Nationwide Building Society Loyalty!

blue_max_3

Baron_Dale said:

I’m sorry I simply don’t share the negativity of some others on here regarding Nationwide. Been with them nearly 20 years and no complaints. Had a mortgage with them (now paid off) at a very low rate for years, credit card and a couple of loans.(again all paid off) Now have with them 2 current accounts (one of which is joint) 4 savings accounts, a cash ISA and a low risk S&S ISA (with partner Aegon). Again no complaints.
Of course interest rates have gone down! BoE rate is one tenth of one per cent for goodness sake! 

Anyway all I have done is change my accounts within Nationwide. Loyalty 15 Year ISA changed to Triple Access ISA at 0.8 instead of 0.25, opened a Triple Access Saver at 0.8 instead of 0.25 for 15 Year Loyalty Saver. I kept loyalty saver open for more regular use as it’s instant access. Also opened a regular saver £100 a month which is paying 1%. All done within an hour within online banking. So not so bad! 

Sure you can get better rates elsewhere but I have better things to do with my time than chase a few extra pounds in interest.There is more to life! I am not wealthy but budget carefully and save monthly.
Use of time and quality of life much more important to me.
Take care everyone. Keep safe and keep perspective!

I've always been happy that Nationwide had given me a fair deal. The loyalty saver drop from 1.1% to .25% was insulting. It took me as long to transfer away as choose another product and hopefully sends a message to Nationwide. I could have been lazy, but I'm not stupid. 

Albermarle

Apparently the delay is “weeks” to transfer - although even 15 working days is three weeks

Mine took 15 days exactly ( not 15 working days) . The last time I transferred it took less than a week.
little did I realise it was their loyal customers abandoning ship for tuppence more in interest.
N/wide two year fixed rate isa - 0.67% : Elsewhere was 1.45 % . On £50K over two years = £780 extra , so not just 'tuppence'

zagfles

blue_max_3 said:

[Deleted User] said:

I’m sorry I simply don’t share the negativity of some others on here regarding Nationwide. Been with them nearly 20 years and no complaints. Had a mortgage with them (now paid off) at a very low rate for years, credit card and a couple of loans.(again all paid off) Now have with them 2 current accounts (one of which is joint) 4 savings accounts, a cash ISA and a low risk S&S ISA (with partner Aegon). Again no complaints.
Of course interest rates have gone down! BoE rate is one tenth of one per cent for goodness sake! 

Anyway all I have done is change my accounts within Nationwide. Loyalty 15 Year ISA changed to Triple Access ISA at 0.8 instead of 0.25, opened a Triple Access Saver at 0.8 instead of 0.25 for 15 Year Loyalty Saver. I kept loyalty saver open for more regular use as it’s instant access. Also opened a regular saver £100 a month which is paying 1%. All done within an hour within online banking. So not so bad! 

Sure you can get better rates elsewhere but I have better things to do with my time than chase a few extra pounds in interest.There is more to life! I am not wealthy but budget carefully and save monthly.
Use of time and quality of life much more important to me.
Take care everyone. Keep safe and keep perspective!

I've always been happy that Nationwide had given me a fair deal. The loyalty saver drop from 1.1% to .25% was insulting. It took me as long to transfer away as choose another product and hopefully sends a message to Nationwide. I could have been lazy, but I'm not stupid. 

What "message" do you think a saver moving their money away sends? Nationwide obviously know dropping rates will result in some savers will transferring away. At the moment they are probably happy with this, the only reason they want your savings is so they can lend them out and make a profit on the difference between the interest they charge borrowers and the interest they give savers. Nationwide's main lending is mortgages, and at the current time of year they'd normally be lending shedloads out on new mortgages. That isn't happening at the moment for obvious reasons, so they have less need for savers' money.

When the mortgage market picks up, they may have more need for savers money and then they may start introducing savings products with competitive rates. In the meantime, they drop the rates on existing products to take advantage of the lazy, they introduce new products with better but not particularly competitive rates, likely aimed at existing customers not new ones, so those who would otherwise might have moved away but CBA with another provider's account, login, identity checks etc leave their money in NW, while deliberately setting the rates low enough so that some savers will take out the excess money which they don't need at the moment.

The question is whether they've got the balance right. If they haven't, they will have to introduce new savings products with competitive rates. Or cut their rates further, if they've not shed enough money!

blue_max_3

zagfles said:

blue_max_3 said:

What "message" do you think a saver moving their money away sends? Nationwide obviously know dropping rates will result in some savers will transferring away. At the moment they are probably happy with this, the only reason they want your savings is so they can lend them out and make a profit on the difference between the interest they charge borrowers and the interest they give savers. Nationwide's main lending is mortgages, and at the current time of year they'd normally be lending shedloads out on new mortgages. That isn't happening at the moment for obvious reasons, so they have less need for savers' money.

