Uk Nationwide Bank Charges For Foreign Use To Change (Up Of Course!)

[jfchandler]

Charles Schwab Bank, but only for Americans... High Yield Investors Checking....

That's a national one by a large bank. No minimums, no monthly fees for the account...

There are others as well, but typically they involve a couple thousand $ minimum deposit, or direct deposit of paycheck or pension, or have some other conditions.

Wow, a fee-free account with no foreign currency charges and reimbursement of the ATM fee? Please give us details.

[brobro2424]

Strangely enough it's now cheaper to use a credit card than a Nationwide debit card. If you can get a Halifax Clarity card at 12.9% you'll pay no overseas usage charges, you'll get a good exchange rate and if you pay it off in full at the end of the month you'll pay 1.075% on the money you draw.

Bear in mind this is a mastercard so the XC rate is 0.5% higher than visa, as I have just found out.

[peterpop]

Another problem with Nationwide who l have been with for 10 years is that they will not send any correspondence to your Thai address but this is not to much of a problem as l use Internet banking. My main problem is that my flexi account debit card (Visa) expires in June next year so they will not send me a new card here Thailand. They send all correspondence to my sisters home as my registered address with them so will have to arrange for her to DHL/Fedex the new card to me. Very costly as not wanting to go back to the UK just to pick up a new debit card as l currently use the card to withdraw my monthly pension. !50 baht withdrawal fee and now 1 GBP and 2% fee on top is a lot to take into account but no option as there do not seem to be a lot of alternatives. Dissapointed with Nationwide but what else can us ex-pats on a pension in Thailand do?. Will try and get my pension companies to send the funds to my Thai bank account each month but not sure if they will charge. Any suggestions are welcome

I have the same problem living in Chiang Mai and retired. All my income comes from the UK.

Recently I tried CAXTONFXCARD they claim in their adverts on line that there are no ATM CHARGES. They also claim no commision and only a discount on the Interbank Exchange rate of 2.5%

THIS IS NOT TRUE AND I HAVE REPORTED THEM TO THE FSA. The banks still charge 150 bht on this card and to add insult to injury the Ayutayah Bank charged their own [not Mastercard] exchange rate so it cost me 220.05 GBP for 10,000 bht. They had the temerity to print a slip saying that I had accepted this rate and had NO RECOURSE IN LAW. Banks really do push the margins of morality.

Caveat Emptor

[jfchandler]

You guys ought to look at the account offered by Metro Bank in London that has no monthly charges and no foreign currency surcharge on their account debit card when used abroad.

[MarkyM3]

Later......

I have spoken with Halifax.

Not conclusive.

I painted a scenario of paying in £1,000 to the card account sometime before your withdrawal/s in Thailand.

Whilst the answer was that NO interest would be charged I was told that you cannot have a card account going into credit. That is patently not true because you can easily pay an amount online (or over the counter) directly to the card account. I have overpaid in the past (by error).

The eventual conclusion was that whilst it might be possible to 'get away with it' do not rely on it as it against the operating principles of credit cards to put the account into credit.

I think the acid test will come when one of us tries it .

I'm planning to use a Halifax Clarity card in Thailand in the near future. My account is set up to pay my balance in full each month. I was wondering about a couple of things:

1) If my account has a zero balance before I leave the UK, then I withdraw say £500 in THB, is there any merit in making an immediate transfer of £500 from my Haliax Reward current account back to the credit card account to minimise interest charged? Or would interest stll be charged at the same rate until the next statement date regardless?

2) Once the statement is produced, the payment isn't typically taken for 3+ weeks. Is it the case that interest won't continue to be charged past the statement date, provided I continue to pay my balance in full?

Would appreciate any clarification as Halifax staff don't seem trustworthy (the staff in the branch I visited didn't realise interest is charged on cash advances, despite this being stated on their own website....).

Cheers.

Edited January 5, 2011 by MarkyM3

[endure]

Later......

I have spoken with Halifax.

Not conclusive.

I painted a scenario of paying in £1,000 to the card account sometime before your withdrawal/s in Thailand.

Whilst the answer was that NO interest would be charged I was told that you cannot have a card account going into credit. That is patently not true because you can easily pay an amount online (or over the counter) directly to the card account. I have overpaid in the past (by error).

The eventual conclusion was that whilst it might be possible to 'get away with it' do not rely on it as it against the operating principles of credit cards to put the account into credit.

I think the acid test will come when one of us tries it .

I'm planning to use a Halifax Clarity card in Thailand in the near future. My account is set up to pay my balance in full each month. I was wondering about a couple of things:

1) If my account has a zero balance before I leave the UK, then I withdraw say £500 in THB, is there any merit in making an immediate transfer of £500 from my Haliax Reward current account back to the credit card account to minimise interest charged? Or would interest stll be charged at the same rate until the next statement date regardless?

2) Once the statement is produced, the payment isn't typically taken for 3+ weeks. Is it the case that interest won't continue to be charged past the statement date, provided I continue to pay my balance in full?

Would appreciate any clarification as Halifax staff don't seem trustworthy (the staff in the branch I visited didn't realise interest is charged on cash advances, despite this being stated on their own website....).

Cheers.

I used a Clarity card on holiday in November. I was unable to convince Bangkok Bank ATMs to give me anything other than a 10,000bt quick withdrawal at any one time so each withdrawal cost me the usual 150bt Thai withdrawal fee. I withdrew 10,000bt at a time and then a couple of days later transferred £210 from my current account into the Clarity CC. I withdrew 80,000bt in total over a period of 3 weeks. I also did one withdrawal of 10,000bt from a Nationwide Flexaccount as a comparison. The exchange rates for Halifax and Nationwide were within a smidgen of each other. The 10,000bt I withdrew from Nationwide cost me £5.12 in charges. The 80,000bt I withdrew from Halifax cost me £1.51. Use your Clarity card then top it up a couple of days later.

[steve187]

Just been reading moneysaving expert, and he is saying Norwich and peterborough (N&P) gold account is offering free overseas withdrawal, they do a Gold Classic which requires £500 to be paid in monthly, of a gold light which requires 5 transactions per year, link here - http://www.nandp.co.uk/current-account/

He also says about halifax clarity card - 'Our top pick holiday spending plastic is the Halifax Clarity credit card which has no fees on foreign transactions. The only charge is a fairly low 12.9% interest on cash withdrawals, which works out at around £1 per month for every £100 withdrawn'.

[julesdick]

He also says about halifax clarity card - 'Our top pick holiday spending plastic is the Halifax Clarity credit card which has no fees on foreign transactions. The only charge is a fairly low 12.9% interest on cash withdrawals, which works out at around £1 per month for every £100 withdrawn'.

I use the halifax buts its a mastercard which, when i looked into it 6 months ago, gives a wholesale exchange rate which is 0.5% worse than visa's xc rate.