£100 present from Nationwide

[SerendipityJane]

seems not having shareholders isn't such a bad thing for customers. Fancy that ?

[berksandbeyond]

Sorry that was for @Æthelred not sure what happened there with the quote!

[Butitsnotfunnyisititsserious]

@Æthelred

I missed out by the narrowest of margins but I was able to get £175 switching to First Direct and I will also cost Nationwide a few hundred pounds by escalating my complaint to the FCA. I'm now an ex-member of the society and I will boycott it in future - to the extent of even refusing to sell my flat to someone with an offer of a Nationwide mortgage.

How pathetic. I doubt they'll care tbh.

[Gingercatlover]

@Fiftyisthenewsixty
Not if he doesn't have a current account, my 17 yr old received a letter from them about it all.

[BarelyLiterate]

I got my £100 today & DP also got his. Nice one, Nationwide! 🥳

[Oblomov23]

I got it and Dh got it into our joint current account. Nice!

[dreamingofsun]

we have 6 savings accounts, which hold the bulk of our savings and two current accounts (which we really only have so we can manage savings accounts). And got nothing.

So next time they try and sell me something i'll remember how they felt about me and think again.

[SunshineThelma]

I really don't get why some people are so cross about this. It's free money they didn't promise anyone - it's literally a bonus.
Nationwide have to draw a line somewhere and that's customer who are 1) active (current acc) and 2) loyal (savings/mortgage). They'll have set the limits at a level so they pay out an acceptable amount to their business and there will always be people who are just one side of that line or the other.

If you don't qualify, maybe ask the provider you do have a relationship like that with to do something similar, then people who only have a peripheral relationship with them can have a good moan.

[dreamingofsun]

sunshine - so how long should you have a savings account to count as loyal? we have had them for around 20 years, but still didnt qualify.

[Æthelred]

@Ginmonkeyagain

That's hilariously petty! I doubt the FCA will be interested but you do you.

Thanks! If I ended up doing that to a potential buyer, it wouldn't even make the top 5 of the most nihilistic things I have done in my life.

If you escalate a complaint to the FCA I believe it costs the financial institution £750

[Ginmonkeyagain]

Oh. You mean FOS.

[User14528564]

I have about £50k in there and been a member for many years and didn't qualify but fortunately I can easily move my money elsewhere.

[BarelyLiterate]

@User14528564

I have about £50k in there and been a member for many years and didn't qualify but fortunately I can easily move my money elsewhere.

That will be one of the big tests for Nationwide to apply. How many people who have accounts with them but didn’t qualify for the £100 are so pissed off that they actually switch their accounts to another bank?
Presumably, their assumption is that the numbers will be negligible, because however much people like to moan about banks, the reality is that very, very few actually switch.

[User14528564]

It's quite easy to move savings though, I didn't have last years ISA with Nationwide as the interest rate was better elsewhere. I think people don't like change with their current account so much as they use that daily so a clunky website like Nationwide is not so so good whereas savings just sits there for a year or two.

[Æthelred]

@Ginmonkeyagain

Oh. You mean FOS.

Yes, of course - I meant the Ombudsman not the FCA. I am fairly sure I'm right about the £750 figure though. I doubt there's anyone else as mean or as nihilistic as me but I can live in hope!

[User14528564]

@Æthelred

Yes, of course - I meant the Ombudsman not the FCA. I am fairly sure I'm right about the £750 figure though. I doubt there's anyone else as mean or as nihilistic as me but I can live in hope!

You may find some on MSE forums, there are some not very happy people there, I'm not very happy but will just move my savings out when they reach the end of their term, I don't think I am alone in doing this

[Stepbystep100]

Dad says he will too. Nothing for genuine loyalty.

There could have been an option for people who have been with Nationwide for many years, even if they weren't particularly active in the current account in recent months.

He can't move until his fixed rate ends but then bye bye NW.

[User14528564]

The Nationwide vote will be out soon, I will use mine carefully

[Ginmonkeyagain]

The problem is sticky customers who don't make many transactions aren't really valuable customers.

If you have a current account just for tranfering elatively small amounts of savings or a savings account sitting there with not many regular deposits then you are probably costing them money.

[User14528564]

@Ginmonkeyagain

The problem is sticky customers who don't make many transactions aren't really valuable customers.

If you have a current account just for tranfering elatively small amounts of savings or a savings account sitting there with not many regular deposits then you are probably costing them money.

I have about £50k in there so not a small amount, well it may be to you but not to me. Don't they need people with savings in there.

[Ginmonkeyagain]

They do - but £50k is really not a huge amount in the scheme of things.

What they have shown they want is customers who carry out a variety of activities - saving regularly, borrowing, using current accounts for their main fiancial acitivities.

TBH I think the criteria are a little unfair on longer term higher value savers and bond holders, but I suspect if Nationwide is to do this regularly they have set the rules fairly harshly to prevent carpet baggers (eg people who will just set up little used current accounts and low value savings accounts simply to try and qualify for future bonuses.)

[User14528564]

Well, it's a good job I'm relieving them of my money and taking it elsewhere then plus the further £55k I will be getting in a few months and would have probably put some in the Nationwide. They cheekily even sent me out an email telling me to take their new Bond, exactly for customers like me they said so they had my money for a further two years

[Ginmonkeyagain]

Well that is your choice in a free market.

[User14528564]

Maybe if all the small savers like me took their savings elsewhere they won't have enough profits to give out bonuses to current account holders next year

[Ginmonkeyagain]

Maybe and Nationwide will have to look again at it. Or may be not. It was a gamble. For every saver like you bent out of shape about not getting £100, there are probably a fair few more who are very pleased about getting it.

Them's the breaks with these things.

TBH I do get the £100 but it is poor compensation for the fact I had to renew my mortgage deal with Nationwide in October and now am £120 PER MONTH worse off.

[SerendipityJane]

@User14528564

Maybe if all the small savers like me took their savings elsewhere they won't have enough profits to give out bonuses to current account holders next year

You'd rather profits went to shareholders ?