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


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We also had our letter at our UK address; 1st November 2010 is the start date for charging for withdrawals. We're now set up with a Caxton card, which we'll use from 31st October.

I read the BBC article in Russethouse's link. I think of myself as a very loyal customer, as we've had accounts with Nationwide for many years. I've never had salary or pension paid in there, but we generally have a balance of between £1,000 and £,2000 year-round. Their offer of travel insurance if £750 per month is deposited is of no use to us. I'll just keep a small amount deposited in Nationwide so I can vote.

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There would be a way around this. If you have some funds stashed away in occupational savings accounts from one or more employers it might be an idea to look at moving this offshore (from UK and France). This would give you immediately available cash as well as potential income stream too.

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I've obviously missed the problems here entirely. I can just see a great big woooosh coming at me but these charges are only for debit cards not the Nationwide credit card.

Why not just get a credit card?

I have a French bank account which I top up when the rate looks atttractive. If when buying things in France the current rate is better than my last "bought" rate I use my Nationwidwe credit card, if the current rate is unnatractive I use the CB card.

Even if I didnt have the CB card I get a good rate on the Nationwide transactions.

Is it getting cash thats the problem?
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[quote user="Stan Streason"]Is it getting cash thats the problem?[/quote]

Yes. 

Cash withdrawal is free at the moment, which is why we opened up accounts for ourselves (my husband and I) and all our children (4 accounts between them).  Very healthy balances were in all of the five accounts.  But not any longer as we have all been withdrawing as much as we can this month.  Nationwide are completely misguided as you can guage from the response.  I have no idea why they are not reversing the policy.

We are keeping all our accounts with a minimal balance in each so that we can vote.

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No woooosh but to save you spending the time catching up the issue it is to do with getting cash from French ATMs which hitherto has been entirely free off fees and charges and has been the preferred method of transferring money for a great many, myself included.

Fortunately I do have a NW credit card and come Nov 1st  it will be getting a lot more use however for those who do not getting one whilst not being UK resident is impossible.

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I apologise if I am about to make myself unpopular here, it is not my intention.

In life generally you have to pay for convenience - if price is the most important factor to you then you have to put some effort into it..

I am a touch of half and half - I can afford to pay for convenience at times but I am also happy to do a bit of work to beat the system.

In the same way that I put myself out to ensure I pay no extras wirh Ryanair its not difficult to put some cash into a french account when the rate looks attractive.

A lot of the posts here talk about "substantial deposits" with Nationwide so we are not talking breadline in the majority of cases.

A bit of active rate management and you should easily cover the extra costs of having a French bank account.

Some of you seem so careful yet you seem happy to leave yourselves open to whatever the exchange rate happens to be on the day you need the cash.

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[quote user="Cathy"][quote user="Stan Streason"]Is it getting cash thats the problem?[/quote]

Yes. 

Cash withdrawal is free at the moment, which is why we opened up accounts for ourselves (my husband and I) and all our children (4 accounts between them).  Very healthy balances were in all of the five accounts.  But not any longer as we have all been withdrawing as much as we can this month.  Nationwide are completely misguided as you can guage from the response.  I have no idea why they are not reversing the policy.

We are keeping all our accounts with a minimal balance in each so that we can vote.

[/quote]

Because they have done their sums and think they will do better altering their terms and conditions - you may have been getting the service free but it seems NW were paying for it, perhaps the sums just dont add up for them, even with people like yourself withdrawing their funds  ( I guess they factored in a certain loss of accounts, deposits ect  when they did the calculation)

You can vote, is the matter on an agenda yet ?

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Stan,  I think the reaction from UK residents is because a lot of them opened a NationWide account as one of the benefits offered was free cash withdrawals in the Euro zone. At the time that was best "active rate  management" So NationWide got the benefit of peoples money, which is normal banking practise; but all of a sudden NW moved the goal posts. As for being happy to leaving yourselves open to daily exchange rates, I don't understand your reasoning as how ever you transfer money you are open to exchange rate fluctuations. I would hazard a guess that the biggest sufferers will be holiday makers. And that the protesters who live abroad  may react by closing accounts but NW will not give a tinkers cuss, as the extra money they get from holiday spenders will out way the losses, shame but that's life.
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[quote user="NickP"] I don't understand your reasoning as how ever you transfer money you are open to exchange rate fluctuations.[/quote]

What I meant by this is that I recently took advantage of the rate movement and secured next years "cash" by buying a chunk at a fraction under 1.22. (This was a first because I seem to have caught it at a mini peak).

This is now my minimum cost for the next year. If the rate were to get significantly better I can use the card, charges and all, but if worse I just use my french account.

My first period of French house ownership early last year coincided with getting cash out pretty much at par. It may get better but 1.22 is certainly acceptable.
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I understand what you say Stan, but there is also the equation that UK savings rates are better than French ones, so I think it's swings and roundabouts. If any of us were able to predict exchange rate fluctuations it wouldn't be necessary to do the lottery. [:D]
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[quote user="NickP"]Stan,  I think the reaction from UK residents is because a lot of them opened a NationWide account as one of the benefits offered was free cash withdrawals in the Euro zone. At the time that was best "active rate  management" So NationWide got the benefit of peoples money, which is normal banking practise; but all of a sudden NW moved the goal posts.  the protesters who live abroad  may react by closing accounts but NW will not give a tinkers cuss, as the extra money they get from holiday spenders will out way the losses, shame but that's life.[/quote]

I agree Nick, hence my choice of title for the posting.

