Nationwide take over of Virgin Money

kuratowski

Section62 said:

Albermarle said:

Could one of you actually explain what critical features the Nationwide app is lacking?
Genuine question as I am not sure what I am missing.

The ability to pay cheques in comes up quite often.

You also can't download statements from the app - something most competitors' apps do allow.

WillPS

Section62 said:

WillPS said:

Section62 said:

WillPS said:

Little note on there for the moaners/diehard carpetbaggers who sniffed a whiff of demutualisation with last year's rebrand:

Importantly, Nationwide will remain a building society.

The forum members who were commenting on Nationwide then are not "moaners".  As members of Nationwide, and of this forum, they are allowed to have a different opinion to you about the way Nationwide is managed, without having a derogatory label attached to them.

In terms of being a member of a mutual building society, note that the statement issued today says "Virgin Money customers would not automatically become members of Nationwide".  In fact (as predicted by some here IIRC) it looks like Nationwide may be planning to operate a 'bank' subsidiary as a separate entity.

Which means our mutual (which some of us feel means having some degree of equality in ownership and the benefits available) building society will then have three classes of 'membership'...  the 'eligible' members who get free cash as a result of luck (or gaming the system), members who help earn the money that pays the free cash but don't get it themselves, and the VirginMoney customers who won't be members at all (unless they also have Nationwide accounts).

Not 'demutualisation' - but a big departure from the mutual ethos if it happens.

You absolutely were moaning about the branding then as now you're reaching conclusions which are not merited by the evidence. There's a key word in the text which you're conveniently not quoting -

Virgin Money customers would not automatically become members of Nationwide.

You mean the key word correctly quoted in my previous post which is now in bold+italics?

Or the bit where I said "(unless they also have Nationwide accounts)" to acknowledge the point that some 'VirginMoney' customers will be Nationwide members already and/or could become one by opening a Nationwide account.

I'm not "reaching conclusions".  I'm speculating.  Which is what pretty much all of us are currently doing because only a select few at Nationwide will know the full plans.

Apologies - I somehow missed where you quoted the exact text I accused you of selectively not quoting.

I too am speculating when I say this - but I think the chances of Nationwide long term holding 2 classes of personal customer, some who are members but some who are merely subsidiary customers is very low indeed; particularly if both are on equivalent products.

It might make some sense for Business Customers to be served by a subsidiary bank exclusively. It'll almost certainly make sense to retain Clydesdale Bank plc. if for no other reason than to avoid the complications of having to reassign their license/obligations to produce Scottish notes.

It'll be interesting to see what happens with Credit Cards too. Virgin Money has a much more comprehensive offer as it stands, whereas Nationwide's is almost a token effort. Holding a credit card also does not in and of itself make one a member either. Would it make more sense for these to be aligned with a banking subsidiary than a building society perhaps?

That being the case it makes to not automatically turn Virgin Money customers in to Nationwide members at the point of acquisition, and instead work through these books gradually.

Nationwide have agreed a 4 year license for the Virgin brand. It's reasonable to assume that they believe this is a sufficient window to align everything retail-related which they're keeping to Nationwide and remove the Virgin brand from the rest.

blue.peter

kuratowski said:

Section62 said:

Albermarle said:

Could one of you actually explain what critical features the Nationwide app is lacking?
Genuine question as I am not sure what I am missing.

The ability to pay cheques in comes up quite often.

You also can't download statements from the app - something most competitors' apps do allow.

So it really depends what features you regard as critical. I don't regard either of these as such. I hadn't even noticed that they were missing - and I've had Nationwide accounts (including a current account) for over four years now. 

Cheques? I've only received one in all that time, and paid it in at the local branch when I was in town. Statements? I download those from their Internet Bank on my desktop computer. If an app allows me to check transactions, that's all I ask. A phone app is - for me - too fiddly for anything more.

Lightning360

blue.peter said:

kuratowski said:

Section62 said:

Albermarle said:

Could one of you actually explain what critical features the Nationwide app is lacking?
Genuine question as I am not sure what I am missing.

The ability to pay cheques in comes up quite often.

You also can't download statements from the app - something most competitors' apps do allow.

So it really depends what features you regard as critical. I don't regard either of these as such. I hadn't even noticed that they were missing - and I've had Nationwide accounts (including a current account) for over four years now. 

Cheques? I've only received one in all that time, and paid it in at the local branch when I was in town. Statements? I download those from their Internet Bank on my desktop computer. If an app allows me to check transactions, that's all I ask. A phone app is - for me - too fiddly for anything more.

