Nationwide changes

 Is your wife still working for Barclays Mark?

She is Pat, yes. She's away for the next few weekend trialling a new system to be put in place for mortgage account collections. Must make some plans of things to do next weekend :)

I really don't know what Barclays are offering at the moment as when I asked the UK (read Mumbai) call centre, they knew nothing about the free transfers. This is only what I have gained from the Barclays.es website as secure messages to them have gone unanswered. I may get my Wife to ring International clients during the week to ask some questions.

Mark

 Thee is now a Facebook page for disgruntled Nationwide customers to join. Currently not many members and not sure what it hopes to achieve, but you never know!!

Another piece of news gleened from 20 pages on the MSE site is that the sending out of the notification of change letters has been suspended.

It has also been said that ALL Santander accounts benefit from free ATM withdrawals from Santander ATM's in Spain.

Mark

Thought you might want to see what I've sent to Nationwide today!

Dear Sir or Madam,

I would like to register my disappointment with your decision to end free cash withdrawals in Spain. My wife and I(indeed all of my family!) have been account holders for many years. Recently we have been fortunate enough to be able to purchase a property in Spain and regularly use atm's to withdraw cash to pay our Spanish mortgage. Your decision means that our mortgage payments have effectively increased as a direct result of your actions. 

I can fully understand your wish to stop ex-pats abusing your accounts by using them just to get free withdrawals in Spain, but for us who use the account properly eg paying over £1000 a month into our account, this decision comes as a blow and with regret means we will be looking for a new bank as soon as possible!

Santander, presumably because of your actions, have said that all adult accounts paying a £1000 or more into their account will receive free withdrawals from branded atm's in Spain!

Yours Sincerely
Mr & Mrs 

I'll let you know what they reply! Perhaps other account holders would like to do the same?

Tony.

This message was last edited by tonynault on 08/08/2010.

Not so straightforward, but a quick look on the Santander site shows that if £1000.00pm is credited to the Zero account, there are no fees or loadings added to the transaction when used in branch or ATM in Spain. 

Some of the posters on the MSE thread have been told by Santander staff in the branches that it applies to all card bearing accounts regardless of monthly amounts. I suppose left/ right hand are working in different directions?

Mark

Yes I have sent a letter in the message section on Nationwide complaining as well as going into the branch, but I do not think it will do any good.  But you never know if enough people do it they might think about their decision.

That might be good news is letters are being suspended perhaps they are reconsidering, we need some inside information.

Mark hope that weeked (things to do) means fishing?

Pat 

 Mark hope that weeked (things to do) means fishing?

I don't do fishing Pat, haven't got the patience. The fish side of the username is my hobby as I keep fish. It's my excuse to trundle down one of the local shops to drool over the corals and fish that I know I really can't afford or can't provide adequate accommodation for.

Mark

Sounds like my son in law with his aquarium always buying different plants and corals.  Plus fish that cost the earth. (There is me thinking you were a brilliant fisherman).

Well back to Nationwide will go on facebook and sign this pettion, not that I think it will do much good, but we can but try.

Pat

 I have just been looking at my old Xe.com account that I used when purchasing the apartment. There ave been some changes and for the better :0) I have just checked how much it would cost me to send £1000 to my Spanish account and what the end result would be. The result?

£1000= 1200.91 EUR with NO FEE!!!!

If you decide not to use EFT and go for a wire transfer, then the fee is only £12.50. Consider the charges on the Nationwide card of around £6 per 300€ (figure bandied about on MSE forum), and it is a cheaper option that way too.

Mark

 Well I got a phone call from Nationwide today! First time in 15 years! So the complaints must be having some effect. Basically said that they were listening blah blah... I told him as soon as someone fills the gap in the market offering free withdrawals I'm off!

Tony.

 I wanted to make sure on the free transfers, so emailed Xe. They have replied already 

 I contacted Nationwide via the secure messaging service last evening at around 9pm and at 9.50am today was telephoned by Customer Services saying that they have noted my comments, asked if I wanted to add anything more and they told me they are getting lots of similar concerns being raised. They are being collated and fed to senior management. Looks like they're listening this time?

