Nationwide - any good?

ray123

Pro:
-75 pound for making it main account
-Free (or almost free) use of debit card abroad.
Against:
-Online customer service was poor (IMO and I have only used it once).
-account does not pay interest
-Does not accept or provide faster payments (IMO a joke)


I would advise that you open the account, take the 75 pounds and thereafter transfer your main account from nationwide to lloyds TSB (vantage a/c) which offers 4% on balances between 5-7k (as you previously said that you are always in credit).

apn_2

Call centres terrible. No records on system so every different person you speak to asks you to run through the problem. You can't speak directly to the same person so if you have a query and member of nationwide asks you to check something when you phone back (and it's press 1 for ## and press 2 for ## etc etc !!) you get a new member of staff who then asks you what's it in connection with. Very very very annoying if like me you are trying to solve a problem which has gone on for weeks. Part of the reason it goes on and on is that staff promise to phone back and just don't. A week last Wed someone promised me that they would sort my problem and phone me back on Fri. They did this and said they were waiting for another section to get back to them. I didn't hear any more from them.More phonecalls a different person promised to ring me Thurs at 10.At 3.30 and surprise surprise no phone call I had to phone them again!!!sorry this is so long i could write pages.Oh as well they seem to have remarkably frequent "I'll just put you on hold" and line goes dead so you have to go back through the whole press 1 for ## routine.I feel a bit better now haha (still not sorted though!!)

ray123

Apn:

I would advise that you use the online messaging service available. I had similar problem with telephone support and turned to the messaging service which was fantastic and provides a paper trail of correspondence for future reference.

One_Day_Rodney

ray123 wrote:

-Does not accept or provide faster payments (IMO a joke)

This is not strictly true. I have two current accounts with Nationwide with different sort codes. One does accept/sends faster payments and the other doesn't.
From the Nationwide website:

From 4 February 2010 we increased the individual transaction limit for sending Faster Payments to £250. Daily limits will apply and current limits and restrictions are updated in our FAQs.
This service is only available to FlexAccounts customers with a
07-02-46 sort code. Your sort code can be found on the bottom left hand corner of your debit card.
In the coming months we’ll be extending the service to all FlexAccount customers. We’ll notify you on this page when you are able to use this facility.

I have been using Nationwide for more than 5yrs now for my current accounting and mortgage, and have found their service to be excellent.
Any problems I have had, have been sorted quickly.

ray123

That is true, but the majority of customers are not able to take advantage of this. Also, 250 pound limit is quite poor IMO.

'Nationwide: Completion date slipped from end of 2008 to Mar09 to Jun 09, and what are the odds of it slipping past Jun09! (New accounts opened online seem to automatically get the FPS receive enabled sortcode, Max send limit increased from £10 to £250 Feb2010)'

I am happy that you have found their service excellent and hope that it continues.

apn_2

ray123 wrote: »

Apn:

I would advise that you use the online messaging service available. I had similar problem with telephone support and turned to the messaging service which was fantastic and provides a paper trail of correspondence for future reference.

I did not know about this.It is a much better option because there is a record.At the moment with my case I have to give them ten days and they will contact me(don't ask!) when they will have information. When I don't hear from them (which I won't!) I will use this service. Better for my blood pressure I imagine.Thanks very much. I would be happy if I never had to speak to them again!!

One_Day_Rodney

The maximum single faster payment is indeed £250, but the daily limit for faster payment transfer is £1000.

Any payments beyond the £1000 will go by conventional BACS transfer.


I agree, that although not ideal, it still saves me having to go to the Nationwide branch first to withdraw the cash before I can deposit it into another account (held by a different bank) if I need to do so quickly.

Rich1976

I generally find Nationwide to be very good and have been a customer with various products for 12 years. There are some aspects which are annoying such as the faster payments, the fact that I had to ask them to send me a card reader because I had assumed they would send me one automatically so couldn't do any transfers for a week.

The phone service use to be bad in that you used to be in a queue for 20-25 minutes sometimes but now I always get through straight away and most of the staff are polite and helpful. I think it helps to be one step ahead of them as sometimes what you get told in branch is different to over the phone - but this happens everywhere.

So all in all, I would rather use Nationwide than the majority of the banks anyday, with the possible exception of First Direct.

JoseChungsDoomsday

I like Nationwide, however it's the fact that they have so few branches in NI that I bank with smile (I can pay money in at the post office).

It's the small things that matter I guess. If I lived closure to a branch I swap to them in a second.

olly300

I find their service mixed but good overall.

Cons:
1. I've had to deal with a rude branch manager due to how they configured the security on their online banking a while ago.
2. I've had problems with their telephone banking where there is no-one to answer the phone after 8pm in the evening.
3. I've had to open a second account to be able to use faster payments.

On the plus side:
1. When I complained about the rude manager to member services I got phoned up immediately they received the letter. (I sent it by recorded delivery).
2. They also removed their stupid security online questions within weeks of me complaining and complaints to moneybox. They also changed the account I had problems with so at a last resort things can be done in the branch.
3. They don't pretend you can't use the direct debit guarantee like another bank I'm with who got bailed out by the tax payer.
4. If you send them an online message they will deal with the issue there and then, unless it's something they really can't do, unlike another bank I'm with that tells you to ring customer services.