# Travel Cards



## craigy (Aug 29, 2005)

hi

Has anybody had any experience using a travel card in france? We took travellers cheques to Spain in Jan 06 and found it very difficult and expensive to cash them. Don't want to use cash cards all the time as the charges are quite high. The post office has a Visa card which you pay a £10 fee for and then load with euros and supposedly use in any shops or ATM's with the Visa sign. As we have not been to France before any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Craigy


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## tonyt (May 25, 2005)

I think you'll find that most experienced travellers go armed with a Nationwide FlexAccount debit card.


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## colian (May 11, 2005)

Craigy,
If you are going to make a habit of going over to France and the like consider opening a Nationwide account, We have and just use it for holidays, like the post office account you describe - we load it up just before we go and use the debit card anywhere with the visa sign, the good thing is that there is no currency exchange rate charges. 
it means we do not have to keep loads of travellers cheques or cash on us all the time.
Well worth it only too about 15 minutes to open it.

ian


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## Suenliam (Mar 22, 2006)

Craigy - I have opened a Nationwide Flex Account just to use abroad after lots of advice on this site.

Ian - do you advise Nationwide before you go. I've heard others having cards stopped due to unusual activity i.e. being used abroad. I've not used mine yet - just loading it up with spending money! so I'm not sure what they will judge to be unusual activity. The person in the bank said it would not be necessary, but I'm not so sure. What do you do?

Sue


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## tonyt (May 25, 2005)

I've just returned from 3 months in South Africa and used my Nationwide card almost daily - mostly drawing local currency from ATMs but also to pay bills in restaurants etc. I didn't even think of telling the bank that I was going away for some time. I had absolutely no problem whatsoever, no charges and a very good exchange rate. I'm just surprised that this very good facility is still offered by them.


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## colian (May 11, 2005)

As Tony has said above we did not tell them in advance either and had no problems last year, we have also set up their credit card because it also has no charges and arranged to have the full amount go out directly from our current account. this is in planning for the future when hopefully we will be away for longer periods and will want to know the bill is covered.

hope all this helps

ian


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## vicdicdoc (May 14, 2005)

Without a doubt - Nationwide flexi account is the best


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## 92180 (May 1, 2005)

Just back from Canada with my Nationwide credit card, excellent exchange rates and no commission. I didn't tell them I was away and no problems. I have just registered for online banking and you can look at your credit card statement . Very helpful if you think you need to top up the coffers.


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## thewaltons (Aug 21, 2006)

We use a Nationwide Flex account and it may be worth looking at opening an 'e' account via the flex account on line, it only takes a few minutes and the interest rate was the best we could find for an account of that type at the time. You can leave the bulk of the spending fund in the e account and transfer back to the flex account instantly. Don't just take my word for it though - check it out first!


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## craigy (Aug 29, 2005)

*travel cards*

Thanks everbody for the info. It looks like a Nationwide card then. Do you have to transfer your current account to them or can you tell them you just want to use it when abroad?

Craigy


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## tonyt (May 25, 2005)

Just open an account - you don't have to transfer from another account and you don't have to explain why you want the account - I think they are very aware of how many customers they pull in just for this purpose.
Apart from anything else, I find their staff to be extremely polite/customer conscious and knowledgeable of their products - a rare animal these days.


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## craigy (Aug 29, 2005)

*travel card*

Thanks Tony

I went online and appeared to have opened account. It was very easy.

Your advice is very much appreciated.

Craigy


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