Nationwide Flex Plus

evanescent

phillw said:

evanescent said:

PS. I am keeping my Nationwide FlexPlus, but only because the £13 fee is partly offset by Barclays blue rewards -- I get £12 in rewards (£8 net, after paying the account fee), as I have a mortgage with them.

If you aren't using the flexplus features then why not take the £8 from barclays and spend it on something you will use?

I am using the benefits - we have mobiles, we drive and we will definitely travel abroad in 2021.

NottinghamKnight

evanescent said:

phillw said:

evanescent said:

PS. I am keeping my Nationwide FlexPlus, but only because the £13 fee is partly offset by Barclays blue rewards -- I get £12 in rewards (£8 net, after paying the account fee), as I have a mortgage with them.

If you aren't using the flexplus features then why not take the £8 from barclays and spend it on something you will use?

I am using the benefits - we have mobiles, we drive and we will definitely travel abroad in 2021.

Love the confidence on the last point.

adonis

I have just upgraded to flexplus as we wanted insurance for new phones, so when I don't have to renew the car breakdown cover in a month it will be worth it.

Hard_food_for_midas

I have had the Flex Plus Account for 4 years now. Paid for it all during the pandemic. Never went on holiday. Hardly used the car. No discount during that whole period. Last year I had an accident abroad and claimed on the insurance: could have cost more, but I went to a state hospital in Spain - amazing! I had to pay about 40euros for medication. This is all I ended up claiming - no problem.
This year I was robbed and the customer service was awful. Just awful. It has put me off and I will probably switch away. You have to call different numbers and you're never quite sure who you are speaking to-I got pinged across between the bank and the underwriter, kept having to repeat myself and they were not good listeners - someone reported my card as lost. I gave up on the card protection - did it all myself as by then, I'd lost faith in some of them.
Hope someone in the forum is capturing this. I do think this account needs demoting in MSE list - think I'd rather pay more for better service now. Does not live up to the marketing hype I'm afraid 

Zanderman

Hard_food_for_midas said:

I have had the Flex Plus Account for 4 years now. Paid for it all during the pandemic. Never went on holiday. Hardly used the car. No discount during that whole period. Last year I had an accident abroad and claimed on the insurance: could have cost more, but I went to a state hospital in Spain - amazing! I had to pay about 40euros for medication. This is all I ended up claiming - no problem.
This year I was robbed and the customer service was awful. Just awful. It has put me off and I will probably switch away. You have to call different numbers and you're never quite sure who you are speaking to-I got pinged across between the bank and the underwriter, kept having to repeat myself and they were not good listeners - someone reported my card as lost. I gave up on the card protection - did it all myself as by then, I'd lost faith in some of them.
Hope someone in the forum is capturing this. I do think this account needs demoting in MSE list - think I'd rather pay more for better service now. Does not live up to the marketing hype I'm afraid 

You're resurrecting a three-year-old thread.

Re not using the account facilities (no holiday or car use) that's not ever going to lead to a discount - as your car etc habits are up to you. You could downgrade the account anytime. We have this account for the insurance factor, especially the breakdown cover. Never yet used it, but that's irrelevant - insurance, whether paid for direct or through a package, is a 'just-in-case' cost not a 'I-haven't-used-it-so-why-should-I-pay-for-it' cost. 

Whether the customer service is up to scratch I don't know, because I've never needed to use it. Neither do I know for most insurance deals!

Not sure why your recent experience means the MSE page on this should be changed. That does say that 78% of people think the service is 'great'. But that's only 4 out of 5 people (though still much better than the rival packaged accounts reviewed on the same page). That means you've a one in five chance of being disappointed with the service. It's surely a reasonable warning - you must be one of the 1 in 5 this time, and were one of the 4 in 5 on your previous claim!

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/best-packaged-bank-accounts/#flexplus

SevenOfNine

Old thread, short comment. Used car recovery once, & on hols in Jamaica I had to go to hospital. Ambulance & op in private hospital cost was in excess of US$14,000. FlexPlus worth it for us, even with 'age' excess + 4 medical issues included.

[Deleted User]

We have a joint flex plus account (have had for years) that we use to pay the household bills. Great value as the £13 a month covers both of us. Used it for mobile phone repair a couple of times. Brilliant service and very quick. Travel insurance part also saves money,  although my mum is now in her 80s and has to pay a supplement which is fine. There is no way we could get mobile phone insurance, breakdown cover and travel insurance for 2 people for £13 a month.
As for expecting a discount that is ridiculous. The whole basis of the insurance system for anything is based on assumption that not all will need to use it. 

You also have the choice to have the account or not!

Section62

Zanderman said:

Not sure why your recent experience means the MSE page on this should be changed. That does say that 78% of people think the service is 'great'. But that's only 4 out of 5 people (though still much better than the rival packaged accounts reviewed on the same page). That means you've a one in five chance of being disappointed with the service. It's surely a reasonable warning - you must be one of the 1 in 5 this time, and were one of the 4 in 5 on your previous claim!

Small point, but if I've understood correctly, the 78% figure is "based on CUSTOMER SERVICE for your main CURRENT ACCOUNT over the last SIX MONTHS" (MSE's capitalisation) for all the financial institution's current account provision, not specifically the packaged bank accounts.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/poll/2023/bank-service-july-2023/

In other words, Nationwide's 78% will include a lot of customers who have a 'free' account (e.g. FlexAccount, FlexDirect) and because they aren't paying for all the whistles and bells may have a significantly more charitable view of Nationwide's service than those who are paying, and consequently have to deal with parts of Nationwide (and/or third-party service providers) that the other customers don't need to trouble themselves with.

FlexPlus account holders might* disproportionately populate the less-than-happy 22% (*I don't have the figures though).

Marchitiello

I have this on a shared account with my wife, the Travel Insurance is an additional peace of mind as we also have HSBC Premier and Amex Platinum insurances, and the car has free roadside assistance and recovery as part of the warranty from the manufacturer, however this account offers a generous and unmatched family phone insurance that we have had to make few claims against (wife stolen phone abroad, son smashed screen amongst the most recent- all iPhones), and this more then justify the cost for us.