Nationwide Building Society Loyalty!

happybagger

Sailtheworld said:

epm-84 said:

margaretx9 said:

happybagger said:

Moved £100 from my "15 year loyalty" 0.25% account to an alternative instant access 0.8% account with them to retain membership with voting rights (for what it's worth), and moved the rest elsewhere.

The Nationwide AGM is normally held in July. So be sure to express your support for the efforts of the Nationwide board by re-electing them all!

What would they (or any building society) do if members rejected all the nominations, given they only usually nominate their preferred candidate for each position, opposed to giving a choice and giving the position to the person with the most votes?

A member with the support of 250 other members can put themselves up for election at the AGM.

And suffer the same fate as the "Portman 500"?
Closed accounts and expulsion

happybagger

Thrugelmir said:

epm-84 said:

bowlhead99 said:

epm-84 said:

digalumps said:

No idea - it's almost like there was some sort of disease suddenly striking all their staff at once. 

So you'd think rather than hefty interest rate reductions, they would withdraw the highest interest rate saving products to new customers and leave any significant interest changes or new product launches, until they have the staff available to cope with the high demand that will cause.  Some other banks and building societies have done that but not Nationwide.

If you have a couple of billion pound a year interest bill and want to reduce it, the most immediate and effective way to do that is to reduce the variable rate interest paid to existing depositors - rather than simply withdrawing the highest rate saving products from sale to new customers, which would have an extremely limited effect on reducing the existing bill.

On all the interest rate moan threads we get people saying "you'd think the'd just do [x], why does the CEO and board of directors get paid big salaries for this shambles", but perhaps the complainants have never tried to manage a financial institution with a 200 billion pound balance sheet; the organisation is likely better leaving it to the professionals and remunerating them at market rate, rather than taking comments from people on a moneysaving forum.

Look at what happened to the likes of RBS and Northern Rock - people highly experienced in the banking sector screwed up their respective bank's finances to the point where they were on the brink of collapse. 

The Nationwide unlike many other building societies. Decided not to demutualise and has grown from strength to strength. With no shareholders to account to. Just members. 

Loyal Mugs I'd say.
Like those that stick to the same utility co or insurer.
Still waiting for my "mutual Dividend" I was told I would be getting for voting against demutualisation in the 90s

alypen

ffacoffipawb said:

None of these rates are worth having are they!

Funny, I got one of those emails today too.  I don't think I actually hold the account they claim I do.  Perhaps the computer is throwing a wobbly?

happybagger

Two things surprise me.
1. That anyone would still have such a high level of funds as "£50k+"in such accounts for any period of time. I know there is 'loyal mug inertia' but what are these people thinking?
2. With rates so low and interest paid in pennies (to get a pound a year you need to have over £10k in savings) surely the admin cost of paying interest, sending interest statements, forwarding details to HMRC as required, and sending rate change letters, means they'd be better off with 0% across their accounts where they could merge them all into one and call it the "Bucket Account"

Sailtheworld

happybagger said:

Sailtheworld said:

epm-84 said:

margaretx9 said:

happybagger said:

Moved £100 from my "15 year loyalty" 0.25% account to an alternative instant access 0.8% account with them to retain membership with voting rights (for what it's worth), and moved the rest elsewhere.

The Nationwide AGM is normally held in July. So be sure to express your support for the efforts of the Nationwide board by re-electing them all!

What would they (or any building society) do if members rejected all the nominations, given they only usually nominate their preferred candidate for each position, opposed to giving a choice and giving the position to the person with the most votes?

A member with the support of 250 other members can put themselves up for election at the AGM.

And suffer the same fate as the "Portman 500"?
Closed accounts and expulsion

If the worse thing that can happen is you have your final £100 returned that doesn't sound much of a downside to be honest.

Sailtheworld

happybagger said:

Two things surprise me.
1. That anyone would still have such a high level of funds as "£50k+"in such accounts for any period of time. I know there is 'loyal mug inertia' but what are these people thinking?
2. With rates so low and interest paid in pennies (to get a pound a year you need to have over £10k in savings) surely the admin cost of paying interest, sending interest statements, forwarding details to HMRC as required, and sending rate change letters, means they'd be better off with 0% across their accounts where they could merge them all into one and call it the "Bucket Account"

There were net inflows to instant access accounts of around £30bn last year. There's an ocean of money kept in deposit accounts. My gut feel would be that most of it stays put long term and that endlessly chasing rates is the niche sport.

Nationwide probably have more admin costs than a bank due to rate chasers. If you were with a bank you'd move the whole lot if you found an improved rate. Nationwide must have a disproportionate amount of accounts containing £100. If they come up a proposal to close these accounts I'll vote for it. I dread to think how much of the interest on my 1.1% mortgage goes towards funding all this.

planteria

happybagger said:

Still waiting for my "mutual Dividend" I was told I would be getting for voting against demutualisation in the 90s

me too HB. i like the idea that you voted as they instructed..
 'Loyalty Saver' is a bit embarrassing now, and the overall value just isn't there.

planteria

Sailtheworld said:

Nationwide probably have more admin costs than a bank due to rate chasers. If you were with a bank you'd move the whole lot if you found an improved rate. Nationwide must have a disproportionate amount of accounts containing £100. If they come up a proposal to close these accounts I'll vote for it. I dread to think how much of the interest on my 1.1% mortgage goes towards funding all this.

interesting idea. i have £100.00 in the Loyalty Saver, as i made a withdrawal this week... but i have a current account and credit card with our society too, as it stands. the truth is that the "mutual dividend" that HB mentions just doesn't exist for Nationwide members. simplification of the product range, including with the selection that alypen mentions, would be a start, but ultimately it's the rates that provide value, or otherwise, to members.

happybagger

Sailtheworld said:

happybagger said:

Two things surprise me.
1. That anyone would still have such a high level of funds as "£50k+"in such accounts for any period of time. I know there is 'loyal mug inertia' but what are these people thinking?
2. With rates so low and interest paid in pennies (to get a pound a year you need to have over £10k in savings) surely the admin cost of paying interest, sending interest statements, forwarding details to HMRC as required, and sending rate change letters, means they'd be better off with 0% across their accounts where they could merge them all into one and call it the "Bucket Account"

 Nationwide must have a disproportionate amount of accounts containing £100. If they come up a proposal to close these accounts I'll vote for it. I dread to think how much of the interest on my 1.1% mortgage goes towards funding all this.

They would have fewer with £100 if they offered something worth having. Not my fault they can't offer a single account that even threatens a best buy table.

You'd think, with no shareholders to pay, they might be able to do better than declare something paying 0.25% a '15 year Loyalty' account.

btw glad you're here planteria, dunno what happened with the forum 'down your way'?

happybagger

Sailtheworld said:

happybagger said:

Sailtheworld said:

epm-84 said:

margaretx9 said:

happybagger said:

Moved £100 from my "15 year loyalty" 0.25% account to an alternative instant access 0.8% account with them to retain membership with voting rights (for what it's worth), and moved the rest elsewhere.

The Nationwide AGM is normally held in July. So be sure to express your support for the efforts of the Nationwide board by re-electing them all!

What would they (or any building society) do if members rejected all the nominations, given they only usually nominate their preferred candidate for each position, opposed to giving a choice and giving the position to the person with the most votes?

A member with the support of 250 other members can put themselves up for election at the AGM.

And suffer the same fate as the "Portman 500"?
Closed accounts and expulsion

If the worse thing that can happen is you have your final £100 returned that doesn't sound much of a downside to be honest.

Made a mockery of the mutual concept though. The only reason for kicking them out was a 'warning shot'