Use of debit card to transfer cash to Dutch bank

If you can do this I'll be *very* interested but it's not an option that I've ever seen being available as a way to transfer currency to a foreign bank account.

Basically there is still no way to transfer a small amount of money (say up to 100 Euros) economically to an EU bank account.

It used to be possible using EuroCheques but since their demise there seems to be no sensible alternative to sending cash by registered post.

I agree there is no electronic transfer of funds abroad using a debit card. N'wide don't offer it, but your best bet is to get a banker's draft (money order) in euro and post it abroad. Each bank has a partner bank abroad that handles the transaction. Your recipient should get the full amount without any deduction. The fee you pay (around 15-20 for a small amount) covers that. Many banks also offer Swift and Tipa-net which are electronic. Tipa-net by Co-op Bank costs 8, but only available for certain European countries (not NL) and US. It's available to anyone. In each case you have to use the bank's conversion rate, which is probably less good than Nationwide's. You can only use Nationwide Flexcard when you are personally abroad and withdraw euro from a cash machine. Or if your recipient accepts payment by card. Have you tried asking them? Or are they an individual?

Alec

I know most of the possible ways of transferring money having needed to off and on over the past year or two. The £15-20 cost of a draft is prohibitive when sending amount less than £100. It's much cheaper (and easier!) to send cash and either accept the risk (fairly small in my experience) or send it registered.

It's still too expensive for smaller amounts.

There is one final alternative, send traveller's cheques, these are fairly secure and not incredibly expensive. The only problem occurs if the deposit (if it is a deposit) isn't used and you need to get your money back. Lots of hassle!

It sounds like Tipa-net is similer (or the same as) Worldpay which also costs £8 per transfer.

As you say drawing cash abroad is easy now and paying by credit card is easy but sending a small amount of cash to an individual is both difficult and expensive.

You could take your Nationwide card over to Holland. Put it in a cash machine, withdraw some money, and take it into a Dutch bank.

If I want to transfer some money from my Halifax account to my Natwest account, the quickest and cheapest way is to put the Halifax card into a Natwest machine, withdraw the cash and take the cash into the branch.

I guess it is the same for international transfers.

Yes, but it is a bit more expensive and inconvenient to travel to Europe just to transfer some money! :-)

In my case I want to transfer a lot of money, and saving 11/2% - 2% on the exchange rate is a 3 figure sum. I will try and get a NL bank to take the money off my NW debit card - or use the cash machine each day up to the daily limit!!!