Help ! Cannot access Nationwide Fixed Term Bond

Psycholady6666

I opened a fixed term three year bond last summer at 2.5%. I cant recall why and ai wasnt clear  there was no access - not even for a penalty. Clearly this rate now seems paltry and in any case I need the money  Is there anything  I can do.  Ive been a member for 35 years

ForumUser7

Psycholady6666 said:

I opened a fixed term three year bond last summer at 2.5%. I cant recall why and ai wasnt clear  there was no access - not even for a penalty. Clearly this rate now seems paltry and in any case I need the money  Is there anything  I can do.  Ive been a member for 35 years

If there is no access, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to access it.

Rate rise, years of membership is irrelevant - you locked into a rate for security. You get the security of the same rate (which the bank cannot decrease (and should not increase)), and the society gets the security of having your deposit (which you cannot access).

Some providers, like YBS, allow you to access savings in certain situations by reviewing your circumstances. If you are in demonstrable financial hardship due to a significant change in circumstances, contact nationwide and explain you need to access the funds and provide evidence of the hardship. If they have a similar policy in place, you may be able to access the funds. It would be unethical and misleading to quote financial hardship if you just wanted a better interest rate though.

https://www.saffronbs.co.uk/savingspromises

https://www.ybs.co.uk/savings/pledges

EDIT: as others say, have you checked your ts and cs? From reading your message I thought you had and concluded there was no access not even with a penalty based on that, but if not, worth checking them.

MX5huggy

What’s the exact name of the bond this says you can pay a 270 day interest penalty if you really need the money. https://www.nationwide.co.uk/savings/help/terms/fixed-rate-bond/

pearl123

Most bonds your locked in until the end of term. The best thing you can do is look at you providers terms and conditions. 

25_Years_On

All you can do is ask Nationwide. However it's certainly very clear on their site that there no withdraws until fixed rate bonds matures so if you think this wasn't clear you would need evidence like a screenshot from the time or the product details which would have been provided showing that it wasn't clear.

Certainly it shows clearly for existing products that:

Access to your money

Only when your term ends. There is no option to close a Fixed Rate Branch Bond early to access your money.

ForumUser7

I think I've located OPs account type. If it is this one, no withdrawals. The only route now would be re the financial hardship due to significant circumstantial change laid out in my first message:

wmb194

What's the specific name of the bond? Last year Nationwide's branch opened bonds did allow access with penalty whilst the online ones didn't.

If you look in online banking what does it say? Does it give an option for closure?

refluxer

Psycholady6666 said:

I opened a fixed term three year bond last summer at 2.5%. I cant recall why and ai wasnt clear  there was no access - not even for a penalty. Clearly this rate now seems paltry and in any case I need the money  Is there anything  I can do.  Ive been a member for 35 years

Have you checked the T&Cs for your specific account or had this confirmed by the Nationwide ?

As mentioned above, Nationwide have offered a number of different types of bonds over the years  - you were allowed to close their (previous) 'fixed rate bonds' and 'e-bonds' before maturity with a penalty, but early access or closure of their (current) 'online bonds' or 'branch bonds' is not allowed if you're outside of the initial 14-day cooling off period.

The differences between these accounts is mentioned here...

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/savings/help/bond-differences/

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/-/assets/nationwidecouk/documents/savings/p4062-differences-between-bonds.pdf

I opened a Nationwide 'online bond' at the end of last year and I can't even see a clause in the T&Cs which state you might be able to access your money early in the event of a terminal illness or severe financial hardship (eg. bankruptcy), which you often get with elsewhere with this type of account.