Using contactless abroad
How to pay by contactless using your Nationwide debit or credit card when travelling abroad. And what fees to expect.
Where you can use contactless
You can use your contactless debit or credit card to make payments when you're travelling abroad anywhere retailers display the contactless symbol and the Visa logo.
You can also use your digital wallet, such as Google Pay, Apple Pay or Samsung Pay, to make contactless payments anywhere you see their logos.
Contactless payment limit abroad
Each country sets its own limits for contactless payments. It’s usually set to £45, but it can be more than £100.
If you need to pay more than the contactless limit, you can use Chip and PIN.
Changing your contactless settings
We want our customers to be in control of how they use their Nationwide card abroad. That’s why you can:
- order a debit or credit card with contactless disabled
- turn off and on contactless for debit cards (including debit cards you've added to digital wallet apps) using our Banking app.
Note:
You can’t turn contactless on or off for our credit cards. This can only be done with debit cards and digital wallet payments.
How to manage your contactless settings
It’s easy to turn contactless on or off. You just need to:
- Log in to our Banking app.
- Select Manage Cards.
- Select Contactless.
- Change your settings.
In some cases, your contactless payments may still go through if the merchant doesn’t check with us first. For example, on a plane.
If you want to turn contactless back on when you’re back home, you can do this in our app too.
Fees for contactless payments
Check before you go to see what you’ll have to pay. Different cards will have different fees for making payments abroad.