Which might be fine for you, but objectively, Nationwide is years behind the competition.

WillPS

Lightning360 said:

blue.peter said:

kuratowski said:

Section62 said:

Albermarle said:

Could one of you actually explain what critical features the Nationwide app is lacking?
Genuine question as I am not sure what I am missing.

The ability to pay cheques in comes up quite often.

You also can't download statements from the app - something most competitors' apps do allow.

So it really depends what features you regard as critical. I don't regard either of these as such. I hadn't even noticed that they were missing - and I've had Nationwide accounts (including a current account) for over four years now. 

Cheques? I've only received one in all that time, and paid it in at the local branch when I was in town. Statements? I download those from their Internet Bank on my desktop computer. If an app allows me to check transactions, that's all I ask. A phone app is - for me - too fiddly for anything more.

Which might be fine for you, but objectively, Nationwide is years behind the competition.

Good job they've just acquired one of them then

Lightning360

WillPS said:

Lightning360 said:

blue.peter said:

kuratowski said:

Section62 said:

Albermarle said:

Could one of you actually explain what critical features the Nationwide app is lacking?
Genuine question as I am not sure what I am missing.

The ability to pay cheques in comes up quite often.

You also can't download statements from the app - something most competitors' apps do allow.

So it really depends what features you regard as critical. I don't regard either of these as such. I hadn't even noticed that they were missing - and I've had Nationwide accounts (including a current account) for over four years now. 

Cheques? I've only received one in all that time, and paid it in at the local branch when I was in town. Statements? I download those from their Internet Bank on my desktop computer. If an app allows me to check transactions, that's all I ask. A phone app is - for me - too fiddly for anything more.

Which might be fine for you, but objectively, Nationwide is years behind the competition.

Good job they've just acquired one of them then

And Virgin Money is also miles behind the competition in some regards. As pointed out earlier, they have numerous different apps and logins for the different banking elements. This pretty poor compared to most banks now.

WillPS

Lightning360 said:

WillPS said:

Lightning360 said:

blue.peter said:

kuratowski said:

Section62 said:

Albermarle said:

Could one of you actually explain what critical features the Nationwide app is lacking?
Genuine question as I am not sure what I am missing.

The ability to pay cheques in comes up quite often.

You also can't download statements from the app - something most competitors' apps do allow.

So it really depends what features you regard as critical. I don't regard either of these as such. I hadn't even noticed that they were missing - and I've had Nationwide accounts (including a current account) for over four years now. 

Cheques? I've only received one in all that time, and paid it in at the local branch when I was in town. Statements? I download those from their Internet Bank on my desktop computer. If an app allows me to check transactions, that's all I ask. A phone app is - for me - too fiddly for anything more.

Which might be fine for you, but objectively, Nationwide is years behind the competition.

Good job they've just acquired one of them then

And Virgin Money is also miles behind the competition in some regards. As pointed out earlier, they have numerous different apps and logins for the different banking elements. This pretty poor compared to most banks now.

There's a good amount of features Virgin Money have which Nationwide do not - cheque deposit is one notable example.

Even if they keep their own backbone but take on the talent which has built the Virgin Money app experiences, that's something.

MSE_Molly_G

Hi all. We've just published a story on this: Virgin Money customer? You may be moved to Nationwide in the future – here's what's happening Thanks!

Rob5342

Could one of you actually explain what critical features the Nationwide app is lacking?
Genuine question as I am not sure what I am missing.

No transaction notifications

No budgeting features

No pots to seperate money

No card controls

No pin reminders

No ability to see debit card number in the app

No cheque pay in feature

No ability to set up new payess, have to use the card reader

No ability to see all payments made to one shop

No pay nearby people feature

No split the bills feature

No cashback on certain retailers

No ability to see direct debts due to be taken in the next day or two

No ability to see other accounts with open banking

New accounts take days to appear

No ability to see tranaction location on a map

No ability to send a link to request money

OK, they might not be absolutely critical and not every bank has all of them, but they make things a lot easier and most banks make at least a half hearted effort to include some of them. Nationwide seem to have no interest whatsoever in implementing anything remotely modern. It's quite bizarre.

gsmh

Some companies maintain a rather old fashioned service and presentation because many feel comfortable with it. It saves the company money and they can cajole their customers into feeling they have access to a premium product. A lot of ethical concerns do it - Triodos, for example, has a very sub par offering which many rather like.