Going on holiday get one of these (Nationwide Building Society)

Member Name: grovej

Product:	Nationwide Building Society
Date:	17/03/05 (453 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic for use abroad

Disadvantages: Low Credit limits

I have been banking with Nationwide Building Society for over 15 years and have one of their credit cards as well as other financial products from them.

Nationwide currently offer three credit cards all of which are Visa cards:-

Classic Card (offers low interest 13.9% apr)
Cash Reward (offers 1.0% for 1st 6 months then 0.5%)
Comic Relief (donates an initial £5.65 and then 0.5% of all purchases)

The card I currently have is the cash reward, below I hope to summarise some of the features and charges.

**************Charges*************
As I clear my balance every month the APR interest rate charged is of not much concern to me but for the Cash Reward it is currently 15.9% which is about average, there is no purchase or balance transfer interest free period with this card other than the period during billing if you want a six month period then the Classic Card is the one to have.

The interest free period between billing cycles, for purchases on the card is currently 56 days which again is average for credit cards. There is no annual fee for this card which most cards have although some will charge a fee if a minimum amount is not spent on the card.

The minimum repayment per month is the greater of 3% of the balance or £5 this is slightly more than most cards which charge 2.5% or £5. As for the account management fees these are all £15, so if you go over your limit, or forget to pay on time then expect a charge of £15.

**************Features*************
There are two main features that really sell this card to me these are detailed below.

If you are in the habit of clearing the balance off your card every month you effectively get a 0.5% discount on everything you spend this is paid in December, you may think 0.5% why bother. Well if you think of it like this if you spend £500 per month that’s £30 over 12 month’s not bad, spend even more then get even more back. Last year I managed to gather just under £40 this did include my 1% introductory period. The cash back is capped at a maximum of £999.00 per year but that would mean spending in the order of £200,000 which I can only dream about spending.

The card is perfect for use when travelling abroad, the reason for this is because the card does not charge any commission on foreign transactions, most cards charge somewhere around 2.5 % per transaction. When I was in the states at the start of last year I managed to be fortunate enough to buy some clothes when the rate was $1.91 to the £1 and it showed on my statement as exactly that rate. So this is how the card would have compared to one charging 2.5% commission on a transaction of $200 at $1.91 to the £1.

Nationwide £104.71
Other Card £107.32

Again not a great deal of money you may think but if you are on holiday with a large family you could end up saving £20 or £30.


**************Summary*************

I find this card very good for my personal circumstances as I pay my balance in full every month so I make cash back, and with a few trips abroad it really does shine above some of the other cards on the market. On the negative side my credit limit is not that high compared to other cards, I think Nationwide are quite responsible when giving their limits which is refreshing.

Summary: