbed if treated in the same

fashion as an occasional tourist who uses their Flex account for no other

purpose than to benefit from the fee free cash withdrawals for their 2 weeks

a year on the Costas.

Unfortunately

your travel insurance is scant consolation and of no use to me and I have to inform you that

if this change is to be applied unilaterally and without consideration of my

substantial commitment to you then sadly you will leave me with little option but to

withdraw my funds at the earliest opportunity and take my business to someone who values me as a customer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Better than all the others so it would seem.

Somebody please prove me wrong!

In the past I did toy with transferring money over from the flex account but there was absolutely no benefit in fact IIRC I would have paid handsomely for the priveledge.

With the new terms notwithstanding the need for day to day cash I would have to transfer over at least £1000 or the £20 charge would be more than the transaction chargeswere I to spend the £1000 with the debit card.

Except one thing is nagging my memory, I know with card transactions it is done at the interbank mid market rate, and will continue so but with a 2% transaction charge, I am sure that when I was considering transferring money with them the rate was not as good as the interbank debit card rate.

Does anyone know the nuts and bolts of this?

When I bought my place it was a race to get the money paid before the liquidator put it out for sealed bids so I just went into the bank and said I need to transfer X thousand  Euros straight away, they couldnt (more like wouldnt) tell me the rate and siad we wont know untill it goes through, when I later investigated I had been royally screwed hence my allegiance to Nationwide.

I have just remembered I also queried a cash card withdrawal for an odd sum near to the end of a ski-ing holiday as I had kept all my reciepts and (thought that I) could not reconcile the withdrawal, they refunded me the money (around €200) but later on it dawned on me that it was probably to pay my ski monitor in liquide.

I reckon at the end of this for me the most cost effective way will be to carry on exactly as I have been but limit the cash spending, what other options are there?

Editted, To ANOther, find someone that values you as a customer?????

On what planet woud that be? [:P]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This must be a change of policy. Sometime ago NW wrote to me to say that they were withdrawing my cash card some time this summer, and replacing it with a "card+" which would only allow me to make purchases, not withdraw cash. [ I posted about this at the time]. A few days ago they sent me a new cash card, no mention of the card+. I wonder if the left hand knows what the right hand is doing. £1 + 2% does not sound like a very good deal.

Patrick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You could of course all close your accounts in a snit and go off somewhere else, but I'm afraid Nationwide won't give a rat's bottom. Most of the accounts they lose will be those whose owners only use them for holiday cash, and about which they care not one jot as they aren't profitable. People for whom it's a main account might grumble a bit but the huge majority of them will stay where they are because it's much the same as any other current account and the process of moving to another bank is a pain in the bum. There aren't enough of you expat types to make a difference to them, and those of you domiciled in France without a UK address (complete with utility bills in your name) will find it impossible to open a new account anyway, unless it's an offshore one with the Co-op Bank.

You're going to be better off looking at people like Caxton FX, Fair FX, Moneycorp etc than grumbling to Nationwide.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="Chancer"]Editted, To ANOther, find someone that values you as a customer?????

On what planet woud that be? [:P]

[/quote]No emphasis on the you I presume [:D]

I agree however I'm really only taking a cue from to their own words:

"The changes are designed to reward and provide outstanding value to customers who use Nationwide's FlexAccount as their main current account for their everyday banking. The Society is re-distributing value in a fairer way to ensure that those who have the strongest relationships with the Society, receive the most value."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It probably was too good to last, especially in the current financial climate.

The travel insurance (as so often with bank account 'additional benefits')offered will be worth diddly squat to most people however. By scouring the marketplace online, I get full family multi-trip european cover and winter sports for £82 per year, with superior cover amounts compared with what Nationwide will be offering. By the time you add on the extra premium to include my wife and kids, then a further extra charge for winter sports, I bet I would be handing over more than the £82 I pay already!

Looking at the fees for withdrawals and purchases, they probably are still favourable compared to most institutions, but maybe one of those other institutions may see this as an opportunity to grab some business from Nationwide and modify their own rates accordingly.

For me, when I need to withdraw cash in the eurozone it will be a case of seeing what I have in my French bank account, what exchange rate I got those euros for, when I might need to replenish them, then comparing that to the true exchange rate that using my flex account card would offer at the time. I may need to write myself a spreadsheet for that........

One thing is for sure. I am out in Austria last week of October, so unless the exchange rate is crap at that time I will at an ATM every day!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not sure what transfer method you used or what rate you got but a £267 fee to exchange £15300 is not exactly my idea of fair and equitable [:'(]

Currently NW are charging £20 + 1% for a Swift transfer which on £15300 comes to £173.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="AnOther"]I'm not sure what transfer method you used or what rate you got but a £267 fee to exchange £15300 is not exactly my idea of fair and equitable.[/quote]

I think Oldgit was referring to transfering £15300, at an unquoted fee, from the UK and then putting it into a Livret A €15.3K being the max allowed) at 1.75% interest: which is free of French tax and CSG, which, to a French resident, is almost worth its weight in gold.

Edit: I transfer using SEPA, which arrives either same day or next day, and costs me £9 in charges in the UK.

Sue

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="suein56"][quote user="AnOther"]I'm not sure what transfer method you used or what rate you got but a £267 fee to exchange £15300 is not exactly my idea of fair and equitable.[/quote]

I think Oldgit was referring to transfering £15300, at an unquoted fee, from the UK and then putting it into a Livret A €15.3K being the max allowed) at 1.75% interest: which is free of French tax and CSG, which, to a French resident, is almost worth its weight in gold.

Edit: I transfer using SEPA, which arrives either same day or next day, and costs me £9 in charges in the UK.

Sue

[/quote]

 

What's SEPA?  How do you get it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="AnOther"]

I'm not sure what transfer method you used or what rate you got but a £267 fee to exchange £15300 is not exactly my idea of fair and equitable [:'(]

Currently NW are charging £20 + 1% for a Swift transfer which on £15300 comes to £173.

 

[/quote]

My last cash transfer was for 30k and cost me £15 in telegraphic transfer charges. I also got within a few centimes of the market spot rate. I use Moneycorp, wouldn't dream of dealing with a UK bank given the rates/commission they steal from you.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share


×
×
  • Create New...