Time to swap your Nationwide account

 What would you get charged if you paid money into your credit card before you went abroad - surely then the interest on the balance would be nil because you have already paid it off? (Obviously you would have to pay more in than you were withdrawing whilst abroad).

From Halifax Clarity Credit Card

Q. Can I put money on my card to increase my available credit whilst on holiday?

A. Credit cards are not designed to be used this way. Using the card in this way breaches the product's Terms & Conditions

I tried for an N&P account but the card/login details did not arrive before I went back to Spain.

I therefore cancelled or I would have incurred £5pm fee for not putting in £500 a month to the account.

On return I simply opened a Metro bank account that has Mastercard exchange rate for ATMs and no charges whatsoever.

You just go into your nearest branch, if you are luck to have one no too far, and all your cards/chequebooks are given to you there and then.

Very impressed with the service. It made me fell like I was being served as a customer rather than being a nuicance like at Nationwide.

I will be phasing out my Nationwide account ASAP. I get £20 from Metro if I let them do the change over process.

Hi All,

Have just seen the Sainsbury's Gold Credit Card advertised. It seems with this there are no fees on cash withdrawals abroad, you still earn nectar points when using the card abroad and there is annual family travel insurance thrown in.   Have not looked at the actual T & C's but might be worth looking into.

This whole tread seems to me to be far more complex than it needs to be

Iif you have a property in Spain, you will have to have a Spanish bank account from which your bills are paid. You will almost certainly be "topping up" this account on a regular basis so that there are funds in the account when the Direct Debits arrive,

So transfer additional funds before you come out and then use your Spanish bank's ATMs for free or another Spanish Banks ATMs for a small fee..........simples!

Hi Sharon, this was mentioned a few times before so I'd looked at it then.

• You do get free annual worldwide family travel insurance, yes!

BUT, if you look at the summary it says you need to pay a £5 monthly fee plus cash advances are 24.93% although it does say'

• 'Interest free credit on purchases and cash withdrawals if you pay your balance in full and on time each month' so it does seem you don't pay interest on cash withdrawals from day 1 as with other ccs

hi hammersfan

OK but to transfer from a Uk bank to Spain costs £25 a transfer,

If you put in a UK cheque to a Spanish bank it takes 1 month to clear while they hold onto your money making interest.

for them.

A UK bank card charging nothing like Nationwide used to do is the best way to get euros abroad.

That is what Metrobank and N&P are now offering.

The Metrobank has no strings,

the N&P have some rules you have to keep to to avoid charges,

I just hope someones head falls at Nationwide for alientaing nearly 1 million customers

I hope that all of the affected Nwide customers change banks but I expect inertia will

mean that most people wont bother

 Hi jjb, 

I would like nothing more than to get rid of my NW account! But(and its a big but!), I don't want to throw the baby out etc.. I have had a great relationship with the NW for many years, I have my mortgage(uk) with them, home insurance, and all of my family are members too! Now, clearly I'm not happy about the changes made to foreign transactions, and I would swap to another bank if I could be sure that, over the long term, it will/would be better.

In the meantime I will, as Hammersfan said, be loading up my Spanish account using HiFX and use my Bancaja debit card when in Spain.

Tony. 

P.S.

Forgot to mention that transferring money over with a currency broker like HiFX costs nothing!(yes I know they make their money from giving you a crap rate!) but there are no charges at either end and setting up an account is simple!(all done online.)

 So transfer additional funds before you come out and then use your Spanish bank's ATMs for free or another Spanish Banks ATMs for a small fee..........simples!

Unless you bank with Barclays who will be charging for ATM withdrawals from later this month, the same as their transfer rate of 4%/ min 3€. You are however allowed 4 free monthly withdrawals from your branch!!!

Mark

I have kept my Nationwide account with £1 in it. I am happy that this costs them money and I can use it again if the need arises.

I now transfer money free from my Lloyds TSB UK ac to my Lloyds International ac in Spain and can withdraw from all Servired machines FOC. I don't find it worthwhile to use HiFX for relatively small regular transfers.

Barclays who will be charging for ATM withdrawals from later this month, the same as their transfer rate of 4%/ min 3€. You are however allowed 4 free monthly withdrawals from your branch!!!
I moved away from Barclays 2 years ago because I was fed up with all their charges and poor service - now I am really glad I did!

