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

xylophone

If they were a bank and doing as above, how many customers would also be shareholders ?

Oh, come on!

Are HSBC's customers complaining about the dividends paid to shareholders of this public company?

And how many customers of the plc banks are also shareholders?

tracyyi

Does it need to have ALL 3 criteria below? Including a mortgage with Nationwide?

• Current account: To be a qualifying current account, your account must have been open on 31 March 2023. Qualifying members must still have a current account in June. 

• Savings: You will have had qualifying savings if you had at least £100 in total in one or more personal savings accounts or cash ISAs with Nationwide at the end of any day in March 2023. 

• Mortgage: To be a qualifying mortgage, you must owe us at least £100 on your Nationwide residential mortgage on 31 March 2023.

gt94sss2

tracyyi said:

Does it need to have ALL 3 criteria below? Including a mortgage with Nationwide?

To be eligible to vote at the AGM, it just needs to be any one of the three

For the £100 it needs to be a current account and one of the others (minimum balance/usage requirements also apply)

Section62

p00hsticks said:

xylophone said:

I will not be loyal to a bank 

We're a bank in all but name so we can do things a little differently like not paying a dividend to all eligible shareholders but rather distributing a small portion of the profits belonging to all members only to those whom we deem worthy of such largesse.......

If they were a bank and doing as above, how many customers would also be shareholders ?
The large majority wouldn't be, and would be complaining that the profits generated by them go to the 'fat cat' shareholders....

People expect banks to pay dividends to 'fat cat' shareholders.  Those that complain are typically in the camp where "capitalism = evil"

Nationwide's selling point is they are different, being a mutual and owned by the members.

Some Nationwide members are complaining because it turns out there are two classes of member, which none of us were told about in advance, and this isn't something that the Society's Memorandum makes provision for.

spider42

Albermarle said:

2010 said:

This is the first time we have ever done this fairer share out and it`s highly likely to be the last.
It`s mainly due to the excess profits we made this year rather than having rate topping savings accounts.

Nationwide have never aimed to have table topping savings accounts ...

Well if their aim is not to have table topping accounts, then they have been incredibly successful at it over many years, so congratulations to them!!!

But according to their own website, their aim is to "... to provide our members with the best value in banking." On what basis do you state they they have never aimed to be table topping - have they said this previously? It is obviously the case that they are rarely near the top of best buy tables, but I didn't realise that it was actually an aim of theirs not to be!

... and probably never will as they have the cost of a branch network to support.

So do a lot of their competitors! Instead of hiding behind the excuse that they offer rubbish rates because they have a branch network, why don't they do what many other banks & building societies do, and offer some internet only accounts with better rates? That way, those who want branch access can still have it, and those who don't aren't suffering poor rates because they are subsidising somebody else's branch access?

Why is it that even NatWest's saving rates (and RBS too, as they are essentially the same) are consistently better than Nationwide's across almost their entire savings range? Every single savings account currently offered by NatWest, apart from one (the instant access account, for balances under £25,000), is currently paying more interest than the comparable account currently offered by Nationwide! NatWest has a considerably larger branch network than Nationwide.

They have been more competitive recently than a couple of years ago, although it is a bit patchy and some of the better rates are for existing customers only.

Like their 4.75% "Fairer Share" two year bond, which is ".. part of our enduring commitment to delivering value for our members."?

Which, at the time of writing, is languishing in 40th place out of 109 two year bonds according to Moneyfacts.

NatWest are paying 5.12% AER on their two year bond and they have a branch network too.

SonOfPearl

The vitriol directed at Nationwide here is shocking. If you are an existing member and are unhappy with Nationwide then leave (and tell them why, if you want to). Expressing your personal contempt for them on a forum isn't going to make a difference. If you are not an existing member then you aren't affected. 

jim1999

Turns out that Nationwide are trying to close out all of the fairer share complaints by doing a copy-pasted response en-masse.

But, if you contact them to say you're unhappy with that response, they will actually allocate someone to investigate.

They've tried to prevent people from doing so by not providing any contact details on the letter itself.

Not sure it's the best strategy if they want to avoid lots of people going to the FOS, but I suppose that's their prerogative.

boingy

SonOfPearl said:

The vitriol directed at Nationwide here is shocking. If you are an existing member and are unhappy with Nationwide then leave (and tell them why, if you want to). Expressing your personal contempt for them on a forum isn't going to make a difference. If you are not an existing member then you aren't affected. 

I'm not seeing much of what I would describe as vitriol. I'm seeing unhappy members of a mutual society expressing that unhappiness.

But thanks for your valuable contribution to the discussion. 

Albermarle

On what basis do you state they they have never aimed to be table topping - have they said this previously?

Some years ago they explicitly stated that their aim was to have consistency in their interest rate setting, rather than chasing top of the table status. I think at the time providers were appearing at the top of the table and then quickly disappearing again, which seems to be less the case nowadays.

NatWest are paying 5.12% AER on their two year bond and they have a branch network too.

Very true but not representative of other high st banks offers.

At the end of the day in all these relationships, the provider sets the price/rate and the customer decides whether to take it up or not. So just go to NatWest and job done.

Albermarle

SonOfPearl said:

The vitriol directed at Nationwide here is shocking. If you are an existing member and are unhappy with Nationwide then leave (and tell them why, if you want to). Expressing your personal contempt for them on a forum isn't going to make a difference. If you are not an existing member then you aren't affected. 

Even before this 'Fair Share' issue, they have always been a target of criticism on this forum. Not sure why as if I am unhappy with a bank/BS then I just leave/move, rather than getting upset about it