Santander v Nationwide (1 Viewer)

Nov 10, 2008
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It's been discussed on a few MH sites wrt those of us that use the free Nationwide ATM service while abroad and as they are dropping this in November should they go over to Santander. Much in the news about Santander "waiving" their ATM charges in Spain but if you ask in any of their brances the answer is that they still do charge. Also on their web site this is still their official policy;
"If you use your Santander Visa debit card, or Santander cash card to withdraw cash abroad, a cash handling fee of 1.5% of the value (min £1.99) will be applied. The bank whose cash machine you're using might also charge you a fee. If you use your Santander card outside of the UK, a fee of 2.75% of the transaction value will be charged."
No mention of Spain and "free" and if it were the case the "waiving of fees", it could be dropped at any time.
So is it just a tempary "scam" to get some of us (me included) to change over?
Anyone seen anything more official about this from Santander?
Just Jack
 

Snowbird

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Good post...part of Santanders advertising was that there were no charges.
I did look a few weeks ago on there website and it definatly said NO charges becouse I printed it off and took it to my local Nationwide.
You have to deposit a minimum of £1000 per month and have your standing orders taken out of the Santander bank acc.
They were saying that they would give you £100 to cover the cost of changing everything over.
My problem is I dont trust the Spanish....banks or otherwise.:RollEyes:
 

barryd

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I called them and they told me that the Zero account which they also said had no charges for use abroad was only for the current account holders (as you say) with that account as their main account or for mortgage customers. Well Im neither but I pointed out that Mrs D has shares in Santander and would that count. He went away to discuss it and came back and said it would. We havent put it to the test yet but it looks like if your a shareholder you should get the zero account.

I wonder though about rates. Is there anyway of comparing what exchange rates banks are using? I find Nationwide offer a good rate. If Santander offer a much lower exchange rate than Nationwide you may still be better of paying NW charges. Havent looked into it properly and dont know how you can check what rates they are giving.

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Jaws

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Dropped Nationwide card and now use Post Office one.. no charges on that and no changes expected
 

Snowbird

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Dropped Nationwide card and now use Post Office one.. no charges on that and no changes expected
Whats this Post Office one???
Is it a pre loaded cash card or a bank card?
What exchange rate do you get with it? ie PO tourist rate:Sad: or bank rate on the day as with Nationwide::bigsmile:.
Last time I looked at PO exchange rates they were abismal:Angry:.
 

barryd

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Dropped Nationwide card and now use Post Office one.. no charges on that and no changes expected

Is that a debit card?

Im a bit confused with all of this. According to Nationwide they use Visa's current daily exchange rate. After some searching I found a calculator here. Link Removed

I work out their rate to a pound being worth 1.20 euros which seems in line with this http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/echarts...=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined

The post office have their rates here Link Removed

Which is 1.16.

So there is 4 cents a pound difference which on a withdrawl of say £200 its going work out cheaper to use the Nationwide card at 2% plus £1 (£5) as appose to an £8 loss on the poor exchange rate offered by the post office.

Im not sure at all if I have got this right. Any financial wizz kids out there?
 

madbluemad

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There all working for Nationwide, Santander and the Online Banking Syndicates.

IMO whether it be Nationwide, Santander or HSBC, the amount of money your talking about isnt worth the hassle.

You spend more on a cup of coffee.

Jim
:Smile:
 

Snowbird

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There all working for Nationwide, Santander and the Online Banking Syndicates.

IMO whether it be Nationwide, Santander or HSBC, the amount of money your talking about isnt worth the hassle.

You spend more on a cup of coffee.

Jim
:Smile:
We are talking much more than cups of coffee here.
Take an average winter trip of 6 months,fuel paege,camping,beer,food,etc.
Thats an awfull lot of cups of coffee with a diference of 5 cents to the pound on the exchange rate,plus comision charges.
Campsite fees alone can amount to 400 Euros per month.

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GIBLA53

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We are talking much more than cups of coffee here.
Take an average winter trip of 6 months,fuel paege,camping,beer,food,etc.
Thats an awfull lot of cups of coffee with a diference of 5 cents to the pound on the exchange rate,plus comision charges.
Campsite fees alone can amount to 400 Euros per month.

Totally agree , a short trip sure it doesn't really matter (odd time) but for extended trips - we left UK. today and will probably return about mid May next year IT MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE to us , i would do a guesstimate of 100-200 euro.
BTW. i have used Nationwide for many moons and as a consequence of charging we have got 2 Fx cards that we can use ( Caxton and Fair) these we can preload and seemingly get a super rate of exchange with No charges.

Just used both today for the 1st time Caxton card troublefree, FairFx card problematic i dont want to hijack the thread but has anyone else much experience of these 2 cards since they may offer a solution to the travel money issue . Al.
 

barryd

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Same for us if we go full time next year and spend say £1000 per month it will add up.

Probably go with the Santander Zero debit card assuming I can establish if it uses Visas exchange rates as Nationwide does.
 

Jaws

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Just a credit card..
Had the first bill in the other day and checked.. def no charges for outside the UK on purchases ( never used it to draw cash so dunno if same goes for that )

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chrisboyo

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Been useing the Post office credit card on our trips abroad for a few years now no probs no charges
I set up a direct debit with my bank to pay it off in full each month:thumb:

Happy Daze
Chrisboyo
 

barryd

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If I spend £1000 per month and with the new charges I am down £5 or a cup of coffee every £100 Thats £50 per month or £600 per year. So for full timers or long termers it is worth getting the best deal and best rate. If you make lots of transactions you will loose even more.

