Vote in Nationwide's AGM 2009

gowgowuk

Hi,
Yes, me too, have voted NO to everything to show I'm not too happy the way things go at Nationwide.

Rafter

As you are all part owners of Nationwide, I think they would take a members revolt seriously.

What you seem to be asking for is the impossible though? You want interest rates on savings and current accounts increased when profits have already been slashed and the bank of england base rate (to which a lot of Nationwide mortgages are linked) at historically low levels.

Surely it is better to put up with poor rates for a bit rather than have the nationwide broken up and have to go to banks which charge 3% plus for using your card overseas or who pay even worse rates on savings accounts?

Where I do totally agree (as a member of Nationwide) is that the Directors should have waived their long term incentive and bonus (like other society directors have) and they should certainly ditch their stupid advertising campaign and save some money that way.

R.

ag2414

Rafter wrote: »

Surely it is better to put up with poor rates for a bit rather than have the nationwide broken up and have to go to banks which charge 3% plus for using your card overseas or who pay even worse rates on savings accounts?

R.

Don't agree at all. There are now credit cards out there with next to no charges on foreign transactions, and nationwide has now started charging anyway, so even that benefit has gone. Don't get me started on savings rates - I've moved almost all of my savings to banks who offer better rates than the Nationwide.

Ive been very disappointed with them over the last few years - WE are effectively the shareholders, but they don't treat us well at all.

In case you didn't guess, I voted "no" all the way (except to the reappointment of auditors).

AHAR

Don't forget that voting with your feet is another option.

Paul_Herring

ag2414 wrote: »

Don't agree at all. There are now credit cards out there with next to no charges on foreign transactions, and nationwide has now started charging anyway, so even that benefit has gone.

You are aware, aren't you, that the charge only applies in some countries, it's not as high as most others that do charge, and that in some places, like europe, they still aren't charging? (Besides, all CC's charge for withdrawing currency and usually charge interest from the day of wihdrawal - NW's debit card doesn't in the countries concerned, and only charge interest if you go into an overdraft.)

whitleyforest

Re the last post---" you are aware arnt you" The affected countries are everything outside of Euope, are you aware of that? One of the reasons for this is that the society needs to control its costs, as told to me by the branch manager. Many sneaky peaple open a flex account and fund it to use only on holiday! It costs too much I was told. What was not said, as I doubt she did not realise is the society board and staff pay itself on a complicated formula. In order to qualify they must bring down opperating costs, so lets do away with that one benifit straight away ( ever wonder why there are no staff in the tills - more later). The Society also compleats a complicated ......um, feat of self serving statististics. It calculates how much the Society has SAVED its members through better pricing and lower fees! So that would involve comparing youself against the very best and worst out there. As we all know Nationwide is very rarly in the best buy tables. Nationwide also cherry picks its customers for loans and mortgages, if you hold either with the society you are a very very good risk, and good risks are great news to the society as they won't default and dent the "proffits" or salery rises as we call them.
Nationwide seem to do all they can to stop you complaining, you can email a suggestion or worry, but they will not answer it, you can call in as they suggest and talk it over, but this is not a complaint ( in writing) or you can call them, again, its not formal. It would appear they rely on our collective lack of unity to carry on running our society for thier own benefit. Do you imagine for a minute that the teller who paid your cheque in got a 13% pay rise, a 17% rise in pension & a £752 000, medium term bonus. No, they were going to get £50.00 but that was pulled as it was such a bad year (not for the directors) So if you think that this size of increase in pay is NOT OK then vote no.

Paul_Herring

Re the last post---" you are aware arnt you" The affected countries are everything outside of Euope, are you aware of that?

No I'm not, because it's not true.

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/current_account/foreigntransactions.htm

French Guiana isn't in Europe.

French Polynesia isn't in Europe.

Fuerteventura isn't in Europe.

Gran Canaria isn't in Europe.

Israel isn't in Europe.

I'd go down the rest of the list, but I'm sure (judging from your reply) that you aren't at all interested.

Edit: For anyone planning on still objecting to this post because I'm coming across as defending Nationwide, let it be noted that I still voted no to everything on this vote.

agsnu

whitleyforest wrote: »

Re the last post---" you are aware arnt you" The affected countries are everything outside of Euope, are you aware of that?

Good luck finding anything better than 1% for drawing cash out abroad. Cheaper than changing it at home, even. It's still astonishingly good value for money.

I don't know how much Nationwide customers draw out abroad, but it's probably a fair bit. 1% of that is probably a sizeable chunk of change. Nationwide has still done a far better job than most building societies and banks in the past few years.

Do you really think that a slight reduction in executive pay would make any difference? The total bill for this year looks like £6.5m. Member savings balances were £128,284m. If you paid the executives NOTHING, that could be rolled out to members are an increase in interest rates on their savings balances of... wait for it.... 0.005%. Fantastic.

agsnu

Paul_Herring wrote: »

No I'm not, because it's not true.

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/current_account/foreigntransactions.htm

French Guiana isn't in Europe.

French Polynesia isn't in Europe.

Fuerteventura isn't in Europe.

Gran Canaria isn't in Europe.

Sure they are. They're part of the EU and all, what with them being overseas territories of France and Spain....

welshmoneylover

I'm another one who voted no as well and I've never bothered to vote before at an AGM.