Thoughts on Nationwide Current Account?

Bloomberg

SpacemanSpiff wrote: »

Does anyone where bank with Nationwide? Do you have any experiences to relate before I decide to switch? It looks pretty good but you never know when it comes to unexpected little 'issues' or what their customer service is like...

Ta in advance.

I was with the Nationwide for just under ten years. The in branch service was anything but lively and the staff in general seem quite lifeless. Believe it or not the Nationwide do not offer weekly standing orders. That is right, the self proclaimed world's largest building society cannot organise a weekly funds transfer.




The website is ok, however full statements are a day behind. The only redeeming feature was the free overseas withdrawals. Their implementation of faster payments was awful. I would not recommend the nationwide to anyone. I joined HSBC and have never looked back.
The Nationwide are second rate and I would probably rather go with Santander.

innovate

Bloomberg wrote: »

Believe it or not the Nationwide do not offer weekly standing orders. That is right, the self proclaimed world's largest building society cannot organise a weekly funds transfer.

I am surprised that there is still any significant demand for weekly payments in this day and age. However, if you need to have money sent once a week, just do 4 monthly transfers at different dates.

innovate

Bloomberg wrote: »

I joined HSBC and have never looked back.

Isn't it funny how different people like different things. I like the simple way of logging into Nationwide, and if I have to use the dreaded card reader, at least I can use the same that I use for many other banks.

With HSBC, however, I need to use their hideous keypad to generate a login code every time I want to log in. That keypad works with no other bank and I find it hard to handle and read.

HSBC do have a reasonably good regular saver - not quite as good as the Nationwide Flexlusive Reg Saver but still ok. The big let-down at HSBC is that they don't pay any interest on current accounts.

Bloomberg wrote: »

Their implementation of faster payments was awful.

Has always worked great for me. What was awful in your experience?

SpacemanSpiff

Cheers Everyone. Sounds ok so far.

innovate wrote: »

OK accounts but cannot touch Santander 123 in terms of overall value.

Having said that, I have Santander 123, FlexDirect and FlexPlus (and a bunch of others elsewhere) because each offers different benefits to me.

Cheers! Not too bothered about extras. Internet Banking, reliability and customer service are all high priorities for me. I want as little friction as possible but as much control as possible online.

The website is ok, however full statements are a day behind. The only redeeming feature was the free overseas withdrawals. Their implementation of faster payments was awful. .

What is wrong with it? Does it take longer to receive/send money than other banks?

innovate

SpacemanSpiff wrote: »

Does it take longer to receive/send money than other banks?

Nope it doesn't

Bloomberg

innovate wrote: »

Isn't it funny how different people like different things. I like the simple way of logging into Nationwide, and if I have to use the dreaded card reader, at least I can use the same that I use for many other banks.

With HSBC, however, I need to use their hideous keypad to generate a login code every time I want to log in. That keypad works with no other bank and I find it hard to handle and read.

HSBC do have a reasonably good regular saver - not quite as good as the Nationwide Flexlusive Reg Saver but still ok. The big let-down at HSBC is that they don't pay any interest on current accounts.




Has always worked great for me. What was awful in your experience?

The faster payments probably work just as well as that of any other financial institution. Nationwide kept giving dates for faster payments to be implemented. Much to the annoyance of many customers they many promised dates passed without the faster payments becoming available. They did finally sort it out.

SpacemanSpiff

Dirk_Gently wrote: »

And it's a Mutual if that sort of thing is important to you.

I don't really know what that means. Is it that it's 'owned by it's members'? It seems like that wouldn't matter these days, and that they're all the same. Does it make a difference to me as a customer? More dependable? Less Risk?

agrinnall

It doesn't really make any difference as a customer, but if you don't like the big corporate ownership of banks then mutuals such as Nationwide offer an alternative.

hollie.weimeraner

Been with Nationwide since 1987 and can honestly say I haven't had a single problem. The standard Flex account used to pay interest until a few years ago. I've just transferred to the new current account they have in order to get the 5% interest for 12 months.

simax

Had an account since 1999. Took my main banking away to LTSB in 2009. Moved my banking back 2 years later (kept account open) as the grass certainly wasn't greener.

I now use most of their facilities and now have a FlexPlus account too.

They've been very good to me, so I'm probably never going to be tempted away again