Millions of British consumers have long enjoyed the benefit of using the transaction fee free Nationwide credit cards abroad both when on holiday and for online purchases. However the Nationwide has now announced that they will be introducing a 0.84% fee from 6th of May which will rise to 1% on the 1st of June.

The new 1% fee is still better than the 2% to 2.5% typically charged by many other credit card providers, however the probability is now that the Nationwide fee will also eventually rise towards the industry average and hence bring to an end a huge benefit for customers.

The Nationwide will be charging the new fee on both the debt and credit cards. The fee will apply to virtually all countries with the exception of a few such as Iceland and the Vatican city, which I doubt many Nationwide card holders are likely to transact with.

In addition to the new credit card fee, the Nationwide has also been less inclined to pass on the cuts in UK interest rates (which fell to 0.5% yesterday) to borrowers whilst squeezing savers. For instance as of writing the Nationwide charges 3% on its Base Rate Mortgage, 3.5% on its 2 year fixed rate mortgage and 3.4% on its Tracker mortgage. Whilst paying savers 0.95% on its esaver, and 0.70% on its Bonus Saver, with its instant access Cash ISA paying a paltry 0.5%.

This marks another step on route towards the end of free banking that bank customers have enjoyed since the 1980's as ALL banks seek to rebuild their balance sheets.

By Nadeem Walayat
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Nadeem Walayat has over 20 years experience of trading derivatives, portfolio management and analysing the financial markets, including one of few who both anticipated and Beat the 1987 Crash. Nadeem's forward looking analysis specialises on the housing market and interest rates. Nadeem is the Editor of The Market Oracle, a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. We present in-depth analysis from over 250 experienced analysts on a range of views of the probable direction of the financial markets. Thus enabling our readers to arrive at an informed opinion on future market direction. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

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