Lynsey Hallam Media Relations Manager at Nationwide wrote:
As a prudent organisation, we have to maintain the balance between offering competitive products whilst ensuring these are sustainable in the long term, particularly in the current economic climate. Our cards remain commission free when used anywhere in the world and customers using their cards in Europe will not receive any charges, as the Visa fee does not apply here.
Visa charge card issuers, including Nationwide, a fee for foreign currency conversions outside Europe and most other providers will pass this fee on in their commission charges - which can be up to 2.99%.
By passing on the fee of 0.84% that Visa currently charge us, we can continue to offer a number of benefits, many of which are not available from other providers, such as commission free transactions and a positive order of payments, which can help customers pay off their most expensive credit card debt first.
We will start to pass this fee onto customers from 6 May 2009 on credit card and from 1 June 2009 on debit card. The fee is currently 0.84% and from 1 July 2009 this fee will increase to 1%.
So is Turkey classed as being in Europe or are we going to start getting charged for withdrawing money in Turkey from cashpoints or over the counter using Nationwide Debit Cards?
