Barbara wrote on Dec 29^th, 2006 at 2:30pm:


The point is that you the members of Nationwide Building Society own it so it is your interest rather than that of shareholders that they are inclined to put first.  To be fair to Nationwide they only use 0845 for their national call centres (using geographic numbers for all their branches which you can get through to directly) because they are on several sites and up to now it has not been possible to offer call transfer and redirection across multiple sites without a great deal of inconvenience without using 0845 numbers.  This will obviously change when 03xx numbers are launched shortly.

As to Nationwide being the first to admit that customers with call packages do not like calling 0845 in fact they were beaten to it just before Chrismas by www.aceinternet.co.uk who released their main 0161 geographic number as an alternative on their website specifically because they said 0161 was not liked by customers with inclusive call packages (also mentioned in their press release in the thread I started on this topic).

Also the ISP www.vivaciti.co.uk has just said they will be changing from 0870 numbers to 0800 numbers as a direct result of the thread I started relating to rival Entanet ISP Freeola using 0871 numbers and calling them National Rate that then developed into a wider discussion of the calling costs to contact all the various Entanet ISP resellers including ADSL24 (already 0800), UKFSN (London 020) and the rest (all previously 0845, 0870 or 0871).

So little by little the message gets through in some places.  The main scandal is Ofcom not taking advertising saying 0845 and 0870 are not Local/National rate and will cost you extra if you have an inclusive call package and off peak.  They will have no excuse for not doing this once they make 037 numbers available and I for one will be making various FOI enquiries asking what their plans are for taking such advertising.

Oh lord, NGM; Ofcom to introduce 037?
Right let's really mess up the UK Numbering Scheme, rather than merely use 082, for example.
What a depressing start to the New Year.

082?
Really thinking of retaining 03X for geographic expansion and using another part of 08X for non-geog numbering, whilst allowing 087's and 084's revenue "sharing" to die. Rather like 0891 was used when 0898 had been "sullied".

Yup, WELL DONE, NATIONWIDE.

If all their (so called) advisers are busy, they now provide the facility to leave a number and they will call back.

The nice thing is, they did

Tanllan wrote on Jan 4^th, 2007 at 8:57pm:


082 is used already for schools dial up internet access. Calls to these numbers are free for registered schools for a certain ammount of time each day.

trubster wrote on Jan 10^th, 2007 at 9:38pm:


The best reason to change to Nationwide is overseas credit card use and overseas cash machine withdrawals.

The Nationwide blue Visa debit card charges no fee at all for use at overseas cash machines (however small the withdrawal) and the exchange rate conversion is also not subject to the 2.75% foreign exchange rate levy (hidden ripoff fee) that was sneakily introduced by virtually all other card operators 5 to 10 years ago.  Also Nationwide Visa credit card transactions at overseas shops and restaurants are not subject to 2.75% foreign exchange rate levy although there is a 1% fee for cash machine withdrawals on the credit card (still lower than the opposition credit cards charge) hence it being better to use the blue Visa debit card to make the cash withdrawals.  These cards also come in handy for buying goods and services from overseas suppliers online as everything is 2.75% cheaper than with rival cards.

Keith wrote on Jan 11^th, 2007 at 9:18am:


The Nationwide Visa Credit Card (not blue but Gold in my case) is also immune from the 2.75% foreign exchange rate levy, unlike almost any other card apart from one I think CIS launched recently.

So the rule is Blue Nationwide Visa marked debit card for cash machine use overseas and other Nationwide visa credit card (various possible colours depending which one you got but not marked debit card) in shops and restaurants.

Of course back in the UK I use my MBNA Conran Visa card for all transactions as it gives me 1% Cashback at the end of each account year on everything.   This is not a lure you in deal as Sir Terence Conran's design feature apart from a very pretty card was one that gave you a share of the profits.  Its been running the 1 % cashback for the last five years.  This is unlike people like Morgan Stanley who lure you in with high cashback and then slash the rate a few months later.

See www.conran.com/activities/creditcard.html

and

www.dooyoo.co.uk/credit-card/conran-credit-card/1029664/

Basically the card to use in the UK if you pay off your bill in full each month.  Not the card to use abroad as 1% cashback is less good than the Nationwide foreign exchange rate levy saving plus Conran card also charges £3 minimum cash machine withdrawal fee.

In the course of an abortive session trying to get through to Nationwide Card Services (fortunately using the geo no NOT 0845 as have been on hold for 40mins without success so gave up!) I discovered one of the numbers in the database gives the message "no longer available".   It is 01793 556811 which now redirects to 08457 302010) so perhaps this could be removed.