lyric030250

Mods delete if you feel necessary
http://petition.co.uk/nationwide-foreign-charges

probably won't do any good but who knows ?

frigilianafreddy

Better to move on to the alternatives.

halifax clarity reward card effectively allows free withdrawals at foreign atms at bank exchange rate.

They make no charge for currency conversion or ATM charge. they charge interest from date of withdrawal to date of payment.

Simply withdraw money, wait for it to show on the halifax account then transfer funds immediately into said account (they do not allow you to pre-load the card with money). As they charge 1% interest per month you should only get stung for a few pence for each transaction. PLUS if you're a reward customer they pay you £5 each time you spend over £300 in a month. That makes it free, effectively - if not even negative cost!

Time to move on from Nationwide. A stupid, crass and insulting decision which has effectively destroyed all the brand image built up by those rather clever ads (as opposed to the ridiculous 'Little Britain' campaign).

I will keep a few quid in the account so it costs them money and i can heckle at the next AGM. And yes it has been noted that the slimers waited until after the AGm to announce this deception...

Bye Bye Nationwide - its been a good (and for you profitable) 25 years. I wish you all the worst luck in your business ventures.

Mitzyboy

Apparently the decision was partly made because 900,000 account holders were using it only to draw money out abroad free of charge, so from that point of view it was a good business decision, as those accounts must have been costing them money!

frigilianafreddy

No probs with that.

So why not limit it to those who pay in £1,000 per month.

Why? Cos they're thick as sh*t!

So they recruited several hundred thousand unprofitable customers and they're now losing them, oh, and also losing high spending international spenders.

Doh!

Mitzyboy

They appear to be losing the customers that use the account for drawing cash abroad, but use the accounts for nothing else. Semms like good sense to me :-)

frigilianafreddy

Look, how to make money is to lose unprofitable customers and retain and recruit profitable customers.

They are losing unprofitable customers and losing profitable customers

On a strategic level that's about as sensible as doing a "Ratner".

Daft doesn't begin to describe it

Mitzyboy

OK ...... but explain to me how possibly losing 900,000 customers who only use the account for drawing money out abroad when they are on holiday (nothing more, no savings etc) or whatever is losing profitable customers? Some profitable customers will leave, yes ... but 900,000 unprofitable ones leaving may make up for it!

Fred James

Yes, and the "high spending international customers" are the worst because they use the ATM for free more often than most customers and it DOES cost the bank some money when they do.

I am afraid the days of getting anything for free from the banks went out the windows when they were stopped from "fining" idiots who couldn't stay within their overdraft limits. The good guys are now picking up the tab for the bad guys!

agoreira

Agree. Lots of these people have no allegiance to the company, they are there for the freebies, and you can't blame them for that, but it doesn't surprise me at all that the company is now a bit fed up with the freeloaders and wants to charge them. It's obvious the company will have thought through all the ramifications of their decision, they know they will lose some customers, but they will also get rid of a lot of the dead wood, saving them money. I don't believe any protest will have the slightest chance of making them change their minds, but you can but try. Similar thing happened recently with Ryanair, when they changed their cards for free transactions, people just switched cards.

Justlookin

AND

They have just added free travel cover. I have a quote which covers a 2 month break in Spain for the two of us for £50. The same cover with AMEX was going to cost me four and a half times that. The policy covers the whole year not just that trip

Fortunately this time around as we are going in early October I will be able to use the ATM's for free until November.

Mitzyboy

I remember when RBS started charging £12 a month for their account, but with it came free travel insurance (for which I was already paying over £100 a year for) and a number of other benefits.

Justlookin

At the moment the Nationwide are not charging on this particular account - you just have to satify them you are operating a normal account paying in on a monthly basis.

Fred James

That travel insurance only applies to UK residents travelling from and back to the UK.

It also only applies to people below 65.

That rules out quite a lot of people who currently use the "free" ATM service.

frigilianafreddy

I don't think they will change their minds. Like I say I'm off to the halifax which will give virtually free cash and give you a fiver each month you spend £300 or more on the clarity reward card.

nationwide were just plain stupid to do this. Fine ditch the spongers who just use it for their two weeks holiday. But for those of us who do thousands of pounds transactions each month? Barmy.

I'm also thinking about Santander Zero which also gives free foreign cash. But moneyexpert.com reckons customer service is cr*p. I'll wait 'til theyve transferred all the A&L accounts to the Santander business before trying that one.

Mitzyboy

I recently opened an account in the UK with Santander, ans their customer service so far has been far from wonderful