Nationwide slow customer service

margaretx9

gt94sss2 said:

The Guardian suggests that Nationwide might be cutting savings rates further.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/29/nationwide-building-society-profits-halve-amid-pandemic

Not sure how much lower they can go than the 0.01% they are now paying on the flexclusive ISA - a product only available to their valued current account holders!

Thats one tenth of the current base rate and gives you a grand total of £1 a year on every £10k invested. Good job it’s tax free!

epm-84

eskbanker said:

epm-84 said:

gt94sss2 said:

The Guardian suggests that Nationwide might be cutting savings rates further.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/29/nationwide-building-society-profits-halve-amid-pandemic

I notice they are claiming they have 10% of the market share for current accounts.  Given they used to do a £100 refer a friend bonus and offered 5% interest on balances of up to £2500 for the first year, is getting a 10% market share a good thing or not considering how much it has costed?

It'll all be part of a fully-costed plan though - as with their competitors, they know that customer acquisition and retention costs money, so if they felt the cost of promotional offers was excessive they could easily have switched them off or reduced them sooner than they did.

Nationwide's preliminary results make it clear that the increase in current accounts isn't massively significant in the context of their previous year figures:

Opened 759,000 new current accounts (2019: 794,000), meeting our long-term target of gaining a 10% market share of all accounts (2019: 9.8%) 

and their full annual reports outline their cross-selling strategy via which they expect to monetise the increased market share, so it would surprise me if their numbers were radically different from expectations.

In terms of the referral incentive, roughly 170,000 switched to them via CASS in 2019 (while about 66,000 switched away) and I'm sure that not all of those would have been taking advantage of that promotion, so it's a relatively small slice of new customers who'd have been receiving the £100.  I imagine that the exposure via the FlexDirect 5% was also not as significant as you might think, especially when many will use these accounts 'properly' rather than as fully-loaded pseudo savings accounts, so I wouldn't necessarily perceive their customer acquisition costs as excessive....

It was obvious Nationwide hoped that those who opened current accounts with them could be tempted by one of their market leading savings accounts, which were only available to customers who held another account with them (including a current account.) If one poster on here is to be believed Nationwide don't want savers anymore and would rather people transfer their savings elsewhere then pay them a tiny amount of interest.  If that poster isn't completely barking up the wrong tree, then the acquisitions may not prove as effective long term, as was initially thought.

epm-84

margaretx9 said:

gt94sss2 said:

The Guardian suggests that Nationwide might be cutting savings rates further.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/29/nationwide-building-society-profits-halve-amid-pandemic

Not sure how much lower they can go than the 0.01% they are now paying on the flexclusive ISA - a product only available to their valued current account holders!

Thats one tenth of the current base rate and gives you a grand total of £1 a year on every £10k invested. Good job it’s tax free!

Unless you earn over £1000 in non-ISA savings interest you don't pay interest.  If someone had all their savings in that account they would need over £10,000,000 in the account before any tax is incurred on interest!

eskbanker

epm-84 said:

eskbanker said:

epm-84 said:

gt94sss2 said:

The Guardian suggests that Nationwide might be cutting savings rates further.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/29/nationwide-building-society-profits-halve-amid-pandemic

I notice they are claiming they have 10% of the market share for current accounts.  Given they used to do a £100 refer a friend bonus and offered 5% interest on balances of up to £2500 for the first year, is getting a 10% market share a good thing or not considering how much it has costed?

It'll all be part of a fully-costed plan though - as with their competitors, they know that customer acquisition and retention costs money, so if they felt the cost of promotional offers was excessive they could easily have switched them off or reduced them sooner than they did.

Nationwide's preliminary results make it clear that the increase in current accounts isn't massively significant in the context of their previous year figures:

Opened 759,000 new current accounts (2019: 794,000), meeting our long-term target of gaining a 10% market share of all accounts (2019: 9.8%) 

and their full annual reports outline their cross-selling strategy via which they expect to monetise the increased market share, so it would surprise me if their numbers were radically different from expectations.

In terms of the referral incentive, roughly 170,000 switched to them via CASS in 2019 (while about 66,000 switched away) and I'm sure that not all of those would have been taking advantage of that promotion, so it's a relatively small slice of new customers who'd have been receiving the £100.  I imagine that the exposure via the FlexDirect 5% was also not as significant as you might think, especially when many will use these accounts 'properly' rather than as fully-loaded pseudo savings accounts, so I wouldn't necessarily perceive their customer acquisition costs as excessive....

It was obvious Nationwide hoped that those who opened current accounts with them could be tempted by one of their market leading savings accounts, which were only available to customers who held another account with them (including a current account.) If one poster on here is to be believed Nationwide don't want savers anymore and would rather people transfer their savings elsewhere then pay them a tiny amount of interest.  If that poster isn't completely barking up the wrong tree, then the acquisitions may not prove as effective long term, as was initially thought.

Their cross-selling aspirations aren't restricted to savings accounts - they specifically name mortgages and obviously offer other products too, such as credit cards:

We’re aiming to have 10 million engaged members by 2022, with 4 million committed members who use at least two of our products.

Engaged members have their main personal current account with us, a mortgage with a balance greater than £5,000, or a savings account with a balance greater than £1,000. Committed members have two or more of our products, of which at least one is an engaged membership product. Prior to 2018/19, the savings threshold was £5,000; prior year comparatives have been restated using the new £1,000 threshold. Figures are as at 31 March each year

masonic

eskbanker said:

Their cross-selling aspirations aren't restricted to savings accounts - they specifically name mortgages and obviously offer other products too, such as credit cards:

We’re aiming to have 10 million engaged members by 2022, with 4 million committed members who use at least two of our products.

Engaged members have their main personal current account with us, a mortgage with a balance greater than £5,000, or a savings account with a balance greater than £1,000. Committed members have two or more of our products, of which at least one is an engaged membership product. Prior to 2018/19, the savings threshold was £5,000; prior year comparatives have been restated using the new £1,000 threshold. Figures are as at 31 March each year

Indeed, the figures show they've lost nearly £4bn in mortgage accounts over the past year. If they haven't gained £4bn in credit card debt to counterbalance that (which seems quite unlikely), it would suggest they need to shed quite a lot of savings while targeting new mortgage and credit card customers in order to re-establish the balance. This would be consistent with the observed harsh cuts in savings interest rates observed, and the suggestion that even further cuts are to be made. No doubt the drive for more current account customers will continue, with the reduced rates offered to savers disincentivising the net acquisition of cash vs debt.

margaretx9

epm-84 said:

margaretx9 said:

gt94sss2 said:

The Guardian suggests that Nationwide might be cutting savings rates further.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/29/nationwide-building-society-profits-halve-amid-pandemic

Not sure how much lower they can go than the 0.01% they are now paying on the flexclusive ISA - a product only available to their valued current account holders!

Thats one tenth of the current base rate and gives you a grand total of £1 a year on every £10k invested. Good job it’s tax free!

Unless you earn over £1000 in non-ISA savings interest you don't pay interest.  If someone had all their savings in that account they would need over £10,000,000 in the account before any tax is incurred on interest!

Sorry I was being ironic!
It would only need to be £5m for a higher rate taxpayer though!

epm-84

Nationwide AGM voting has opened, so for those who had over £100 invested at the end of the last financial year and still have an account open, you have a chance to voice any dissatisfaction.  I notice they have said their CEO has taken a 20% pay cut so he won't get £2.5m remuneration this year.  They also have added questions about whether you approve of the board's remuneration or not but they do say that vote is advisory only.

Swipe

Nationwide customer services are absolutely useless. They rejected my transfer out and won't tell me why so I have no way of resolving this.