Rising overdraft costs at Nationwide

Edificator

Shamefully I don't always read all the leaflets that come with my bank statements so I have missed the gradual creeping up of overdraft charges at Nationwide. Apr08 arranged overdraft interest rates were at 9.9%. One year later they are at 17.9%. With interest rates on savings drastically squeezed and loan interest rates down to next to nothing how can they justify this? :mad:.

They have started to charge you for using ATMs abroad in some countries too if you use their visa debit card too. All in all, I feel their accounts are not so favourable as they used to be.

opinions4u

Edificator wrote: »

Shamefully I don't always read all the leaflets that come with my bank statements so I have missed the gradual creeping up of overdraft charges at Nationwide.

Always worth spending a minute or two reading this stuff.

Apr08 arranged overdraft interest rates were at 9.9%. One year later they are at 17.9%. With interest rates on savings drastically squeezed and loan interest rates down to next to nothing how can they justify this?

Simple. More people are defaulting on their overdrafts. To cover these losses, the rates charged to customers have increased.

They have started to charge you for using ATMs abroad in some countries too if you use their visa debit card too.

They are still better than most providers though.

All in all, I feel their accounts are not so favourable as they used to be.

There are a fair few alternatives out there if you don't like what your getting.

Perhaps you should spend less money going abroad and use the savings to reduce your overdraft. That way you will pay less in interest and nothing in overseas ATM fees!

Edificator

opinions4u wrote: »

Perhaps you should spend less money going abroad and use the savings to reduce your overdraft. That way you will pay less in interest and nothing in overseas ATM fees!

I didn't say I had an overdraft, I was merely just highlighting the apparent discrepacy between the direction overdraft interests rates are going relative to all other rates. Just in case others too had failed to notice and were tempted to call upon their overdraft facility.

Nationwide's overdraft rate used to be so competitive that it wasn't worth even considering taking out personal loan for short-term borrowing, with their rate now similar to many credit cards a personal loans would be a far more sensible option.

bristolleedsfan

Edificator wrote: »

I didn't say I had an overdraft, I was merely just highlighting the apparent discrepacy between the direction overdraft interests rates are going relative to all other rates. Just in case others too had failed to notice and were tempted to call upon their overdraft facility.

Nationwide's overdraft rate used to be so competitive that it wasn't worth even considering taking out personal loan for short-term borrowing, with their rate now similar to many credit cards a personal loans would be a far more sensible option.

Overdrafts and Credit Card balances not paid in full are only intended to be extremely short term borrowing, whereas Personal Loans are intended to be medium/long term. The comparison that you have made is a little like comparing bread with biscuits.

apt

If Nationwide has any significant problem with defaults it will be with mortgages rather than current accounts. I would guess that NW has made losses on Flexaccounts, but now with unfavourable circumstances can no longer run the product as a loss leader hence the series of adverse changes to the account in the last year or two. Many of these changes were probably unavoidable, but if Nationwide really was acting as a genuine mutual it would be cutting back on empire building, expensive sponsorship and advertising, and pruning executive pay as well as increasing margins.

7sefton

Nationwide's overdraft rates are now the same as Barclays and a number of other high street banks. Another nail in the coffin for the #mutual difference' if you ask me.

agsnu

Well they're no longer proud to be different, they're just proud to be a building society. Perhaps this is an acknowledgement from the horse's mouth that building societies are all too similar to banks these days...