What's the likelihood of Nationwide closing my account in this case?

deadendwaterfall

I know by now that banks and building societies reserve the right to close accounts for any reasonable reason, but is the likelihood of Nationwide closing my account with them high if it's obvious I opened the account just to make money from switching referrals?

It is, truth be told, the primary purpose for opening my account with them, the second reason being it makes a good backup account if the Lloyd's Banking Group system goes down, preventing me access to my Halifax and Lloyd's accounts. I already made £100 in January from referring someone on MSE to switch and the £100 helped me to pay my bills yet still have a little left over for what I desire.

jonesMUFCforever

No chance IMO - but if you are not using the account your chances of getting a card or loan with them will be slim.

JuicyJesus

Nationwide, in common with all banks, can close any account it wishes with two months' notice for any reason (that is not prohibited by law) or no reason at all.

Will it do so because of this? Probably not. They still theoretically could, they just wouldn't tell you that that's why you're doing it; but these schemes are generally started with the full knowledge that some people will use them to extract as much money from them within the T&Cs as possible (in this case, £500).

This obviously changes if you are involved in fraud in any way, in which case your account can be closed with immediate effect. Absent that I can't see a reason to be worried.

Missus_Hyde

We've switched lots of times with different accounts and I only keep the ones that are of use to us (ie for interest, regular savers etc.) I'm always totally up front and honest with the banks with whom we switch and admit that I'm using their particular account for the switching bonus and regular savers, should they enquire about the reason for banking with them. We've never had any problems and frankly, I wouldn't expect there to be any.

I always read all the terms and conditions before applying and so long as they're abided by, I don't see why the banks should object (they're getting the use of our money in the regular savers etc.)

You're absolutely right about the necessity of having back up bank account(s) with another banking group; it's fairly unlikely, but not beyond the realms of possibility that I could fall out with my main bank account, in which case I could simply move everything around to one of the others.