Despite these new charges by Nationwide they are STILL the cheapest way to get money from an ATM

A small bonus is that they seem to use the interbank exchange rate which is usual a couple of baht more than the exchange booths.

Using Nationwide to draw £300 in Thailand costs 2% + £1 (+150bt) = £6+£1+£3 = £10

Using a Halifax Clarity credit card costs 12.9%/12 + 150bt = £3 + £3 = £6

Halifax use the interbank rate too.

Replying to my own post. I've just got back from Thailand and have been using the Halifax Clarity to draw cash. I drew 10,000bt per time and drew a total of 80,000bt altogether. A couple of days after I'd drawn I'd use Nationwide internet banking to transfer money into the Clarity card so there was no outstanding balance. Just had my Clarity bill. I've paid a total of £1.47 interest on 80,000bt worth of withdrawals.

By way of contrast I used my Nationwide Flexaccount ATM card to make a couple of withdrawals on the same day as the Clarity withdrawals. The exchange rate difference between the two was 1-2 satang - once in Halifax's favour, once in Nationwide. The difference was that each Nationwide withdrawal cost me £5.27 in fees.

Glad you corrected yourself there Endure, saved me the job !! Used Clarity in LOS a few months back and my costs mirror yours. Also of interest is the FairFx card, which is really a pre-paid Mastercard with a few tweaks that you can service online like Clarity, interbank rates. Moving my current account from NW as well now, other places offering incentives that are better for me. Think they might have lost the plot here and rely on customers inertia not to change banks.

Edited December 2, 201015 yr by roamer

Glad you corrected yourself there Endure, saved me the job !! Used Clarity in LOS a few months back and my costs mirror yours. Also of interest is the FairFx card, which is really a pre-paid Mastercard with a few tweaks that you can service online like Clarity, interbank rates. Moving my current account from NW as well now, other places offering incentives that are better for me. Think they might have lost the plot here and rely on customers inertia not to change banks.

Did you manage to draw more than 10,000bt a time? Halifax say you can draw up to £500 a day. I used Bangkok Bank ATMs to draw cash and one of the questions they ask is what kind of account you are drawing from - current, savings or credit card. I tried to draw 20,000bt and tried all three different account types but the ATM always told me I'd entered an invalid account type. If I just used the '10,000bt quick cash' option it worked every time.