Same goes for the euro exchange rates. Nobody seems to bother to look into these and its ok saying I got a card thats free and doesnt charge but if its giving you a crap exchange rate then it is charging stealthly. so what we need is a free debit card that follows the Visa exchange rate. Nationwide as it is now or Santander for the future but there are doubts on that one remaining free and its only for customers or share holders etc (which luckiily we are)

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barryd

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Been useing the Post office credit card on our trips abroad for a few years now no probs no charges
I set up a direct debit with my bank to pay it off in full each month:thumb:

Happy Daze
Chrisboyo

Yes but do you know what exchange rate you get!
 

Jaws

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Well I do as I checked..
We only used it outside the UK and being sad gits we keep a log of our travels and expenditure
Exchange rate was very slightly better than we got off the post office. Worked out to 83.21p per €1.00
 

madbluemad

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We are talking much more than cups of coffee here.
Take an average winter trip of 6 months,fuel paege,camping,beer,food,etc.
Thats an awfull lot of cups of coffee with a diference of 5 cents to the pound on the exchange rate,plus comision charges.
Campsite fees alone can amount to 400 Euros per month.

OK then, two cups of coffee or a couple of beers. By the way, do you know how much a cup of coffee is these days. :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

Take cash or just dont spend anything.

Jim

:winky:

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Snowbird

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The main reason I have stuck with Nationwide in the past is that I can draw out small amounts of cash when I nead it. This means that I dont have to keep large amounts of cash in the RV::bigsmile:
If I am going to have to pay each time I draw cash from the hole in the wall, I am going to be tempted to draw larger amounts to save the £2 odd which they charge me on each transaction.
Many Spanish campsites only except cash, so that means drawing two lots of cash each month becouse you cant draw 400 Euros from the hole in the wall at one hit.That comes to an extra fiver a month just on campsite fees.
Add the daily expences to this and its not long before you can buy your own coffee machine:winky:.
As I have said in a previous post...I strongly object to having to pay to collect MY money.The cash that I draw in Spain or for that matter anywhere else belongs to ME, NOT the banks:Angry:.
 

NIGELB

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I have been with nationwide for 25 plus years and i am sad they have changed ,they may loose customers .At the end of the day it is our money and they use it to make more money.ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END.:thumb:
 

slobadoberbob

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why not cash?

I have an Abbey current account, in fact betwen us we have a joint and a single.. we pay in to both a minimum of £1k that allows us to get a special rate on overdrafts if we use them (sometimes we do).. so we can get the FREE rate on Spain, I have checked it a few times. But I must admit I watch the currancy rates and buy from my local travle agent when I think it is a good deal. I have a secure safe in my RV and also a couple of other secure spots so I tend to take cash. Saves hunting a bank and I find most places take it. If I have to use a card it tends to be on the French motorways, then it is whatever card I want to use, but again I try to use cash as I then can practice my French saying I am a smalkl motor home not big as you think I am...

Anyway have followed the post and really cannot decide one way or the other even with an Abbey current accoun t.

bob:Cool:

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blackie

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Been useing the Post office credit card on our trips abroad for a few years now no probs no charges
I set up a direct debit with my bank to pay it off in full each month:thumb:

Happy Daze
Chrisboyo

yes i will do same dump nationwide and stay with post office.time to vote for nationwide to turn into a bank. blackie.
 

bobandjanie

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So,anyone????? Is there a free credit card for that part of Europe we are not a part of? Jane
 
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I probably sound like a stuck record but..... have a look at Moneysavingexpert.com -

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money

I have a Santander zero (fees free world wide) and a Nationwide credit card (fees free Europe only). Cheapest way to spend abroad is using a credit card and pay off in full. Never use them to withdraw cash - see link above for info.

(Don't get confused with Nationwide debit card - which is the one that will begin charging in November).

I now have a Caxton FX euro card and have found it excellent with rates much better than the high street. It is a pre load Mastercard and cash withdrawals are free. The best thing though is that you can leave the money in your bank account (hopefully earning some interest) and load as you go along either by text, phone or online (the text thing sold it for me - so no need for costly mobile phone bills or needing to find a McDonalds!!). You can also load when the rate is high.

With both the credit cards and Caxton card I now don't need to get too much cash from the high street at awful rates and don't have to carry loads of cash around feeling vulnerable.

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Jaws

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So,anyone????? Is there a free credit card for that part of Europe we are not a part of? Jane

Well Croatia is not as yet part of the EU , and we incurred no fees while using the post office credit card there
 

bobandjanie

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Well Croatia is not as yet part of the EU , and we incurred no fees while using the post office credit card there
Thanks Jaws, it is very useful to know that but I was being cynical (and sarky) I meant Europe as being anywhere other than the UK :ROFLMAO: as, personally, I do not feel part of it! Jane:Smile:
 

novawight

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more bad news from Nationwide today told me there agencies are closing on dec 31st, so will now have to travel 5 miles to get to a nationwide outlet :Sad:
 

Snowbird

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more bad news from Nationwide today told me there agencies are closing on dec 31st, so will now have to travel 5 miles to get to a nationwide outlet :Sad:
Am getting a bit windy regarding the Nationwide...You dont think we are having another Northern Rock joby do you???
What with all this voting to become a bank...then charging to draw OUR cash outside the EU...then charging to draw OUR cash inside the EU...now closing down branches...Whats going on???:whatthe:
 

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