Nationwide withdrawing free use of debit (ATM) cards abroad

Nationwide to charge for card use abroad
By Simon Lambert
31 July 2010

Nationwide has announced it will axe fee-free use of debit cards abroad - one of the most popular benefits of its current account.

The country's biggest building society will charge both 2% commission and a £1 cash withdrawal fee on foreign transactions for its FlexAccount from 1 November 2010.

Previously all transactions within the European carried no charges and had no commission loaded against them.

This fee-free perk was also previously the case on all foreign transactions, until Nationwide scrapped this in March last year when it introduced a charge outside Europe – blaming this on a 1% charge Visa levied on transactions.

It has now completely abandoned the strategy of free overseas card use that it has previously promoted and that has led to its current account being heavily recommended, including on This is Money.

Nationwide will remove the outside Europe distinction from 1 November and levy a 2% commission charge on all transactions throughout the world, plus £1 for each cash machine withdrawal.

Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/savings-an ... z0vEzhkEOn