When the mortgage market picks up, they may have more need for savers money and then they may start introducing savings products with competitive rates. In the meantime, they drop the rates on existing products to take advantage of the lazy, they introduce new products with better but not particularly competitive rates, likely aimed at existing customers not new ones, so those who would otherwise might have moved away but CBA with another provider's account, login, identity checks etc leave their money in NW, while deliberately setting the rates low enough so that some savers will take out the excess money which they don't need at the moment.

The question is whether they've got the balance right. If they haven't, they will have to introduce new savings products with competitive rates. Or cut their rates further, if they've not shed enough money!

So, they treat you fairly when times are good and throw you under the bus when they don't need you? Well, that's a plan, but it didn't sit well with me. These are relatively small amounts and all it would need was to be competitive, not necessarily market leading.
Why not put their mortgage rates up? A commercial decision. It's a balancing act and I think they got this very wrong.

Albermarle

Zagfles - you are right in your analysis of course . However just to repeat what has already been said. N/wide in the past promoted themselves as the nice mutual rather than a grasping bank . They said we may not be top of the tables for rates but we will always remain competitive and you will not have to keep changing accounts etc 

Even before this situation , the rhetoric no longer matched the reality and these big cuts seem to have been the straw that has broken the camels back for some of their long standing customers. Normally p**sing off even a minority of long standing customers and probably the ones with more money , is not usually a good strategy for any company in the end. 

epm-84

MDMD said:

Apparently the delay is “weeks” to transfer - although even 15 working days is three weeks

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/saving/article-8289719/Nationwide-savers-forced-wait-weeks-transfer-Isas.html

According to Which? the new ISA provider is required to pay interest no later than the 15th working day after receiving the request.

The Daily Mail article doesn't clarify whether the customers who have been waiting 3 weeks have now had their transfers completed, or whether they have been waiting 3 weeks and are still waiting.

Sailtheworld

blue_max_3 said:

zagfles said:

blue_max_3 said:

What "message" do you think a saver moving their money away sends? Nationwide obviously know dropping rates will result in some savers will transferring away. At the moment they are probably happy with this, the only reason they want your savings is so they can lend them out and make a profit on the difference between the interest they charge borrowers and the interest they give savers. Nationwide's main lending is mortgages, and at the current time of year they'd normally be lending shedloads out on new mortgages. That isn't happening at the moment for obvious reasons, so they have less need for savers' money.

When the mortgage market picks up, they may have more need for savers money and then they may start introducing savings products with competitive rates. In the meantime, they drop the rates on existing products to take advantage of the lazy, they introduce new products with better but not particularly competitive rates, likely aimed at existing customers not new ones, so those who would otherwise might have moved away but CBA with another provider's account, login, identity checks etc leave their money in NW, while deliberately setting the rates low enough so that some savers will take out the excess money which they don't need at the moment.

The question is whether they've got the balance right. If they haven't, they will have to introduce new savings products with competitive rates. Or cut their rates further, if they've not shed enough money!

So, they treat you fairly when times are good and throw you under the bus when they don't need you? Well, that's a plan, but it didn't sit well with me. These are relatively small amounts and all it would need was to be competitive, not necessarily market leading.
Why not put their mortgage rates up? A commercial decision. It's a balancing act and I think they got this very wrong.

Nationwide's savings rates are no longer competitive. That's not quite being thrown under a bus.

As with any financial provider once their product stops being fit for your purpose it's time to move. This stuff about them promoting themselves as a cuddly mutual is just marketing BS - ignore this and the anger will dissipate.

I really like Nationwide - friendly, efficient and easy to deal with which buys them a certain amount of inertia. If/ when someone is willing to pay me more than that inertia I'll be off but I hope I take the attitude of being thankful they were able to satisfy my needs for so long rather than angry another financial institution is able to do it better. Much healthier IMO. Plus if I subsequently decide to go back to Nationwide I won't have to do so with my tail between my legs.

teddysmum

Anyone considering Marcus' 1.2%, who is over 50, may prefer to take the same deal via Saga as there is a tiny perk of special offers .

alypen

Well, The Coventry aside, I'm still waiting for anyone else to notify me of any reduction in rates whatsoever.  Can't imagine they're all going to leave things as they are, but it does seem strange.

blue_max_3

Sailtheworld said:

blue_max_3 said:

As with any financial provider once their product stops being fit for your purpose it's time to move. This stuff about them promoting themselves as a cuddly mutual is just marketing BS - ignore this and the anger will dissipate.

I really like Nationwide - friendly, efficient and easy to deal with which buys them a certain amount of inertia. If/ when someone is willing to pay me more than that inertia I'll be off but I hope I take the attitude of being thankful they were able to satisfy my needs for so long rather than angry another financial institution is able to do it better. Much healthier IMO. Plus if I subsequently decide to go back to Nationwide I won't have to do so with my tail between my legs.

So, they are a cuddly mutual for you - that's fine. The inertia was easily overcome for me. I left a quid in to keep them administering the account. Dead easy to fund again if they realise their error. Which, if they get a significant number of defaults on mortgages, they may have too.