Nationwide and the nonsense they peddle!!

We took out a Nationwide credit card for use in Spain for the "alleged" benefits. The card is rarely used in the UK, but is occasionally to keep it ticking over. Before leaving for our latest jaunt to Spain, we contacted Nationwide to let them know and I received the following:

“If you have a Credit Card it is not necessary for you to notify us of your travel arrangements but if it is your wish, we will record on your account the dates and destination of your travel.”

We jetted off to Alicante, collected our hire car and headed to Vera, no problems. We went shopping in the supermarket next day, came to pay at the check out and the card was refused twice!! We had to use the Wife's Tesco card which went through with no problems. Rather annoyed, I telephoned Nationwide from the UK to be told the transaction was refused to to an icorrect PIN being used. Now, this supermarket in common with many others in Spain doesn't use PIN but a computersied signature and passport/ id check. The woman from Nationwide then tried to peddle the blatant lie that chip and pin cards could not be used in non chip and pin terminals. Have you ever heard anything so absurd? Do they really think we came off the boat yesterday? Eventually, after a very unhelpful and long conversation (almost £6) I asked for the complaints procedure to be sent to my home address, which she again refused to do point blank (hmmm, Banking Code seems to be familiar here). Funnily enough, the card that won't work in non enabled terminals worked fine for the rest of the holiday!!

So, letter to Nationwide blasted off today, I wait with bated breath. BE WARNED. According to Nationwide, your chip and pin card won't work in a non chip and pin terminal. What a load of old b+ll+++s that is

Mark

I use my credit card in America, chip and pin doesn't work at the check-out.  Most places use a card reader and signature screen which transfers the signature to the receipt.  We also don't have to provide id at the majority of traders.

The only thing I have to watch out for is the transaction going through in £'s instead of $.

Other than the car hire payment I rarely use my card in Spain, ocassionally in Carrefour who use chip and pin and also in Eroski in Dos Mares.  I don't remember using chip and pin there but in both places I have to show photo id.

I take my Nationwide debit card with me - when I go to Spain - mainly used to be because of the better exchange rate - no comment now!!  The card is chip and pin (less than a year old) but don't seem to have any problem at either kind of terminal - and I'm quite a "heavy user"!!  Have the same situation as Semi - often have to show the passport though.

Sorry to hear that you've had trouble with Nationwide, Mark - definitely  a thumbs down for customer care.

Hope you had a good time in Spain over Christmas Mark and the card problem didn't spoil it.

We had lots of problems opening our flex account with the Nationwide, including them losing our application form. We did complain and waited to hear from them, after a while we complained again and they eventually refunded our petrol and car park costs for the several visits to the branch we had to make to sort it all out, and despite their assurances the pin numbers did not arrive in time for our last holiday, the cards did arrive the day before we flew - useless without pins.

We are hoping to reap the benefits in the summer with the exchange rate!!!, but we do worry everytime we hear of problems with the Nationwide that we will be in Spain with no spending money and no money to put in the bank for direct debits.

We had no problems with the debit cards, mainly because we used ATMs. We withdrew over €2000 with no problems, only when using the credit card. I think we were just unlucky and the person I had to talk to didn't really know what she was talking about and was trying to bluff their way through the conversation.

Had a great time over there though, looing forward to the next trip in Feb half term .

Mark

  Yes I always use my debit card with no problem,  Have used the credit card a couple of times and that was fine as well no trouble at all, showed my passport once.  

       It does seem unusual for Nationwide  but hopefully if you take them to task now,  it should be alright for future transactions. 

                              Pat