Does Nationwide charge for overdrafts?

Van Hellseek · 1 Dec 2009 at 10:21

I have a Halifax account and from this month they are beginning to charge if you go into your overdraft. So I want to close my account and move to another bank.

I've already booked an appointment with Nationwide to open a current account next week.

Anyone know if they also have any ridiculous/unfair charges?

Heliospherez · 1 Dec 2009 at 10:24

Sometimes they do - sometimes they don't. They didn't for me on my flexaccount (went into red twice in 17 years) - but we have 6 other accounts, a mortgage and a loan with them - so if they messed me about - that would all go elsewhere.

Depends how much you have going in - and the frequency/type of account. Usually they will - and if they don't now - they will probably start (as you are effectively borrowing money off them and should be able to budget properly in this day and age)

Amp34 · 1 Dec 2009 at 20:07

They don't charge you a fee if you go into your (organised) overdraft, although I can't see any Banks/BS charging fees for organised overdrafts. :confused:

They do however charge interest, however not much in the grand scheme of things. I think I was charged about £2 for being around £200-300 in the red and also a few 2p's for going a few pounds over for a few days. (This is with the Flex account, I was a student and now still have not much going in, as well as no other accounts.)

El Jimben · 1 Dec 2009 at 22:27

I used the wrong Nationwide card recently and went £6 overdrawn and I didn't get charged anything

Cob · 1 Dec 2009 at 22:40

Amp34 said:
They don't charge you a fee if you go into your (organised) overdraft, although I can't see any Banks/BS charging fees for organised overdrafts.

From this month the Halifax are charging £1 a day if you go into your authorised overdraft. It's replacing the monthly interest rate.

So the potential interest I'll pay for spending a month £250 in the red will jump from a couple of quid to ~£30.

Work out the APR on that one.

Amp34 · 2 Dec 2009 at 19:46

Ouch!

(Just to clarify I was talking about the Nationwide Flex account charging a fee, myy previous post may have been a bit ambiguous).

Mr. Anderson · 2 Dec 2009 at 19:55

does this include a 0%student overdraft?

Heliospherez · 2 Dec 2009 at 20:27

Just remember that one of the main things The Nationwide BS promoted over the last number of years was fact it had fee-free foreign transactions on it's cards.

Funnily enough, this was scrapped around May time this year - with account holders using their cards outside the UK and Europe hit with a 0.84 per cent charge per transaction. This also applies to purchases on websites - The fee increased again to 1 per cent in July. - but you won;t see them telling you that in the new adverts.

They also increased the rate on their CC from 17.9 per cent to 19.9 per cent in May & their saving/bond/ISA rates are pretty dire these days compared with other big names - considering they were usually at the top of the Moneysaving lists :rolleyes:

NW profits are down 69% this year -so you might just expect them to make some other drastic changes regarding OD charges.

El Jimben · 2 Dec 2009 at 23:03

divosuk said:
Just remember that one of the main things The Nationwide BS promoted over the last number of years was fact it had fee-free foreign transactions on it's cards.

Funnily enough, this was scrapped around May time this year - with account holders using their cards outside the UK and Europe hit with a 0.84 per cent charge per transaction. This also applies to purchases on websites - The fee increased again to 1 per cent in July. - but you won;t see them telling you that in the new adverts.

1% is still better than the 2.75% most financial institutions charge though. I was lucky, they changed it just after I came back from travelling