Joy of joys. NatWest has changed our debit cards from Maestro to Visa, so now we have to pay extra to use them to book with Easyjet and presumably Ryanair. I know people have suggested cards before, what's the best option. We do have a prepaid Post Office Euro card.

This is from the Easyjet site:

"New bookings
All bookings will incur a £3.50 booking fee save for bookings made by Visa electron and Carte Bleue (domestic transactions only) which are free. Bookings made by Visa Credit Card, MasterCard, Diners Club, American Express, UATP/Airplus will incur an additional fee of 2.5% of the total transaction value, with a minimum charge of £4.50, whichever is greater."

Never heard of Carte Bleu but Halifax do a Visa Electron card (other posts on here). Haven't used my Electron card for some time but there was no charge for use when I did.

Ryanair (cunning devils) changed their "free option" from Visa Electron to Mastercard debit card. I have a FairFX Sterling Mastercard for my dealings with Ryanair. There is a 1.5% charge for all transactions but that is generally a lot less than the £5 each way, each passenger for the cheapies I'm looking for.

Both Electron and FaifFX cards can be topped up instantly on the net. I think you can also top up the FairFX card by phone.

Should also mention that the FairFX cards (Euro/dollar/Sterling) are available free through Opodo on http://www.fairfx.com/opodo/home/
You pay £9.95 through the FairFx site.

De nada

The Halifax Clarity credit card seems to be the next best option to the Nationwide Flexi account which as of 1st Nov lose's all the benefits that attracted me to it in the first place,Daily Mail, Money Supermarket, and the Martin Lewis sites all say the same.

PTBUXTON - As a FlexAccount customer at Nationwide I have not heard about the loss of benefits on Nov. 1st.

We always use a Nationwide DEBIT card at ATM's in the Algarve - no withdrawal fee and a better rate than the exchange bureaux and no need to mess about with travellers' cheques.

We use CREDIT card for restaurants/petrol/excursions/car hire.

Can you explain what benefits are to be lost and where you saw this news?

I too have a nationwide debit card purely for the free overseas banking transactions.
These free transactions will cease in November 2010. At this point I will take the money out and transfer it to Millennium.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/ju ... ithdrawals

TomUK wrote:PTBUXTON - As a FlexAccount customer at Nationwide I have not heard about the loss of benefits on Nov. 1st.

We always use a Nationwide DEBIT card at ATM's in the Algarve - no withdrawal fee and a better rate than the exchange bureaux and no need to mess about with travellers' cheques.

We use CREDIT card for restaurants/petrol/excursions/car hire.

Can you explain what benefits are to be lost and where you saw this news?

As of the 1st of nov a withdrawal fee will be imposed £2/3 plus 1/2 other charges Nationwide are supposed to be informing everyone as yet nothing , when I visited my local branch last week to make the obligatory but totally useless complaint about it, the reaction was we are only falling in to line with all the other bank's I must admit I thought the Nationwide was still a Building Society.

Well, is it £2 or £3? What do you mean by 1/2 other charges? Where did you see this.

Does the withdrawal fee apply to places like USA and Australia only or is it going to apply throughout Europe. There is currently a fee of 1% charged on transactions in the USA and other non-European countries. Is this now going to apply in Europe also?

This is from the Nationwide website - so the information is there already. No mention of £2 or £3 as far as I can see.

Card use abroad
From 1 November 2010, the Society will be making some additional changes to its current account including the introduction of a low charge for transactions in currencies other than sterling. This replaces the 1% third party foreign currency charge for point of sale transactions made outside of the Visa European region. Nationwide's FlexAccount remains the cheapest mass market current account to use abroad.

Low commission charge
The Society's new commission charge of 2% and £1 cash withdrawal fee are lower than any of those charged by other standard or free current accounts in the market. Unlike several other card providers, Nationwide does not also charge a fee when a customer makes a purchase abroad.

Up until 1 November 2010, many customers will benefit from both free travel insurance and commission-free card use abroad.

Nationwide's credit card continues to offer free use abroad within the VISA European region and a 1% charge worldwide.