NAB, or the National Australia Bank, or, is one of the largest banks in Australia. It also has more than eight million customers globally, is active in ten other countries and is the world’s seventeenth largest bank. It started as a collection of regional Australian banks.
National Australian Bank offers its debit cards through VISA, which is the largest global credit and debit card provider. A large number of places accept VISA. This is particularly important outside Australia where a free standing EFTPOS card is very rarely accepted. VISA in contrast has 29 million outlets accepting their card.
VISA offers various services on the card. This includes the “verified by VISA” programme which offers greater peace of mind and security with internet transactions. This is done by ensuring that registered transactions on the internet are verified by a separate password screen. VISA also offers the ability to take advantage of pre-release availability of tickets for many music and sports events.
VISA has a zero liability policy where unauthorised transactions on a VISA card are not charged to the account holder. This relies on the card holder not helping the people who’ve committed the theft or fraud and reporting the missing card in good time.
On top of the VISA protections NAB also offers transaction monitoring and an SMS monitoring service.
As well as Debit card payments NAB’s card can also be used as an EFTPOS card and can withdraw cash from ATMs. As with almost all debit cards, the NAB debit card is tied to a current account. This means that the debit card is unable to build up the same sort of debt that a credit card can build up, and also it will not cost the same sort of interest.
There are two banking accounts that NAB customers are offered that will also allow them use of the debit card. These are NAB Classic Banking and NAB Gold Banking.
The NAB Gold Banking account is the premium banking account. It has a relatively high monthly fee, $10, which works out to $120 over the year. There is constant access to NAB’s banking services, including cash machines overseas (such as the Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks in the UK). NAB also offers free travel insurance and commission free conversion to foreign currency. There is also purchase protection insurance.
The NAB Classic banking account has a lower fee, but limits the amount of transactions that carried out in a month. It also does not have the travel insurance that the gold banking option has.