Nationwide Fairer Share

[elkiedee]

Nationwide has announced their Fairer Share payment today. They are giving lots of members £100 each, including DP (for the first time), our two sons and me (for the 3rd or 4th time/year.

If you haven't qualified, it's too late for this year but you've got a few months to decide whether it's worth applying for accounts you don't have and juggling your money around - it doesn't take that long to research and do for £100. Though it is apparently counted as interest if you would pay tax on £100 extra interest.

For next years fairer share Virgin accounts will also help qualify, just for anyone who has Virgin accounts as well

Unfortunately I don't qualify this year. Not enough transactions through my current account (obviously it's not my main one & I don't want to change as First Direct are brilliant ). I'll have to keep it in mind for next year, note in diary!

Enjoy spending/saving everyone!!

still feeling disappointed. I got £50 last year having only recently opened an account and now have several but did not qualify this time.

I think the £50 had a much lower bar of eligibility due to the nature of that payment which was different to the annual fairer share payment, most nationwide customers got it. Worth looking at the criteria for next year.

Yes i had a letter from them im getting it next month.
Woop woop.

The £50 was a thank you to all members because they acquired virgin money. The £100 is for people who use it as their everyday bank

Ah thank you, that makes sense. However I thought I would have qualified if last year’s criteria had applied this. I made two deposits into my current ac during first quarter but one was less than £500 and not enough payments out.

I’m guessing as they expand they’re tightening the criteria, otherwise they’ll have to cut it and people have become accustomed to it being £100. I think it makes sense for it to be people who genuinely use it as their main bank account

It is for customers who use Nationwide as their everyday bank. They change the qualifying criteria to make sure it is still sustainable to do, the criteria makes sure the majority who use it as their main everyday bank will still qualify whilst weeding out those who don't. Even with the change in criteria they will still be paying out to 400,000 more customers this year and with VM customers being eligible next year I assume they will tighten it even more.

The criteria this year are exactly the same as last year - if you had received two £500 payments into your current account in Jan/Feb/March (two different months) or made at least two payments out in two different months AND you had a qualifying savings (more than £100) or mortgage then you would have qualified.

You can’t mix and match the criteria (eg one £500 in, two payments out next month).

@LIZS looking at what you said you wouldn't have qualified under last year's criteria either both payments needed to be £500 or more last year as well. The criteria they amended this year was around switches

Fair enough, it was an oversight on my part!

That's annoying, but now you can have money in several ISAs, and etc, all you need to do is put £100 into an eligible account - whichever one will earn the best rate that you don't have already - before the end of the year. For example, if you open a Regular Saver today, you can if you want just put in £100 and forget about it, and earn 6.5% gross on it at the end of 12 months, then an FSP next June! It's still not much but that's quite a nice thing to pull off.

Alternatively, if you put in £20 each month July- December, you could even miss a month You can even withdraw up to 3 times if so long as you pay money back in (up to £200 a month). There are so many ways of meeting that if it doesn't become harder in 2027 to get an FSP..

Worst case scenario, you have £100 doing better than many cash savings accounts.

Not financial advice, just love doing this as a real life puzzle. And I am doing it as if I were me without already having had much more than £100 of my savings in the Nationwide since the 1990s.

It's not harder than in any other year. In 2024, 2025, and now this year 2026, it's actually been easier than in 2023 to meet the requirements. The only thing is that is harder is understanding the rules because there are so many possible ways of getting there.

It must be harder this year than last year as last year I got the money and this year i didn’t 😁. Same accounts and same (lack of regular) usage.

Nationwide current account is not my main account, that is with another bank which I prefer. I do have about £50k savings with Nationwide. I got the £100. Each year I transfer £500 to Nationwide in Jan, Feb, Mar. Then I make 2 payments each of those months, using the £500 and that seems to do the trick. I think you only have to do this for 2 of those months but I do 3 to be on the safe side.

One year they will probably change it though

Nationwide is not my main account as I don't have a job, and I'm not eligible for benefits. It doesn't need to be. The main thing is not amounts, but fulfilling two criteria.

Yeah, I put a few bigger payments directly into my mortgage from my main current account with another bank, if I'd done it via my NW current account I'd have qualified but I didn't think about it, I've put a note in my diary for next year.

Apparently the conditions will be ever tighter next year as Virgin Money accounts may have to be included.

Virgin Money customers who meet the criteria will be eligible next year that is right.. what the criteria will be is unknown but I believe anyone who is a regular user which is who it is aimed at will be able to qualify. If they even do it next year, it's all based on performance from the previous year.

Remember though that because they are generating profits from Virgin Money there will be more profits available to share around, so it shouldn't necessarily be the case that the criteria would be stricter just because they would also distributing the fairer share payment to Virgin customers next year.

I'm not sure where this has come from as even nationwide don't know what the criteria will be next year. I can't see it changing much

They’ve already sent letters to folks with Virgin accounts saying they will be included

Yes, they will be included but you'd be a bit foolish not to keep an eye on what the eligibility criteria will be for 2027.

"Nationwide has officially stated that it has roughly 17 million existing members, bringing the combined group's total reach to over 23 million customers"

Not all of these new members will qualify, obviously.

"We would like to make a Fairer Share payment every year, but this will depend on how we perform financially. These terms and conditions only apply to the payment we are making in 2026. The amount of any payment and the eligibility criteria may change from year to year, so you should always refer to the terms and conditions for the year of the payment."
From their website