I sent this message to Nationwide through my on line account:

"Nationwide in its advertising has made much of the fact that it does not 'hoik' (your words, not mine) customers into its saving accounts at a high interest rate only to drop the rate soon after.

Is Nationwide not guilty of doing this with their credit and debit cards having widely advertised no currency/conversion charges on overseas transactions only to suddenly introduce a 1% fee?

Your comments are welcome."

This is the reply I received:

"Thank you for your message.

The industry is in a vastly different and extraordinary financial climate to that of several years ago and, as a responsible lender, it is no longer commercially viable for us to continue meeting the cost of fees passed on to us by VISA.

Regrettably this has meant the difficult decision has been taken to start passing on this VISA fee to our customers.

Regards,
xxxxx xxxxxx
Customer Advisor"

Still, there's no charge in Europe and the 1% elsewhere is still far less than other cards charge. I'll stick with Nationwide.

Nigel.