Mark I sent a sterling cheque to Barclays last year as we could not get over.  They did not charge us for that and the rate we got was very good at the time.  Does that sound right to you. 

We do have an account with Barclays in the UK and it was a Barclays cheque.

Pat 

Marksfish...last time I looked Barclays was not a Spanish bank...

jjb...you need to change your transfer method if you get charged £25 per transfer.

I use Currencies Direct to transfer  to La Caixa every month to pay Mortgage, Bills etc. I have a direct debit in GBP to CD, they give me a rate of 98% of the commercial rate then transfer the proceeds to their agent in Spain. This agent transfers the funds to my La caxia account, and because this transfer is within Spain there are no "Recieving" fees by La Caxia. CD make their money by pocketing the 2% difference between the commercial rate they gate and the rate they give to me...but as far as I'm concerned the resulting rate is still better than I would get at the post office, travel agent, high street bank etc.  If I'm coming out for longer than the weekend, I transfer some more money to CD and that gets added to my monthly Direct debit amount and transferred over...as I say.......simples

btw ..I wouldn't  ever pay a  UK cheque in a Spanish bank...that's about as inefficient  and costly transfer method as you can get

 Marksfish...last time I looked Barclays was not a Spanish bank...

You obvioulsy don't realise Barclays has its own Spanish entity then!!! www.barclays.es

 Pat & Roy. I think you have a different account to us. We have a Spain Solutions account. Have tried to change to the new account which has less charges and also move our branch from Catagena to Mojacar, but am hitting my head against a brick wall .

Mrk

Hi all,

have used my new N&P debit card this weekend to withdraw cash, and we got the Visa rate £1.17.

Just be aware that the withdrawal limit per day is per account, NOT per card as with NW

Getting a Halifax Clarity card for credit card purchases !!

Dave

Unless you bank with Barclays who will be charging for ATM withdrawals from later this month, the same as their transfer rate of 4%/ min 3€. You are however allowed 4 free monthly withdrawals from your branch!!!

This is not correct, at least accoring to the information I recently received from Barclays.

Barclays cash points- Always free

Servired cashpoints in towns where there is no Barclays - Always free

Servired cashpoints in towns with a Barclays - first four withdrawals per month are free, the fifth onwards will be charged 1€ commission.  If it's not a Servired cashpoint, there's a minimum commission of 3€.

As Hammersfan mentioned earlier in the thread, why are people making things so complicated, examining terms and conditions of cards/accounts to see what the charges and rates are etc?

It's simple.  Open a Spanish bank account with Barclays, Cajamar or one of the other banks that don't charge any commissions.  Open an account with xe.com, and use it to transfer money from your UK account to your Spanish account.  Ideally wait for a favourable exchange rate and do the transfer.  That's it.

 That must have been my poor interpretation of the letter I received this weekend which I will seek clarification on.

Mark

Quote from Hammersfan

Marksfish...last time I looked Barclays was not a Spanish bank...

jjb...you need to change your transfer method if you get charged £25 per transfer.

I use Currencies Direct to transfer  to La Caixa every month to pay Mortgage, Bills etc. I have a direct debit in GBP to CD, they give me a rate of 98% of the commercial rate then transfer the proceeds to their agent in Spain. This agent transfers the funds to my La caxia account, and because this transfer is within Spain there are no "Recieving" fees by La Caxia. CD make their money by pocketing the 2% difference between the commercial rate they gate and the rate they give to me...but as far as I'm concerned the resulting rate is still better than I would get at the post office, travel agent, high street bank etc.  If I'm coming out for longer than the weekend, I transfer some more money to CD and that gets added to my monthly Direct debit amount and transferred over...as I say.......simples

btw ..I wouldn't  ever pay a  UK cheque in a Spanish bank...that's about as inefficient  and costly transfer method as you can get

Unquote.

Barclays have been in Spain as a Spanish bank(not a branch of the UK bank ) for over 40 years I know i worked for them.

Yes Sanchez1,

We have received this letter from Barclays and that was how I interpretated the letter all ATM's withdrawals from Barclay's will be free.

Sorry Mark that you cannot change your account do not quite understand why? Is it because you already had an account with them. The account we opened I think was for new customers. 

Pat