Nationwide starts to charge on card use abroad

As you can see from the picture at the top of this Blog, I am a Nationwide customer and during the last few years I have frequently promoted, to family and friends, the fact that you can withdraw cash and use your Nationwide cards abroad without facing charges. Nationwide itself has continually promoted this, year after year, but sadly that is coming to an end. Nationwide Building Society has scrapped the promise of fee-free foreign transactions on its debit and credit cards.
From the beginning of May, more than a million customers using Nationwide credit or debit cards (not Mastercards) outside of the UK and Europe will be hit with a 0.84 per cent charge per transaction, equivalent to 84p for every £100.
As my eldest child went on her first holiday without the family 2 years ago, I encouraged her to open a Nationwide account so she could withdraw cash abroad without facing charges. I always felt safe, that if she ran out of cash, I could deposit some into her account and she would be able to withdraw without penalty.
As if the situation with the Euro isn't bad enough the only Building Society not to charge for transactions abroad has now fallen inline with the other Banking institutions. Very Sad - what do you think? Do you prefer to withdraw cash abroad rather than taking Travellers Cheques or Currency?