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Cash Reward from Nationwide

This card was last reviewed on Wednesday, 15 March 2006.

Card Details
Overall Rating: 5 stars overall rating
Issued By: Nationwide
Card: Cash Reward
Network: Visa
Category: Rewards
Acceptance: 5 acceptance rating
Insurance: Purchase, Travel Accident, Extended Warranty
Service: Branch network. Online account management. 8am-10pm telephone line (Mon-Fri, 8am-8pm Sat).
Comments: Great Foreign Usage
Pitch: "Your perfect travelling companion. Check out why our cards are better than cash abroad!"
APR & Rates
Typical APR: 15.9%
Interest Free Days: 56
Minimum Repayment: -
Annual Fee: -
Balance Transfers
APR: -
Period: -
Charges: -
Purchases
APR: -
Period: -
Rewards
Type: Cashback
Description: 1
Reward Rate: 0.5
Period: 6 months
Comments and Reviews
Aimed At: Individuals that travel overseas extensively or frequently purchase products from non-UK internet sites. Best for people that clear their balances in full each month.
Updated Review: This card is no longer avalible
Review: Nationwide Cash Reward

The Nationwide Cash Reward card offers 0.5% cashback at a standard rate of 15.9%. For the first 6 months, cashback on purchases earns 1%.

At first glance, these figures seem slightly uncompetitive; after all, the Accucard set to high cashback provides a healthy 0.8% cashback, yet charges a standard APR of 14%. However, there are a lot of extras that come with the Nationwide card that don’t show up in the basic figures (see below).

These benefits effectively remove all hidden extras and fees from the equation, and Nationwide should be commended for this. Overall, this cashback credit card is actually pretty good, but as with all rewards cards, we would only recommend them to people that clear their balances in full each month.

Nationwide Credit Cards

As the largest remaining mutual building society, Nationwide cards offer a number of features that set them apart from other UK credit cards.

Most credit card issuers charge a foreign transactions fee of up to 2.75% on all purchases and cash advances made in any currency other than UK Sterling. These foreign usage fees also apply on debit card transactions and ATM withdrawals made from current-accounts. Nationwide are one of the few card issuers that do not charge you for using your card outside the UK. This is not only useful for people that travel frequently, but if you make a lot of online purchases from websites based outside the UK, this facility can also be extremely beneficial.

When using an ATM, card issuers will charge you a handling fee of up around 2% of the transaction for cash advances made on a card. This charge also usually applies for withdrawals from cash machines outside the UK, regardless of whether a credit card or debit card is used. These fees can penalise you particularly badly if you use your card to withdraw lots of small amounts of cash outside the UK, as the minimum charge for doing this is generally between £1.50 and £2. Nationwide only charge £1 for cash advances both outside and within the UK (although this increases to 1.25% [minimum £1.25] from 1 June 2004.

Credit cards operate on the basis that your repayments pay off the balance that charges the lowest interest rate first, right up to paying off the highest APR balance at the very end. With Nationwide, once the minimum payment has been made, payments are deducted from the balance that bears the highest interest first, then works its way down to the lowest APR balances last. It means the Nationwide doesn’t make as much money as they could, but that’s one of the many benefits of banking with an organisation that does not pay out profits to shareholders.

Verdict: -
Overall Rating: 5 stars overall rating
 
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