Its no different to say NRJ offering much better terms than the competition for mobile phone charges in France and then changing to arguably the worst once they had sucked in the punters.

Perhaps what is galling people is that Nationwide were once proud to be different, well that aint any more!

Like it or not those of us like me that have been financing their life in France exclusively with a NW Flex account have been making hay for years and the cost has undoubtedly been met by others who borrowed from the society.

The party days are over but I for one appreciate exactly how well I have done up to now, arriving in Caracas without any Bolivars only to find that all the ATM's limit your withdrawal to 25US$ and paying a £5 charge + commision to HSBC each time is a lesson that you dont forget in a hurry.

I was in the UK last week and once again lost my card, I went into the local branch to report it, they allowed me to withdraw funds using my passport and the whole process was dead simple, the new card arrieved within 3 days intead of the 10-14 that they advised me, I have had my Flex acount since the early 80's and wont be jumping ship now especially as they are still the cheapest.

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[quote user="Stan Streason"]A lot of the posts here talk about "substantial deposits" with Nationwide so we are not talking breadline in the majority of cases.

A bit of active rate management and you should easily cover the extra costs of having a French bank account. [/quote]

I think the issue is the flexibility that Nationwide offered.  We have sizeable deposits with NW (over the last year the balance has varied between £14k to £23k) but to get anything approaching the daily quoted interbank rate with an FX company we have to transfer a minimum of £5k.  With NW we could get just as good a rate (when compared to the prevailing interbank rates) on a small cash withdrawal at the ATM.   I have done as you have done and transferred £7k when the rate was at ~2.22 - but the rate we got was still less than the NW spot rate for an ATM withdrawal of £300 and we have had to tie up several thousand pounds for the next few months.

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Just back from the UK, visited our local Nationwide with a letter and new Visa Debit card - which we hadn't asked for, thought they were restricting the number of credit/debit cards they were issuing?.  The letter clearly stated that the card couldn't be used at all abroad, spoke to the various advisor people and they confirmed that this is the case.  So one Nationwide customer less, just not providing the service that we want any more.

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  • 5 months later...

A belated update:

I had previously said that Norwich & Peterborough BS would entertain applications from non UK residents, or at least accordng to their website:

http://www.nandp.co.uk/mortgages/proving-your-identity

Unfortunately, after several phone calls, I have finally I have discoverd that this is not so and that UK residency IS a prequalification.

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AFAIK, with all the best deals, UK residency is a prime requiremnt.

However, I understand that there is no savings account of any description that will give a positive return after you take inflation into account [+o(]

Therefore, no point inquiring, no point scratching around, no point saving anything................go spend it, enjoy it, and let the devil take the hindmost.

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Erns, replacement of the NW debit card is pie in the sky.

We have put ours completely away.

I transferred a wodge of money at the same time as buying euros to pay for the new house.  Should now be OK for a while and just using the NW credit card on days when the exchange rate is not absolutely dire.

BTW, what's happening to the exchange rate the last couple of days and why is it so bad when, apparently, a rise in interest rate is on the cards? 

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As another "victim" of the Nationwide debit card changes,   could I ask (and I suspect the answer is somewhere in these 24 pages,  so apologies) please?

Is it true that if I use my Nationwide Credit card in (say) a restaurant it would be similar to using my debit card this time last year ie:

1)   I'd get the central exchange rate (ie roughly the same as the one mentioned on Radio 4 every evening during the Six O'Clock News)

2)    There would be no other charges of any sort?

That's what they said when I rang the Nationwide up,   but to be honest I've so lost confidence in their reliability and their wish to  benefit all their members that I'd rather have an independent opinion here!

Thanks.

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[quote user="Martin963"]As another "victim" of the Nationwide debit card changes,   could I ask (and I suspect the answer is somewhere in these 24 pages,  so apologies) please?

Is it true that if I use my Nationwide Credit card in (say) a restaurant it would be similar to using my debit card this time last year ie:

1)   I'd get the central exchange rate (ie roughly the same as the one mentioned on Radio 4 every evening during the Six O'Clock News)

2)    There would be no other charges of any sort?


That's what they said when I rang the Nationwide up,   but to be honest I've so lost confidence in their reliability and their wish to  benefit all their members that I'd rather have an independent opinion here!

Thanks.
[/quote]

Yes, you are correct. There are no charges or commission on using your NW credit card for purchases (at the moment!)

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Yes, which is why my credit card gets flexed an awful lot more these days than it ever did previously and I make a point of not paying it off until days before it's due to get the maximum use of their money.

Paradoxically this probably costs NW more than drawing cash on the debit card did, or at least I hope it does, but rowlocks to them whichever [:P]

The good thing about using the credit card is that it tends to keep your UK credit history alive which may be important to some contemplating returning to UK at some time in the future. Personally I hope never again to want or need to apply for any sort of credit [:D]

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Also, it does offer some "protection" should you have problems with retailers though I'm not sure whether that protection only covers UK retailers.

I bought some medical supplies on line and, because of unexpected conditions of sale, I cancelled the order.  Still got charged, filled in NW's complaint form (or whatever it's called) and indeed got all my money back.

So...........still a valuable service for us poor, sit-upon expats, or whatever they think of us as being!  Cash cows perhaps?

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