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Using Your Nationwide Credit Card While Travelling Abroad: Fees, Benefits, and Alternatives

Byron Mühlberg, writer at Monito.com
May 26, 2023
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Are you planning to use your Nationwide Member Credit Card on your next trip abroad? Although great for tapping your card overseas because of its outstanding fees, many Nationwide customers still report unexpectedly high fees on their statements after withdrawing cash in non-Sterling currencies.

Regardless of your spending habits, there are a few alternatives if you prefer low-cost holiday spending. In this post, we walk you through the fees and exchange rates you'll meet when using your Nationwide credit card abroad and offer savvier alternatives to use instead. So, whether planning a weekend getaway, a business trip, or a dream vacation, read on to learn how to make the most of your card spending while abroad!

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Nationwide's credit card is pricey for cash withdrawals abroad. Here are better alternatives instead:

Facts About Nationwide's Credit Card Abroad

💱 Foreign Exchange Margin

0%

💳 Foreign Exchange Fee

0%

💷 Cash Withdrawal Fee

2.5%

⭐ Best Alternative
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Heading abroad soon? Don't forget to check the following list before you travel:

  • 💳 Eager to dodge high FX fees? See our picks for the best travel cards.
  • 🛂 Need a visa? Let iVisa take care of it for you.
  • ✈ Looking for flights? Compare on Skyscanner!
  • 💬 Want to learn a language? Babbel and italki are two excellent apps to think about.
  • 💻 Want a VPN? ExpressVPN is the market leader for anonymous and secure browsing.

Using Your Nationwide Credit Card Abroad

It should go without saying that credit cards are versatile tools that you can use to handle all kinds of financial transactions while on holiday abroad. This is no different with Nationwide's Member Credit Card, which enables you to do the following and more on your trip abroad:

  • Pay at point-of-sale machines in foreign countries,
  • Withdraw local cash banknotes from foreign ATMs,
  • Book or handle deposits for car rental agencies, hotels, or flights.

In addition, the Nationwide Member Credit Card also lets you take advantage of purchase protection, set credit limits, make contactless payments, and much more.

Nationwide Credit Card Fees Abroad

Although it's easy and convenient to use abroad, Nationwide's Member Credit Card comes with a few costs you should consider before travelling abroad. We've summarised them below (ignoring non-travel-related costs like balance transfer fees and interest charges):

Verified: 10/3/2023

Compared to other credit cards in the UK, using the Member Credit Card abroad is quite cheap, making Nationwide a good credit card for overseas use. However, depending on your spending needs, using your credit card can become unnecessarily pricey when travelling abroad. Let's break them down with two typical examples:

Point of Sales Transactions

Suppose, for example, you're on holiday in Paris and decide to spend €100 on a boutique fashion item you like. You pay with your Nationwide credit card. The first thing that happens behind the scenes will be the conversion of your pounds into euros. Fortunately, this occurs at the Visa exchange rate without Nationwide charging its own exchange rate. This means you won't pay much for exchanging currency because you'd be paying £89.28 (at Visa's rate) instead of £88.82 (at the mid-market rate) on the final statement at the time of writing. That's a 0.5% 'fee' not even charged by Nationwide itself. Not a big deal, right?

Fortunately (unlike credit cards from most other UK banks), the costs end there: Nationwide won't charge you any foreign exchange fee. This makes the Member Credit Card an excellent choice for travelling abroad only if you plan to tap your card and not withdraw cash, which, as we'll see below, can become much pricier.

Cash Withdrawals

Nationwide foreign spending fees only become meaningful when using your credit card to withdraw cash abroad. Staying with our example, suppose you next wanted to withdraw €1,000 to get you through a few more days of Parisian spending. Here, although you wouldn't pay a foreign exchange fee, you would pay a 2.5% cash fee (which is charged at a minimum of £3 with no maximum), meaning you'd pay £22.31 in our example. Combined with the £4.55 'fee' resulting from Visa's exchange rate, you'd pay £26.86 in total at the time of writing.

While this is far better than the cost of the same transaction with other UK bank credit cards (for comparison, you'd pay £72.05 to withdraw €1,000 with Halifax and £64.99 with Tesco), it's still pricier than what you'd expect to pay with other cheaper providers we explore below.

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Asked to choose between paying in GBP or the local currency? Always choose the local currency. Paying in Sterling at a foreign card or cash machine will slap a sneaky dynamic currency conversion fee onto your statement. Learn more here.

Better Alternatives

Fortunately for you, more affordable ways exist to spend your Sterling in Paris or anywhere else in the world. Below, we suggest three world-class UK-based alternatives for you to consider depending on your individual needs and preferences:

Revolut: Best for Multi-Currency Balances

Revolut's debit card is another good way to spend money while abroad because it allows you to pay in over 150 currencies at the real exchange rate (although fair use limits and weekend surcharges may apply), and additional features like budgeting tools and travel insurance (on the paid plans).

  • Multi-Currency Balances: Yes (available in 35 currencies)
  • FX Margin: 0% /transaction
  • FX Fixed Fee: 0.5% /transaction
  • ATM Withdrawal Fee: 2% /withdrawal
  • Best For: Balances in multiple currencies and convert between them.

Starling Bank: Best Complete Bank Alternative

Starling Bank is a first-class online bank whose debit Mastercard is an excellent way to spend money abroad because it charges you zero fees on foreign currency spending (including foreign cash withdrawals!). It also provides an excellent current account which we've ranked as the best online bank in the UK.

  • Multi-Currency Balances: No
  • FX Margin: 0% /transaction
  • FX Fixed Fee: 0% /transaction
  • ATM Withdrawal Fee: 0% /transaction
  • Best For: A complete bank account alternative to Nationwide

FAQ About Nationwide Credit Card Abroad

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