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Quote: Originally posted by jim oldham on 19/12/2010

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Thanks all. So it's CC for fuel, if possible, and ask to pay in Euros when we withdraw Euros from the ATM.

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Quote: Originally posted by franbee on 19/12/2010

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Don't forget you get Tesco reward points for nothing, so with £20 coupons you can have £20 free goods at the checkout or £60 off a tunnel crossing. No contest for me.

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I think what we were trying to work out was whether it was better to use a Tesco CC in Europe and get the Club Card points but a poorer exchange rate or just to use a Nationwide cc and have the benefit of a better exchange rate. I can't answer the question but will make a careful note next year. I do tend to agree with you that the 3X for the Tunnel will be hard to beat even with a poorer exchange rate. Why is life so complicated?

David

 

Quote: Originally posted by Suzac on 19/12/2010

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What is the situation regarding paying for purchases abroad using the Nationwide Debit Card then other than for withdrawing cash from an ATM? I have just paid by my card for a pitch reservation fee of 30 Euros (which will be deducted from my overall site fees) and have been debited on my Flex account £25-48 at a rate of 1.177 making,according to my calculation, a euro worth 85p. There doesn't appear to be any charge for using the card.

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Quote: Originally posted by Tentz on 19/12/2010

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Quote: Originally posted by jim oldham on 19/12/2010Thanks all. So it's CC for fuel, if possible, and ask to pay in Euros when we withdraw Euros from the ATM.

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To correct that, you just withdraw €s from an atm in France etc, same way as you withdraw £s from an atm in't UK. you don't 'pay' anything. The option to pay in £s with CC is sometimes offered when you are paying for goods in a shop.

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Quote: Originally posted by jim oldham on 19/12/2010

Quote: Originally posted by jim oldham on 17/12/2010If a NW credit card is used to pay for fuel, or supermarket shopping, is there a charge to that card ?I always pay off the credit card automatically, every month, to avoid charges.Could some kind soul please remind me what is the cheapest option when offered the choice of "own currency, or Euros", at ATM's ?

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Regards,

Jim.

Thanks all. So it's CC for fuel, if possible, and ask to pay in Euros when we withdraw Euros from the ATM.

Regards,
Jim.

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NW have said there will be a fee for debit card use, depending on how long sice you made the transaction, perhaps the fee has not been added yet.

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The charges come up on your statement in pounds - the option to pay in Euros is only when you're paying for a purchase in another country where they may offer you the option of paying in 'local currency' or converting to pounds.  Always select local currency.

Last week in Bruges the Nationwide Debit Card exchange rate was 1.177 to the pound on cash withdrawals,  and 1.191 on purchases but the commission and transaction fees on both are charged in pounds.  The general 'tourist' rate available at the time was 1.13 to the pound - and 1.10 on the P and O ferry (we didn't buy!). 

We reckoned you'd need to withdraw more than £100 in cash to benefit from the increased exchange rate, and then use cash to pay for purchases rather than use the card for a series of smaller transactions where you pay the commission and transaction fee for each one.  So the fewer transactions the better as there are charges for each one - which soon add up!

Val

Thats very interesting. Good to see some first hand experience of the changes. I assume to work out a true rate you have to add the commission charges to the rates above and I assume that it brings the final rate down to nearer the tourist rate? We only use our bank card for cash withdrawals, rarely for purchases unless a campsite does not accept cc's.

David

Hi David, that's right. I was going to quote the transaction charge and commission fee, but I couldn't find the statement amongst the Christmas chaos!  On the cash withdrawal I think we paid £4.05 in total charges - but about the same on the hotel bill (purchase), and also on the parking fee, when we'd absolutely no small change, no one around to help out, and the machine wouldn't accept a 20 euro note!!  We won't do that again!

In the past we have used our NW debit card to pay for the tolls. So based on the info above this probably isn't advisable anymore. Apart from tolls everything else we use cash for by getting £250 out of the cash till each time.

Do remember you do get free travel insurance with NW (if you have a main account there) although I've not read the small print or used it yet.