Nationwide take over of Virgin Money

Rich1976

Rob5342 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.

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.

Not sure I’d class any of those as critical or essential and I am in no way a fan of Nationwide. I’m sure there are people who value those things  but as long as an app does what it’s supposed to do and is efficient then the others are just nice to haves. As for notifications I’ve never understood the requirement for those. If you’ve spent on your card then you know how much you’ve spent. Why do you need a notification?.

Lightning360

Rich1976 said:

Rob5342 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.

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.

Not sure I’d class any of those as critical or essential and I am in no way a fan of Nationwide. I’m sure there are people who value those things  but as long as an app does what it’s supposed to do and is efficient then the others are just nice to haves. As for notifications I’ve never understood the requirement for those. If you’ve spent on your card then you know how much you’ve spent. Why do you need a notification?.

Except the app itself isn't even that great if you ignore the features it doesn't have. It doesn't open properly some of the time and when it does, it doesn't exactly load quickly.

ircE

Nationwide's app is not that bad, although I say that as a Co-operative Bank sufferer.

So first Coventry BS goes for Co-op Bank, now Nationwide BS goes for Virgin. What next, Yorkshire BS to go for TSB? Skipton BS to go for Shawbrook? Why the sudden interest from Building Societies in challenger banks?

35har1old

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.

(my bold).

Note that they're not saying, as you incorrectly claim, that they won't become Nationwide members - they're saying it won't happen automatically upon the transaction completing.

It'll take years (4 it seems they're planning, looking at the details of the Virgin license they've agreed) to merge the two operations together and it's entirely possible that some will remain functions of Clydesdale Bank plc - my guess would be that they'll find it simpler to retain that subsidiary in order to fulfill their Scottish note printing obligations. Perhaps they'll maintain a totally separate retail presence but that seems vanishingly unlikely to me as anything other than an interim step.

I'm glad you've dropped the notion that this is all a rouse while they line themselves up for demutualisation tho.

The problem with Virgin it's still in 2 parts running 2 web platforms one was the virgin platform and second Clydesdale & Yorkshire in the future it's going to be three

blue.peter

Lightning360 said:

Except the app itself isn't even that great if you ignore the features it doesn't have. It doesn't open properly some of the time and when it does, it doesn't exactly load quickly.

In over four years, I've never experienced either of these issues. It's been fine for my purposes.

Rob5342

Rich1976 said:

Rob5342 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.

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.

Not sure I’d class any of those as critical or essential and I am in no way a fan of Nationwide. I’m sure there are people who value those things  but as long as an app does what it’s supposed to do and is efficient then the others are just nice to haves. As for notifications I’ve never understood the requirement for those. If you’ve spent on your card then you know how much you’ve spent. Why do you need a notification?.

They aren't absolutely critical but they are incredibly useful. The app is the main interface you have with your bank so why wouldn't you want the most fully featured one available? I opened a Nationwide current account to get the switching bonus and I was amazed at quite how bad the app was.

I find notifications very useful. It's a quick way to see that the amount debited is what you expect, it shows you things like pay at pump that update later, it makes you immediately aware of subscriptions.you may have forgotten about, if you have a joint account you aware of what the other person sent, and if there is any fraudulent activity you aware of it straight away. 

Krok414

No ill effects on existing Nationwide members? Is it a coincidence that on the day they announce their intention to spend £2.9 billion on an aquisition of Virgin Money, they announce that the interest rate on my Nationwide Credit Card will go up by more than 50% ?

blue.peter

Krok414 said:

No ill effects on existing Nationwide members? Is it a coincidence that on the day they announce their intention to spend £2.9 billion on an aquisition of Virgin Money, they announce that the interest rate on my Nationwide Credit Card will go up by more than 50% ?

Yes, it is a coincidence. The fact that your increase is 50% of the existing interest rate only reflects that fact that that interest rate was low to begin with. I'll bet that the increase was, like mine, five percentage points. If you take a look at the Credit Cards board, you'll see threads there about other card issuers also increasing their interest rates by similar amounts. The Nationwide increase is in line with the market in general.

Section62

blue.peter said:

Krok414 said:

No ill effects on existing Nationwide members? Is it a coincidence that on the day they announce their intention to spend £2.9 billion on an aquisition of Virgin Money, they announce that the interest rate on my Nationwide Credit Card will go up by more than 50% ?

Yes, it is a coincidence. The fact that your increase is 50% of the existing interest rate only reflects that fact that that interest rate was low to begin with. I'll bet that the increase was, like mine, five percentage points. If you take a look at the Credit Cards board, you'll see threads there about other card issuers also increasing their interest rates by similar amounts. The Nationwide increase is in line with the market in general.

This is the point though - Nationwide is meant to be a mutual and being a mutual is supposed to bring benefits to members.

However when they increase debt interest rates it is said (perhaps not by them in this case) that they need to do so because it "is in line with the market in general".  Nationwide should be able to moderate increases in existing member's debt interest rates rather than having to follow the "market".  They are making excess profits, which they will give to a lucky few, at the expense of other members.  And that isn't "fairer" to members like Krok414.

Likewise, when Nationwide's savings interest rates were dismal (compared to other building societies) they claimed their rates were better than the market - but by 'market' they meant the high street banks.  The benefits of being a mutual are often touted, but only when it suits.  This is why it is so galling when they claim to be better than the other banks.

WillPS

Section62 said:

blue.peter said:

Krok414 said:

No ill effects on existing Nationwide members? Is it a coincidence that on the day they announce their intention to spend £2.9 billion on an aquisition of Virgin Money, they announce that the interest rate on my Nationwide Credit Card will go up by more than 50% ?

Yes, it is a coincidence. The fact that your increase is 50% of the existing interest rate only reflects that fact that that interest rate was low to begin with. I'll bet that the increase was, like mine, five percentage points. If you take a look at the Credit Cards board, you'll see threads there about other card issuers also increasing their interest rates by similar amounts. The Nationwide increase is in line with the market in general.

This is the point though - Nationwide is meant to be a mutual and being a mutual is supposed to bring benefits to members.

... no mutuals other than Nationwide even offer a credit card. The interest rate in question (14.9%) is also way below the average in the market.

Section62 said:

However when they increase debt interest rates it is said (perhaps not by them in this case) that they need to do so because it "is in line with the market in general".  Nationwide should be able to moderate increases in existing member's debt interest rates rather than having to follow the "market".  They are making excess profits, which they will give to a lucky few, at the expense of other members.  And that isn't "fairer" to members like Krok414.

A 5% rise in APR is a modest increase. No doubt the previous rate was set when the BoE base rate was 0.5% or 0.25%. It's now 4.75% or 5% higher.

Section62 said:

Likewise, when Nationwide's savings interest rates were dismal (compared to other building societies) they claimed their rates were better than the market - but by 'market' they meant the high street banks.  The benefits of being a mutual are often touted, but only when it suits.  This is why it is so galling when they claim to be better than the other banks.

But you're also trying to have it both ways now - you want them to benchmark against other building societies for the small set of products/services they both have, but you want them to offer an enhancement on the market for the things they only compete with banks for.

BTW - it's very hard to read the post I've quoted and not get the sense of someone moaning...