Just a word of warning if you are taking the Nationwide Flex Account debit card with you to Italy!
I nearly had a heart attack when the vey first two ATMs we tried on our holiday came back with the message ;
"Contact your bank. This card is not authorised for foreign transactions"
....especially since it was a Sunday afternoon and we were out for the day and needing cash.
This was NOT a new card, or account - and I'd used it with no problem at all in Florida, Cyprus, Turkey and also in Switzerland, within the 12 months before our trip to Italy, and in other countries in previous years.
Fortunately we chanced another ATM and it worked no problem - though by this time I was starting to get worried that our card might get swallowed, effectively leaving us unable to get cash at a reasonable rate for our holiday, whilst our 'holiday money' lay unavailable in our Flex account.
Sorry I can't remember exactly which banks' ATMs it was that didn't work, but the Postale (with its yellow/blue branding) ATM worked fine amongst others.
Just thought I'd post this so nobody else finds themselves stressed out like we did, on the first day of our holiday !
If you do get the above message we got .....then do try other bank ATMs and don't panic !
Good advice to try and try again.
When we were in Vegas recently my N/W Gold credit card was declined when trying to buy show tickets. It's the first time that's happened despite using it all over the world for years.
I called them up and was on the mobile for ages before I got to speak to someone, at £1.10/min. I was told there was no problem with the card, that it wasn't block, that it was probably a problem with the merchant and to try it somewhere else, which we did and it worked.
I ran up a bill of over £50 with that call which turned out to be unnecessary. Even though we had other cards and weren't depending on that one, it's just my nature to want it sorted out ASAP, but I hope I've learned not to be so hasty next time.
luci
When we were in Vegas recently my N/W Gold credit card was declined when trying to buy show tickets. It's the first time that's happened despite using it all over the world for years.
I called them up and was on the mobile for ages before I got to speak to someone, at £1.10/min. I was told there was no problem with the card, that it wasn't block, that it was probably a problem with the merchant and to try it somewhere else, which we did and it worked.
I ran up a bill of over £50 with that call which turned out to be unnecessary. Even though we had other cards and weren't depending on that one, it's just my nature to want it sorted out ASAP, but I hope I've learned not to be so hasty next time.
luci
We had the same problem last week in Venice. We tried 3 ATMs before we found one that would give us cash from our Nationwide Flex account. The bank that worked for us was called (I think) something like Bancomat and it was in a square between St Mark's Square and the Rialto Bridge. It was opposite Burger King -if anyone knows the area maybe they will provide the address.
The bank that worked for us was called (I think) something like Bancomat
Yes, that rings a bell for us too because my husband kept refering to it as the "Bancomatic" !!
Just to confirm that we found these branches were OK too.
It is Bancomat. Also worth looking for because they give you the option of selecting your own language.
Bancomat is actually the ATM network of the main Italian banks and is the equivalent of Link in the UK. Is it possible that the machines that are refusing the cards are those run by third parties like you see in some shops/service stations in Britain (the ones that aren't run by a bank and which charge for withdrawals)??? Don't assume that the refusal message is 100% accurate, if it's been translated it may mean that the machine isn't cleared for international transactions.
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