Nationwide are rubbish

ajharris

About eleven years ago I left the Abbey National (Now Santander:eek:) and opened a Nationwide Flex account, what a bunch of clowns these people are. The only good thing about them is a half decent website and the free/cheap overseas card usage.

The so called world's largest building society cannot do a weekly standing order, i.e pay a certain amount evry Friday, it has to be on a certain date every month, no good if you are paid on Fridays. The on line full statements are a day behind. The in branch service is lame. If you apply for an overdraft and it is approved on line you have to wait two days to access the money. When you make a cash withdrawal it does not tell you the location on the statement, can be confusing. They claim that you can cancel paper statments however if you go overdrawn they notify you of the charges by post and send you a full statement as part of their policy. Effictively you can only have paperless banking if you are constantly in credit. I was once charged 1p interest and was sent a statement.

I have kept the account for overseas usage but I think that within a couple of years they will revoke this perk, bang goes their USP. Their so called fast pay implementation is nothing short of woeful. They are probably just as bad as the dreaded Santander.

I have now jumped ship and am delighted with the HSBC. I am a plus customer and have no issues with paying the £12.95 a month for the perks and first class service.

Avoid Nationwide and Santander like the plague

choc_mouse

ajharris wrote: »

They claim that you can cancel paper statments however if you go overdrawn they notify you of the charges by post and send you a full statement as part of their policy. Effictively you can only have paperless banking if you are constantly in credit. I was once charged 1p interest and was sent a statement.

I think that's a legal requirement for the bank/building society to send you a paper statement if there are any charges to your account; even if you have paper-free. This is shown on my statement screen

Important: If you incur any charges on your accounts we are required to send you a paper copy of your statement showing these charges. This will be sent on your next statement date.

I don't think all the problems you highlighted are all that serious tbh. Perhaps only the non-ability to set up a weekly SO might be a bit annoying for me.

Inactive

ajharris wrote: »

c

I have now jumped ship and am delighted with the HSBC. I am a plus customer and have no issues with paying the £12.95 a month for the perks and first class service.

Avoid Nationwide and Santander like the plague

Why " jump ship "? I use both HSBC and Nationwide.

MORPH3US

Faster payments or the lack of them is what really peeves me off about Nationwide... what a joke.

seven-day-weekend

I became a Nationwide customer through my previous Building Society being taken over.

I instantly opened a Flexaccount so that I can have the card facility as I live half the year in Spain.

I've not put a lot into it yet, but from today I have my State Pension going in every Monday.

I don't have an overdraft facility or any direct debits on the account.

So hope it's OK!

dzug1

So you are happy to pay HSBC's charges for overseas payments?

2.99% plus a 2.5% fee for cash. Your plus account may well excuse you the latter, but certainly not the former.

I'd have kept both accounts in the same circumstances

Inactive

7-day-weekend.....I do similar, best move that I have ever made for currency in Spain.

ajharris

choc_mouse wrote: »

I think that's a legal requirement for the bank/building society to send you a paper statement if there are any charges to your account; even if you have paper-free. This is shown on my statement screen

I don't think all the problems you highlighted are all that serious tbh. Perhaps only the non-ability to set up a weekly SO might be a bit annoying for me.

It is not a legal requirement to sent you written notification of impending chagres. I was told by a member of Nationwide staff that their system does not allow you to view pending charges on line hence the postal notification. HSBC warns you on line.

lolarentt

ajharris wrote: »

Avoid Nationwide and Santander like the plague

I have a Santander account abroad, and also one here with Cater Allen, who are part of Santander now, and I have no problems with them at all. I think it's the Abbey organisation that needs sorting out, rather than Santander itself.

Agree N'wide are hopeless, although I keep a Flexa/c and CC going for foreign use - we use the Flex as a sort of holiday savings fund! I think my Nwide story beats anything I've heard - they took my name off a internet only savings a/c (just removed it suddenly and duplicated my partners name so the ac read 'Miss A N Other & Miss A N Other, she was the second ac holder) and then of course wouldn't discuss it with me on the phone because the ac number I was quoting wasn't for an account in my name! Neither of us could access the ac because I was the online ac holder and the account just wasn't listed any more - I would add it had a significant amount of money in it as Nwide ac rates were good at that time!. It took ages to sort out - I had to visit a local branch and make a lot of noise in a busy bank to get to see the manager, as I had paper proof that the ac was mine the month before. They got on the case but I never got an explanation, and it took him, his IT expert, Nwide HO to get my name back on a week later. He did phone daily with a progress (or lack of) report . In the end I had apologies and it was put down to a 'clerical error' back at base!!

ajharris

I have kept the account for overseas usage but I think that within a couple of years they will revoke this perk, bang goes their USP

Inactive

ajharris wrote: »

I have kept the account for overseas usage but I think that within a couple of years they will revoke this perk, bang goes their USP

I don't, I suspect that a high percentage of their customers use the NW for this facility alone, I certainly do.