I have contacted all my friends who I know (and probably introduced to Nationwide) have an account to urge them to do the same.

In the event that this change goes ahead against our wishes I think it would be worthwhile to go to Santander but will keep my account open until the next AGM to exercise my vote!

"I have contacted all my friends who I know (and probably introduced to Nationwide) have an account to urge them to do the same."

This is what is needed! A good old internet campaign! Come on all those people with NW accounts get those e.mails, letters sent make sure they know: "We're mad as hell, and we're not going to take it anymore" 

Tony.

 This is what is needed! A good old internet campaign! Come on all those people with NW accounts get those e.mails, letters sent make sure they know: "We're mad as hell, and we're not going to take it anymore" 

Which presumably is why the Facebook page was started. For all the moaning by people on different forums, there are still only 45 members!!!  Hardly likely to make the board sit up and think is it?

Mark

Right have joined Facebook page it is now 46 but we need a lot more people to join to have any effect at all.

I will also send them another message from my flex accout and will be going into the branch again next week.

Come on folks john the Facebook page.

Pat 

I've joined as well...It's now 50 so we're making progress - but we could really do with 100's for them to sit up and take notice.

It is generally cheaper to move money to your Spanish account and take out as needed but you loose the flexibility - once you've moved it you don't want the cost of moving it back.

 Well Mark as I and, I'd hazard a guess quite a few people, are not  members of Facebook  I haven't joined! No amount of whining on internet forums or facebook pages are going to have the slightest effect on Nationwide's policies. I was suggesting that people write directly to NW to complain.

Tony.

But out of the 1000's of Nationwide customers, and the 100's complaining on the forums,  I am sure more than 50 people have a Facebook account, that is what I was trying to get across (maybe not so well it seems and it was you that suggested the internet campaign ). The problem is that Brits don't tend to stand up for themselves, instead they moan about it to everyone except the people causing the problem. It says something (to me anyway) that a page for an air steward who jumped out of a plane on the runway can have 90,000 followers where as a problem such as this can only muster less than 3 score.

Yes, writing to the Nationwide is a good way to go about it, as is the secure messaging through the website. NW are supposed to have put more staff on the PR side of the business at the moment and apparently they are being vey pro- active at responding to the complaints. Letters were supposed to be sent out to account holders notifying the changes, but apparently they have been put on hold.

Mark

 My son received his letter today! So I can only assume mine and the rest of my family's are on the way! I'm enough of a realist to know that if the decision has been made no amount of public pressure will make any difference. The current situation is that the media have made the general public accept that the "deficit" is of their making and anything they do is justifiable. The banks are jumping on the bandwagon, because its good time to get away with it.

On a slight tangent its a similar situation to the post 9/11 reaction in the US. Bush was able to bring in all kinds of civil liberties restrictions in the name of anti-terrorism. In the same way we are told at every turn that we must get the national debt down, so pinching money from the weakest in society is ok whilst at the same time bankers award themselves obscene bonuses!

You really couldn't make it up!

Tony.

I agree with Mark The problem is that Brits don't tend to stand up for themselves and Tony if the decision has been made no amount of public pressure will make any difference. I think it is always worth telling them how you feel - occassionally it does make a differnece.

I sent a secure message to Nationwide today and received back what I guess is a standard reply:

Thank you for your message.

Very importantly, the changes only apply to FlexAccount customers and not Nationwide's credit card customers. Nationwide credit card customers will continue to be charged a 1% fee outside Europe and no foreign usage charges within Europe.

I can't see why this is VERY IMPORTANT. If you use a credit card you've always been charged a 2.5% "handling charge" on cash advances, so you'd have to have been brainless (or broke) to use your Nationwide credit card if you had a debit card.

The teenager who wrote this letter seems to be saying that they withdrew it because only a "tiny minority" of people used and benefited from it: the travellers. And as we all know, hardly anyone travels these days.  So they are offering a product that will give much wider benefit: Travel Insurance.

As Michael Flatley said, apropos some court case regarding Lord of the Dance, or whatever. "I admit I had little to do with Lord of the Dance. Hardly anything. Well, apart from the choreography."