Hiya
I agree with Val exchanging your £ for € at home or taking a small amount and using your Nationwide card for cash withdrawals while on hols isn’t allot in it. For me €300 or whatever the daily limit is every 4/5 days is probably be about right. I would rather spend a few £s than risk losing or having your money stolen. So for the security of not carrying loads of money I will stick with my nationwide debit card for my cash and my nationwide credit card for everything else
Richard W
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I have been thinking of what to do this year, having always had our N.W. account. We do have a safe in our motorhome though for passports and cash. Probably just take more cash than normal to start with, and then use our debit card as normal.
We got our safe from Argos and it is bolted under a seat (which means we sleep on it)
Must admit we have tended to take a fair bit of cash (used to take travellers cheques but they are a thing of the past and they started to charge a lot for cashing them so no great loss). We do use our Saga credit card for purchases (mainly fuel, tolls and campsite charges, if they don't take camping cheques that is. or large supermarket bills) as there is no charge on purchases and you get the money market rate as opposed to tourist rate which can be a big difference.
Hi
We used a CaxtonFX pre-paid card last year and will use it again this year. It consistently had the best exchange rate of all the cards we looked at. I loaded it when it had a rate of £1.2 a few weeks before we went. It worked everywhere we went but I had already been warned not to use it at unmanned petrol pumps. I had a debit card should it have been necessary to use one, but I don't think we did. I topped it up by phone whilst we were abroad and could also check my balance by phone. You cannot check your balance at an ATM, so best to keep a record of what you're spending. Have kept our left over spending money on the card to use this year.
HTH
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I suppose, in real terms, we're looking at differences of perhaps only a few euros between being safe and using a card, and being 'risky' and taking cash. I'd have to ask myself if it was worth it - after all we're on holiday and at the end of the day, the difference between one and the other is perhaps just a few extra coffees - certainly for us as we don't take, or spend, anything like £1,500. I've just worked out £500 at today's 'Bank' rate (Nationwide at 1.17) and Tourist rates (M and S at 1.12) and the difference is around 25 euros in favour of Nationwide, so even if we made five withdrawals at 4.00 euros charges each time, we'd be 5 euros up on the deal sticking to our Nationwide card. The FairFx card today gives 1.15 so would balance almost exactly with the Nationwide by the time charges were added to the Nationwide!
So, to save the hassle of having to think about it a great deal, we'll just stick with what we've got and have no added form-filling, on-line passwords, off-line phone calls, and continue with our Nationwide card. At least it does give the advantage of a really good exchange rate.
I think you're right, Val. Now we've chewed it over I think I'll stick with my NW card for this year at least. Our spend in France is likely to be about 2k so that 25€ would become 100€. Not a huge amount but it would pay for a jolly nice dinner at the end of a 2 week holiday. And I'd rather do that with it than donate it to a starving banker
It's all very complicated isn't it?! Our budget is about £2500 including campsite fees etc, and was planning on taking cash, but the Nationwide rate is so much better.
My problem is that I had a bad experience with the NW card two years ago. All our money was on the NW card, and it got chewed by a machine (that broke down mid transaction, at 7pm on a Saturday) three days before we were due to come home. We had absolutely no way of accessing any cash as our other account (normal account) was emptyish as it was the end of the month. We ended up having to get family to go online and transfer cash to our regular bank account as a faster payment so we could pay the campsite fees and tolls home. Nationwide were no help and we racked up about £50 in mobile phone charges.
Am wondering if it might be possible to add hubbys name to the Nationwide account so he could have a card too, then if something happened to one, we'd have a back up. I just don't think I can spend two weeks panicking every time I put the card into a machine in case I don't see it again!
I have a Halifax Clarity card that I use abroad and also have my N/Wide flex account and credit card for backup.
You could make your main account with N/Wide into a joint account and you would both have cards issued.
Saxo1
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We have relied on our Nationwide current account for France. Now that NW charge for transactions and withdrawals, we have considered taking a substantial amount of Euros. But the security risk, even with care, cannot be denied. Don't know much about the NW credit card, as I have one credit card with a permanently low APR of 6%. Will have to look at the NW card for short term use.
We have been using the Nationwide debit and credit cards for several years now. We have 2 Flexaccounts, one joint so 2 cards for it, and I have a sole one. On the credit card account we have a card each.
Before Christmas, due to NW introducing some charges, we got Halifax Clarity credit cards, an account each, with 2 cards for each account, so that should hopefully cover cards being "chewed up".
We don't like to carry much cash, usually take out 100 euros at a time, so using the NW debit cards to get cash will now cost a bit in charges.
So, after reading up on MSE, we are going to use our Clarity cards for most spending, and to withdraw cash as needed. We have DDs set up to pay in full every month anyway, and our main current account that all our pensions go into is with Halifax, so if we spend £300+ on a card in a statement period, we get £5 Reward payments.
Having just had Christmas, 2 grandchildren's birthdays, paid house insurance, car insurance, caravan service, and had to buy a new washing machine,and a new TV the £5s are in good supply!
And I am confident we will spend more than 2 x £300 when we are away on holiday!
As back up, we will take our NW cards too, and our Goldfish CCs and Halifax debit cards. Not forgetting our Tesco cards for fuel and shopping before we cross the Channel.
I have a Halifax Clarity card that I use abroad and also have my N/Wide flex account and credit card for backup. You could make your main account with N/Wide into a joint account and you would both have cards issued. Saxo1
Problem with that is that if you lose one and notify your bank then they will stop payment on both. Better for partners to keep a spare card in another account .... just for back-up.
"Problem with that is that if you lose one and notify your bank then they will stop payment on both. Better for partners to keep a spare card in another account .... just for back-up"
I thought that untill this January, my debit card on our joint account was blocked because N/Wide flagged up what they thought was a suspicious transaction but we were still able to use my O/H's card.
Although the cards are on the same account the last 4 digits of the 16 digit no are different.
Saxo1
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
Quote: Originally posted by saxo1 on 03/3/2011
"Problem with that is that if you lose one and notify your bank then they will stop payment on both. Better for partners to keep a spare card in another account .... just for back-up" I thought that untill this January, my debit card on our joint account was blocked because N/Wide flagged up what they thought was a suspicious transaction but we were still able to use my O/H's card. Although the cards are on the same account the last 4 digits of the 16 digit no are different. Saxo1
Must vary between banks then - the numbers on our Smile cards differ but when I mislaid mine, my wife's was stopped too - I seem to remember something similar happening before.
Quote: Originally posted by saxo1 on 03/3/2011
"Problem with that is that if you lose one and notify your bank then they will stop payment on both. Better for partners to keep a spare card in another account .... just for back-up"
I thought that untill this January, my debit card on our joint account was blocked because N/Wide flagged up what they thought was a suspicious transaction but we were still able to use my O/H's card.
Although the cards are on the same account the last 4 digits of the 16 digit no are different.
Saxo1
I found the same, OH mislaid his NW card, rang to report it. No problem him getting a new one, but mine still worked.
Same on our Halifax Current account when his card was used fraudulently for an internet transaction.
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Topic: Holiday money
