> For years, I used a debit card from Nationwide in the UK to withdraw currency all over the world
Yep, you and thousands of others. Unfortunately expats ruined it for everyone else, simply using it as a way to draw money from their UK accounts when retired in Spain or wherever, never giving a penny to Nationwide. They probably made a loss on each of these customers so they withdrew the service.
They really just charged the Visa wholesale rate for ATM withdrawals and purchases abroad with no fees or markup or anything. It was fantastic.
This is true. It led to some bizarre situations though: my partner, wanting to transfer money from her American BofA account to her British Barclays one, would've had to pay a fee to do so directly. But walking two paces to the ATM machine, taking the money out as cash, and then depositing the cash and you can avoid fees. Always seemed weird to me.
Metro Bank charge the wholesale rate with no fees. And one either UK bank I forget which. You can open a no fee Metro Bank account just for this. If you bring a dog with you they pay you I believe...
Yep, you and thousands of others. Unfortunately expats ruined it for everyone else, simply using it as a way to draw money from their UK accounts when retired in Spain or wherever, never giving a penny to Nationwide. They probably made a loss on each of these customers so they withdrew the service.
They really just charged the Visa wholesale rate for ATM withdrawals and purchases abroad with no fees or markup or anything. It was fantastic.