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My friend and i who are both 18 are going to australia and new zealand for a total of 3 months. we have money to go on our debit cards but in case there is an emergency (say something is stolen or we need to pay medical expenses) we are thinking of getting a credit card.ideally, we would need one that would not charge us to use abroad.which would be the best bank/building society to take one out with? we have heard nationwide do not charge you for withdrawing abroad.ta, mel

You are getting confused between taking out money on a debit card and credit card. nationwide does not charge for withdrawing money using a cash machine abroad using a debit card. however, all credit cards make charges for cash withdrawals, and they also charge a much higher (sometimes an awful lot higher) interest rate on cash withdrawals. added to this, is that most cash withdrawals using a credit card do not have an interest-free period. by all means get a credit card for emergencies, but i would not recommend even thinking about using it for cash withdrawals. instead, keep it for emergency expenditure in shops, medical expenses etc. cheers, n