Nationwide's 'Fairer Share' £100 payment for eligible members

coyrls

You win some, you lose some.

TheBanker

Section62 said:

Exodi said:

For those asking why they didn't communicate their eligibility criteria beforehand, the bonus is aimed at rewarding their loyal members. It would have been counter-intuitive to announce these terms in January, have everyone from MSE rush over to open an account for two months, depositing the absolute bare minimum and vanish after the £100 bonus was paid.

In which case it was also counter-intuitive to announce the same distribution is likely to be made next year as well.

Some time around January 2024 someone will remind all us MSE'ers that having a Nationwide current account and jumping through some hoops, as well as a modest deposit in a savings account, will open the door to the possibility of a free £100.  Everyone from MSE then rushes to open an account, etc etc....

I'm with the person who suggested the criteria should have been published in advance.  Nationwide is a mutual building society, we should all have something approximating an equal chance of getting a payout of this kind.  The way Nationwide have gone about it, the 2023 payout approximates to a lottery.

If a stampede of account opening was feared, then there were ways Nationwide could have prevented this on a transitional basis (for 2023).

And people taking the money and running could have been prevented by making the £100 conditional on maintaining whatever level of account holding/activity until the next qualifying date.

Simple solution. Make one of the criteria that  you have to have been a member for at least 12 months. 

MDMD

The Britannia Building Society used to have a scheme where a member got points worth a cash amount, the more products you had the more points you got. There’s nothing to stop NW doing something similar, including issuing points based on current account use. Although you needed a minimum points amount to get any payout.

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-1596705/Rewards-for-Britannia-members.html

Clearly Britannia had other problems but these would not apply here given NW are better capitalised.

cloud_dog

fourmarks said:

Expotter said:

Perhaps you're right, but as I explicitly specified in my post, this is my opinion and I only speak for  myself. It just seems to me a strange marketing strategy to annoy 75% of your customer base, but of course you might view it differently.
In any case, I'll still leave and not just because I've 'taken the hump' as you put it, but because Nationwide offer me nothing that appeals to me or I can't get elsewhere and they obviously don't value my custom either.

I have no idea myself, but how many of the 75% will actually be aware of their misfortune? I think we acknowledge that posters here are in the small minority of people who pay particularly close attention to the machinations of the banking world, and I have seen nothing in my newspapers, not even the money sections, commenting on the pay out. Nor have I seen, or heard, anything on other media outlets. Granted my coverage is hardly comprehensive, but in the great scheme of things it doesn't seem to have received much publicity. Assuming Nationwide haven't sent emails those customers not receiving the £100, and why on earth would they, then how many of that 75% are aware that they should be in a state of extreme high dudgeon?

Just wondering.

Sister in law received it and deleted it before reading it, assumed it was junk mail.

zagfles

Exodi said:

Respondents on Facebook to this news were spitting feathers over the eligibility criteria (which is not suprising), however I am suprised at the relatively similar reaction here, considering the different demographic.

I even saw one poster taking issue that the eligibility period was in the past...

For those asking why they didn't communicate their eligibility criteria beforehand, the bonus is aimed at rewarding their loyal members. It would have been counter-intuitive to announce these terms in January, have everyone from MSE rush over to open an account for two months, depositing the absolute bare minimum and vanish after the £100 bonus was paid.

Oh really? You could have switched to them in Feb 2023, opened a STS account for the 5% interest, paid £100 in over 2 months and you'd qualify. 3 months membership and 2 transactions is "loyalty"?

Whereas someone who's had a mortgage and savings accounts, ie core building society products, with them for 20+ years doesn't qualify, unless they also have a current account and used it in a particular way.

That's why people are "spitting feathers". It's nothing to do with "loyalty". As I said in one of the other threads, current accounts are not a building society thing. Out of the 40+ UK building societies Nationwide is the only one to offer a current account (except Cumberland who only offer it in their area).

It's a bit like Tesco saying a customer who has shopped there every week for 20 years isn't a loyal customer because they don't have a Tesco mobile contract.

Albermarle

As I said in one of the other threads, current accounts are not a building society thing. Out of the 40+ UK building societies Nationwide is the only one to offer a current account (except Cumberland who only offer it in their area).

They are the only building society to offer a current account, partly because other large building societies that did offer current accounts ( Abbey National & Halifax to name two I am aware of ) demutualised and became banks.

Also Nationwide are approx. 5 times bigger than their largest rival, in terms of assets, members and branches, and of the Top 10 building societies they are bigger than all the other nine put together. So a somewhat special case in the world of UK building societies and in my local town, the only current account provider with a branch still offering banking services to local people.

wmb194

Albermarle said:

As I said in one of the other threads, current accounts are not a building society thing. Out of the 40+ UK building societies Nationwide is the only one to offer a current account (except Cumberland who only offer it in their area).

They are the only building society to offer a current account, partly because other large building societies that did offer current accounts ( Abbey National & Halifax to name two I am aware of ) demutualised and became banks.

Also Nationwide are approx. 5 times bigger than their largest rival, in terms of assets, members and branches, and of the Top 10 building societies they are bigger than all the other nine put together. So a somewhat special case in the world of UK building societies and in my local town, the only current account provider with a branch still offering banking services to local people.

There were others, though. I can think of Coventry and N&P/YBS giving up on current accounts. You might have thought these two would have been able to give it a go.

zagfles

wmb194 said:

Albermarle said:

As I said in one of the other threads, current accounts are not a building society thing. Out of the 40+ UK building societies Nationwide is the only one to offer a current account (except Cumberland who only offer it in their area).

They are the only building society to offer a current account, partly because other large building societies that did offer current accounts ( Abbey National & Halifax to name two I am aware of ) demutualised and became banks.

Also Nationwide are approx. 5 times bigger than their largest rival, in terms of assets, members and branches, and of the Top 10 building societies they are bigger than all the other nine put together. So a somewhat special case in the world of UK building societies and in my local town, the only current account provider with a branch still offering banking services to local people.

There were others, though. I can think of Coventry and N&P/YBS giving up on current accounts. You might have thought these two would have been able to give it a go.

But they were never a core building society product. Just like mobile phone contracts were never a core supermarket product. Are you a "loyal customer" if you make use of the company's core products regularly for decades? Apparently not in the case of Nationwide.

xylophone

Having an empty savings/current account (for example) does not classify you as an 'active member'.

"Active" or not is irrelevant - OP is still a member.

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/about-us/

Nationwide isn't a bank

We’re a building society, or mutual, owned by our members. That’s anyone who banks, saves or has a mortgage with us. We’re run for their benefit and to help the communities around us. We’re not run for shareholders in the same way that banks are.

But some are more equal than others?

xylophone

and I have seen nothing in my newspapers, 

But  unless I've missed it, neither of these articles makes any mention of what we might term the  "£500 rule"?

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-12103763/We-Nationwide-joint-account-Isas-100-each.html

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-12105987/12m-Nationwide-customers-miss-100.html