My daughter will be studying in France for a year from September and I'm looking for either a card or card based account to which I can transfer her monthly allowance which won't cost the earth in currency conversion and withdrawal charges. Nationwide make a big thing in their advertising of not charging you for withdrawing your own money abroad. Does anyone have any experience of Nationwide for this type of situation or have any other positive recommendations?

Thanks,

Optimus

only sensible way is for her to open a french bank account ; then use someone like currencies direct to direct debit your bank account with an agreed sum [ exchange rates much better than banks ] and make electronic transfer [no charge ] to her account in france

she will have to pay an annual fee for a debit card , but this will enable her to draw cash from any machine in the eurozone without any charge

all uk cards will incur large exchange rate charges even if they don't make transaction charges

if she does this , make clear that under no circumstance must she overdraw a french bank account! serious legal offence!

sorry , just misphrased that ..should have said that if she wants a debit card she will have to pay an annual charge

I am with Nationwide, and whenever I go abroad I just use my debit card - I don't take any other currency with me. I have used my Nationwide debit card in France, USA, Spain and Tunisia. You get the exchange rate on the day of the transaction, and they don't charge you commission. It is the main reason why I am still with Nationwide at the moment.

You are also able to use the cards in the supermarket using chip and pin - the only place we couldn't seem to use it was in the petrol pumps.

My parents live in France, and although they do have a French bank account, they also use their Nationwide account out there.

Hope this helps

Claire

what is the exchange rate on the day ? there is no such thing ; the card companies take a huge 'turn' on the money ; just have a look on the BBC text and look at the difference between so called 'tourist' rates and money market rates

wonder why your parents have decide to pay so much extra on every transaction claire , when good rates are available from specialist money exchange companies ?

I know several people that live in france ,they all use nationwide there are no hidden charges and should they draw money out today at the xchange rate of say 1.256 ,then a few days later thats what is shown on there statement. hope this helps

I have been with Nationwide for years, and used the card overseas many many times. I have noticed that the exchange rates they apply are very competitive, often better than I could get locally changing cash!

I would hope you do ; local tourist rates are terrible , credit / debit cards are better , but not good ; for a holiday the card is ok unless you are going to spend a lot of money , but living there ? not for me !!!

I can confirm that. I have an account with Crédit Agricole and I'm charged roughly 15euros for a Visa Electron card. I used to have a Mastercard and that cost me almost 30 a year and I don't think that included card protection.

optimus, it may be worth asking her what she will be doing in the future. Spending a year abroad at a French uni is not at all the same experience as going on a holiday (but it's always plenty of fun to be an exchange student, I can confirm that!) and is not planned the same way. You can't plan that she's going for 12 months and will then cut ties with France for the rest of her life (that kind of defeats the point of spending a year abroad) and she's not going to want to be a tourist for her whole time there. Having an account in France may be useful in the future... Say she finds a job in France in the future, or moves there and decides to buy a property...