Foreign exchange rates

Our international payments and currency conversion services are carried out by a third party provider.

If you make an international payment from your Nationwide account, you can choose to send it in foreign currency or in pound sterling.

If you make an international payment in foreign currency, we will convert the money from pound sterling to the foreign currency before sending it. We use the latest standard outbound exchange rate, which is updated throughout the day. The standard outbound exchange rate includes a currency conversion mark-up of 2.2%. The mark-up is added by the third party processing the currency conversion. We receive a share of this mark-up. The standard outbound exchange rate shown on your statement includes the currency conversion mark-up of 2.2%.

We will display the total charge of the 2.2% currency conversion mark-up when you request to make a payment with us.

Example transaction

The exchange rate and figures below are only an example.

You send $100 to a foreign bank account.

Nationwide uses a third party to convert pound sterling into dollars using an exchange rate of: $1 = £0.8392.

This exchange rate includes a currency conversion mark-up of 2.2%. For $100 this mark-up equals £1.81.

The mark-up amount and calculation will not appear on your statement as it is included in the exchange rate.

The amount of pound sterling converted is £83.92.

A £15 SWIFT transaction charge is applied.

The total amount taken from your Nationwide account is £98.92.

If you choose to send your payment in pound sterling the receiving foreign bank will convert the currency. They will use their own exchange rate and may apply their own charges to the transaction.

Our international payments and currency conversion services are carried out by a third party provider.

When a foreign bank sends money to Nationwide, they will either convert the money into pound sterling before sending it to us, or they will send it as foreign currency.

When we receive an international inbound payment in foreign currency, we use the standard inbound exchange rate to convert the currency into pound sterling. A currency conversion mark-up of 0.5% is included in the standard inbound exchange rate. This percentage is set by the third party and is not an additional charge from Nationwide. The standard inbound exchange rate shown on your statement includes the currency conversion mark-up of 0.5%.

If a foreign bank converts the money to pound sterling before sending it to us, the 0.5% mark-up will not apply. However, the sending bank may apply their own charges.

Example transaction

The exchange rate and figures below are only an example.

$100 is sent to your Nationwide account.

Nationwide uses a third party to convert the dollars into pound sterling using an exchange rate of $1 = £0.8253.

This exchange rate includes a currency conversion mark-up of 0.5%. For $100 this mark-up equals £0.41.

The mark-up amount and calculation will not appear on your statement as it is included in the exchange rate.

The total amount received into your Nationwide account is £82.53.