£100 payment - Nationwide Fairer Share

pearl123

Just complain to them. They might have a  re-think. 

Nossen66

I am going to write to Nationwide stating that it seems extrenely inequitable to restrict this to members who have current accounts and meet qualifying conditions as it is unlilkey that current accounts generate a large proportion of their surplus/profits in comparison to mortgages and savings products.  That suggest little corrolation being a mutual and treating customers fairly.  I will point out that if I receive an unsatisfactory response/explanation, I will consider taking this up with the ombudsman and the regulator. 

IanManc

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?

Well Colsten/Dahlia/Band7, the expression "long term" isn't defined and is pretty meaningless, but Nationwide has set aside £340million to pay its "fairer share":

 https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-12101913/Nationwide-dish-340m-members-record-financial-results.html

which means at £100 each 3.4 million will be getting it, and according to its annual report it has 16.3 million members:

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/-/assets/nationwidecouk/documents/about/how-we-are-run/results-and-accounts/2021-2022/annual-report-and-accounts-2022.pdf

So 20.86% of Nationwide members are more equal than the other members and will be getting the £100 thanks to the arbitrary, divisive and retrospective criteria that Nationwide has chosen, and certainly most members lose out.

Hope this helps. xx

Section62

Nossen66 said:

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?

It depends whether the strategy is to reward loyal/active members, or to increase the number of people who have a current account with Nationwide.  If the latter then it makes perfect sense to make having a "main" current account one of the essential criteria to get the £100.

Nossen66 said:

I will point out that if I receive an unsatisfactory response/explanation, I will consider taking this up with the ombudsman and the regulator. 

Laudable, but regrettably pointless. Nationwide are allowed to do this and neither FOS nor FCA will do anything about it.

Nationwide's management are allowed to make this decision how to spend 'excess' profits, and the 'owners' of the organisation don't get a vote on whether it is what they want.  This is in part due to the mutual model.  I don't think a PLC would be allowed to act this way.

If you do anything, write to your MP pointing out the lack of democracy within the decision-making process, that because they are a mutual they are seemingly trusted to make the right decisions, whereas a PLC would face more scrutiny.  A 'shareholder revolt' is almost impossible to achieve in Nationwide's case.

Nossen66

Letter drafted to Nationwide:

Your fairer share payment eligibility criteria seem highly inequitable to your members.  The requirement to have an eligible current account in addition to an eligible mortgage or savings product suggests you are not treating all members fairly.  The largest part of your profits/surplus is derived from savings products and mortgages and not from current accounts.  You are therefore disproportionately rewarding one group of members over other groups without any justification.  This call into question whether you really understand the concept of mutuality that you claim to champion – after all members have one vote each regardless of complex eligibility criteria.

 

Please explain how you consider your eligibility criteria for the payment of £100 is fair.  I note in this regard that the fact you may want more members to take up current accounts and to use them actively is not a reasonable explanation in my opinion because I do not consider using payments to member of this nature as a form or product marketing is appropriate.

 

Please also inform me

a)       How I can raise this matter and challenge it at the next general meeting of members; and

b)      How I can raise the issue of not treating members fairly with the appropriate ombudsmen and regulators.

 

Yours faithfully

HonestJohn

I will vote against any board members seeking re-election at the next AGM. Will make me feel better anyway.
Not all members are 'full members'. If you joined after 3rd November 1997 you lose any rights to a payment if the society goes public.
"The scheme was put in place in order to address the disruption caused to the Society’s business from persons seeking to make short term gains from a demutualisation of the Society."
Let's hope this new scheme for 'loyal' members doesn't do the same.

Section62

Nossen66 said:

Please also inform me

a)       How I can raise this matter and challenge it at the next general meeting of members; and

This bit is easy to answer, the short answer is in practical terms you can't.

You'd need to propose a resolution and get Nationwide to accept it for consideration.  Nationwide won't accept it unless you have the support of "500 qualified two year members".

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/-/assets/nationwidecouk/documents/about/membership-matters/g10-memorandum-and-rules.pdf

The question to ask Nationwide is how can an individual member obtain the support of "500 qualified two year members?"

The rules put in place to block carpetbaggers also have the result of effectively preventing a shareholder revolt over other matters such as the fairness of "Fairer Share".

Only a social media storm would make a difference.  And given the gushing praise from some of the newspapers about "Fairer Share", you can be fairly sure you have a mountain to climb to get your views heard at the AGM.

Section62

HonestJohn said:

I will vote against any board members seeking re-election at the next AGM. Will make me feel better anyway.

Making you feel better is the only thing it will do.

The board member with the least support at the 2022 AGM still got 96.53% of the vote.

km1500

whatever the rights and wrongs of this, the one thing that is certain is that nationwide will succeed in getting quite a large proportion of their customers extremely p***** off which might not be the wisest marketing strategy

MattMattMattUK

Business tries to do something helpful and nice, a bunch of people have a tantrum, no wonder most just do not bother.