£100 payment - Nationwide Fairer Share

Endemoniada

I miss out because my UC isn't in excess of £500 / month (I wish).  

Trying to take consolation in the fact that possibly upwards of 75% of members don't qualify. 😞

Section62

Band7 said:

HonestJohn said:

Nationwide hardly rewarding loyalty here. Most long term customers will lose out. Just another marketing gimmick. I'll have to settle for the £30 cashback I got. Not much for being a customer of NW (and the societies it took over) for 40 years. 

How do you know that most long term customers  will lose out?

We don't know how many "long-term" members there are (or have a definition of "long-term" yet), but given the figures being mentioned - 16.3m members / 3.4m members getting a payout - it doesn't seem to be a particular stretch to believe that more "long-term" members will miss out than get the payment.

Particularly as the current account qualifying criteria is likely to skew the cohort towards members who have joined Nationwide in relatively recent years to gain the generous benefits available to new current account members.

Band7 said:

I have sympathy for the frustration of those who are missing out for one reason or another.

However, I can’t see what Nationwide could have done which would treat all their customers in a genuinely fair and equal way. If they gave all their customers the same amount of money, there would no doubt be even more complaints from those who think it’s unfair that customers of many years get the same as those who only joined a few months ago. Paying all customers would probably also have meant a much, much lower amount than £100 per customer, so would have attracted further criticism. If they had more eligibility criteria, no doubt it would have added tremendously to the admin costs - and would no doubt have led to even more complaints from people who stillwere excluded.

I think that whatever option Nationwide came up with would have winners and losers.

....

May be I am missing a glaringly obvious solution that would be considered acceptable by all. So can anyone describe what they would consider fair and equitable for all?

Given the £340m has been generated by the interest rate margins between savings and debts, and Nationwide currently charge 19.9% on their credit card, 39.9% on current account overdrafts, but on savings (for example) 3.2% on the Loyalty Saver account, I'd suggest a glaringly obvious solution would have been adjusting their interest rates so those with debts pay less interest and those with savings get more interest.

The point about the value for money of their products (particularly low savings rates) has been made repeatedly to Nationwide (via the Connect forum) over the last five years or so... therefore member dissatisfaction over the way in which member benefits are distributed shouldn't be a surprise to Nationwide.

Bridlington1

Whilst I agree there are better ways of distributing this money and calling it "Fairer Share" does seem like a contradiction in terms, I certainly wouldn't go as far as to close all my accounts with them on this basis.

The way I see it I was profiting by being a Nationwide member even before them giving me £100. They have a 5.25% regular saver, which earns me more interest than if I had left it in some of my lower paying regular savers, I've had a switching incentive out of them and I have stoozed a £2.5k 0% OD from them in the past. Nationwide is the only account I have that has a £2.5k OD facility, which makes it ideal for sending cheques from, allowing me to avoid having money sat in current accounts whilst waiting for them to clear.

If I had been one of those people who had missed out this time (who I have great sympathy for), I imagine I would be slightly frustrated admittedly but would still continue my banking relationship regardless since I still better off financially by doing so. 

allison445

I will be complaining on the basis that I feel the headline is deceptive when I seen it I thought that all members were receiving it was only later on when checking her I realised I wouldn't

The Nationwide Fairer Share

When we profit, so do our members.

In fact only about 20% of members will receive it

schiff

I have a Flex account and a Start to Save RS. I don't qualify this time. But for next year:
Open a Loyalty saver at 3.20% (currently), leave £100 to £200 in it
Deposit £550+ into the Flex account every month and pay out two £250 pm transfers to other banks/building society RSs and £50 for the Start to Save RS. There's no incentive to leave much money in the FlexPlus as it pays no interest but leaving a modest sum in it costs little and looks better.

Section62

schiff said:

I have a Flex account and a Start to Save RS. I don't qualify this time. But for next year:
Open a Loyalty saver at 3.20% (currently), leave £100 to £200 in it
Deposit £550+ into the Flex account every month and pay out two £250 pm transfers to other banks/building society RSs and £50 for the Start to Save RS. There's no incentive to leave much money in the FlexPlus as it pays no interest but leaving a modest sum in it costs little and looks better.

The Loyalty Saver is NLA - withdrawn a couple of years ago IIRC.

The Flex Instant Saver is still available at 2.5%. You have to have a current account for that one, but as you do to get the £100 anyway that shouldn't be an issue.

(for those members who don't leave Nationwide in disgust, having/opening a current account will be a must to stand a chance of getting £100 next year... a great way to increase the total number of current accounts on your books [/cynical])

schiff

TY I've since realised that. The 1 year Triple Access Online Saver at 3.20% is a suitable alternative as there will be no need to withdraw from it.

Section62

schiff said:

TY I've since realised that. The 1 year Triple Access Online Saver at 3.20% is a suitable alternative as there will be no need to withdraw from it.

If the money will just sit in the account to meet the eligibility criteria then it may make sense to put it in the "Fairer Share Online Bond" @4.75% instead.

The gamble is whether £100 or £200 will be enough to meet the criteria next year, and whether the scheme will run into a third year (i.e. whether a 2-year fix makes sense)

The potential loss involved in keeping (say) £500 fixed at 4.75% for two years is probably not worth losing too much sleep over for anyone with the funds available to afford to tie that amount up for 24 months.  I doubt Nationwide would make the savings criteria more than £500 as that would be likely to upset their apparent target demographic.

Nossen66

Seems highly inequitable for them to require a Nationwide current acocunt for eligibiltiy.  If one has significangt savings or a significant mortgage with Nationwide then surely that should count in terms of being an active member?

CSH1

I already have a current account but didn't qualify so will just shift £500 a month into it from Lloyds nearer the time and pay a couple of credit cards out of it, I will probably set up one of those 2 year bonds in case I close my other savings accounts and shift them elsewhere which I probably will, I shan't be leaving lots of money with the NW after this.