Nationwide FlexPlus fee hiked to £18/month from December

WillPS

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/current-accounts/flexplus/

Information:

From 1 December 2024, the FlexPlus monthly fee will go up from £13 a month to £18 a month.

Bad news. Was ready for and anticipating a £2/month hike but this is going to warrant some research. Might be time for me to ditch.

MikeWhite

Yikes, that's quite a jump. Children are all now over the age where they qualify under the family element. Might be time to join you in the ditching!

WillPS

Been doing a little research - for me the must-have feature is onward travel on roadside recovery. The competitors who offer this are:

• Virgin Money Club M - Green Flag - £12.50/month
• Monzo Max - RAC - £17/month sole, £22/month to include family members
  
• Natwest/RBS Platinum Reward - AA - £22/month*

* £5/month of this can come back in rewards, but I think there's an overall limit of 1 sole and 1 joint reward account, so if you already take advantage of the 'normal' rewards presently you'll only benefit from £2 of this.

I'm getting quotes, it seems this kind of cover can be had for very little from the third-party insurance offerings - 2gether are quoting me at £20/year for a UK policy with onward travel included and no excess.

TadleyBaggie

It's quite a big jump but it hasn't had an increase for around 7 years. Still worth it for me for the travel insurance and breakdown cover alone.

anoukis

This was a matter of time... I suspect Virgin will follow.

Co-op isn't comparable as the mobile phone cover is only for the account holder. 

WillPS

anoukis said:

Co-op isn't comparable as the mobile phone cover is only for the account holder. 

By that logic they're all incomparable, none of the competitors will offer the exact same range of insurances with the same stipulations. For some, ourselves included, account holders (plural, for a joint account) will be enough. Sadly tho the Co-op doesn't offer Onward Travel on their roadside assistance as Nationwide does, which is a dealbreaker for us - that doesn't mean it isn't comparable tho.

hollie.weimeraner

Well having just upgraded my Flex account to Flex plus specifically for the breakdown cover (phone cover was a bonus) I'll be leaving before the hike. Almost 50% hike is stupid.

Due to my age and health conditions the holiday insurance isn't worth it after going through disclosing all my ailments

balsingh

Looking to ditch the whole packaged account and see if I can get better deals for the Travel Insurance and the Breakdown cover separately. The mobile cover wasn't great. When I used it recently, the excess was huge and the replacement phone was a refurb/recon phone which also ended up going faulty.

boingy

Here's an interesting thing about breakdown cover. With both the AA and the RAC (and maybe some others) you can join instantly over the phone after you break down. I did exactly that about 7 years ago. There was no surcharge except the cheapest tier was unavailable so I paid about £100 to join their "silver" level. Then they recovered the vehicle and occupants to our home and I remained a member for a year. Then I cancelled it. My wife and I run three vehicles between us and our total expenditure on breakdown cover across 30-odd years is... about £100.  

subjecttocontract

We use the co-op at £15 a month. Could probably get the individual elements cheaper by shopping around but we've got better things to do than spending hours trying to save perhaps £30-£40 a year. It's convenient, provides peace of mind and we are happy with what we get. The October budget might increase all these types of accounts if they increase taxes.

callum9999

WillPS said:

anoukis said:

Co-op isn't comparable as the mobile phone cover is only for the account holder. 

By that logic they're all incomparable, none of the competitors will offer the exact same range of insurances with the same stipulations. For some, ourselves included, account holders (plural, for a joint account) will be enough. Sadly tho the Co-op doesn't offer Onward Travel on their roadside assistance as Nationwide does, which is a dealbreaker for us - that doesn't mean it isn't comparable tho.

I feel like if it's so different you won't even consider using it, that's the very definition of not comparable?