Nationwide FlexPlus fee hiked to £18/month from December

pollypenny

35har1old said:

lr1277 said:

I looked a bit further into the travel insurance.

If there is a pandemic declared anywhere and either you are told not to travel or choose not travel, then you are not covered.

If you are diagnosed with a condition that is not covered, then you are not covered at all even if your other conditions are in the covered list.

Also if you can't travel because of the condition of somebody not in the travelling party, but is part of your life, then you are not covered.

I haven't bought travel insurance in a long time so I don't know if these are now standard conditions.

Didn't look into the exclusions on the other types of insurance offered.

If your condition is not covered in the list you then have to inform them to access the condition they may cover for free or a supplement.
Just for a example one of the conditions on the Lloyds list (high blood pressure) you would have to do a medical assessment if you where with Nationwide (UK insurance)

OH was simply asked what medication he was prescribed for his high blood pressure.   Nationwide assessments have always been very straightforward. 

Space_Captain

WillPS said:

Space_Captain said:

WillPS said:

Space_Captain said:

I'm looking at the Halifax reward extra current account. £19 a month but £5 cashback and it also has home emergency cover as well as the same benefits as Nationwide.
Has anyone here considered this one? 

The lack of onward travel puts me off, to be honest. But maybe it's not a dealbreaker for you, and if it isn't then £14 net is a good deal. 

Both include European travel cover with the AA.

I've looked at the Halifax details and it says:

Mechanical breakdown - Assistance to deal with a breakdown on the road within the UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man.

Whereas Nationwide says:

Assistance throughout Europe, all day, every day

• Support wherever you are
  No matter where you are, you'll be helped on your way with the AA's Roadside Assistance, At Home, National Recovery and Onward Travel covers.

We drive to France each year and it was reassuring knowing we have the AA cover. As it looks like Halifax doesn't cover European driving I would need to sort that out before travel.

And yes the Halifax AA cover will only take you to a local garage if you break down within the UK.

So the Nationwide £18 a month doesn't look so bad now.  I looked at an AA policy to cover 2 of us and the equivalent is about £12 a month.

I think I'm personally going to go for Co-op Bank while they have the '3 months free' offer going. Will sign up in the beginning of November.

The small print says:

To qualify for the Promotion a Customer must apply for an Everyday Extra Account between 9th September and 4th November 2024

So don't leave it too late !

I'm sticking with Nationwide. Too much hassle to switch and I don't trust the other banks to up their monthly fees after the budget this month. I get the Nationwide members pay out as well by keeping the account. 

WillPS

I've just gone through the 'change to FlexAccount' process, all very straight forward and applied immediately. I presume I'll be charged pro-rata at the end of the month.

I'm going to do Co-op Everyday Extra for the next 3 months, then I'll make a decision either to keep that or move to something else once the free period expires.

Incidentally, for anyone thinking about doing the same, the '3 months on us' promotion has now been extended to 13/12/24. It took around a week in total to get set up for me, so the ideal application date is somewhere in the next couple of weeks. Weirdly when you open an Everyday Extra account they first open a Current Account then upgrade it a few days later - normal Co-op Bank weirdness I guess.

malky39

Recently went for the Virgin Club M Acount for £12.5/month to replace the flex plus account. We have medical conditons that needed declared Nationwide for the last 2 years it has been an additional £60 so would have been happy if that was the case with Virgin turns out they will cover them all at no extra cost. Had some issues opening the account at first, which was my own fault, but when I called Virgin the service was great and was put throught to someone less that a minute after calling.

dinosaur66

never heard from nationwide about this increase so thank you for posting this / i have this account solely for aa breakdown cover / recently retired so i sold my van which is why i had this bank account / got to look up now if rac /aa breakdown cover is £216 or higher / never owned a passport and cannot remember the other possible benefits of this account

WillPS

dinosaur66 said:

never heard from nationwide about this increase so thank you for posting this / i have this account solely for aa breakdown cover / recently retired so i sold my van which is why i had this bank account / got to look up now if rac /aa breakdown cover is £216 or higher / never owned a passport and cannot remember the other possible benefits of this account

If you just want basic RAC or AA cover, buying direct is likely to be cheapest.

If you want onward travel, Co-op's Everyday Extra includes RAC with that - £15/month, and currently offering 3 months free. 

Despite the hike Nationwide is still a decent deal just for AA with onward travel alone.

There are third party breakdown cover policies including Onward Travel which could be <£30/year (DYOR), but they won't have the extensive network of repair vans that AA and RAC do; generally they will send a local recovery company to you.

dinosaur66

WillPS said:

dinosaur66 said:

never heard from nationwide about this increase so thank you for posting this / i have this account solely for aa breakdown cover / recently retired so i sold my van which is why i had this bank account / got to look up now if rac /aa breakdown cover is £216 or higher / never owned a passport and cannot remember the other possible benefits of this account

If you just want basic RAC or AA cover, buying direct is likely to be cheapest.

If you want onward travel, Co-op's Everyday Extra includes RAC with that - £15/month, and currently offering 3 months free. 

Despite the hike Nationwide is still a decent deal just for AA with onward travel alone.

There are third party breakdown cover policies including Onward Travel which could be <£30/year (DYOR), but they won't have the extensive network of repair vans that AA and RAC do; generally they will send a local recovery company to you.

thank you

just rejoined AA breakdown starting tomorrow

£60 and a few pence for home start /breakdown cover to any destination /any driver of my car covered / that was all the cover i needed as my nationwide cover i used was for my commercial vehicle which i have just sold

i used one of those smaller companys many years ago i  think it was green flag and as you say they sent a private company who would not take me home in another commercial vehicle i owned just to there own depot / i refused .

i will go to nationwide in the morning and ask them to port my flexplus to the standard free account so i can keep my bank number.

35har1old

pollypenny said:

35har1old said:

lr1277 said:

I looked a bit further into the travel insurance.

If there is a pandemic declared anywhere and either you are told not to travel or choose not travel, then you are not covered.

If you are diagnosed with a condition that is not covered, then you are not covered at all even if your other conditions are in the covered list.

Also if you can't travel because of the condition of somebody not in the travelling party, but is part of your life, then you are not covered.

I haven't bought travel insurance in a long time so I don't know if these are now standard conditions.

Didn't look into the exclusions on the other types of insurance offered.

If your condition is not covered in the list you then have to inform them to access the condition they may cover for free or a supplement.
Just for a example one of the conditions on the Lloyds list (high blood pressure) you would have to do a medical assessment if you where with Nationwide (UK insurance)

OH was simply asked what medication he was prescribed for his high blood pressure.   Nationwide assessments have always been very straightforward. 

Have you moved over to Aviva now or are you still with UK insurance.
Make sure your policy hasn't lapsed I thought mine was on automatic renewal but it had ended

Mikkey

I have recently changed my account to Flex + as the savings in both travel and breakdown cover is approximately £300 pa even after the hike in monthly fees.

lon_don

Pleasantly surprised that the Flexplus monthly account fee taken by Nationwide on 30/11, presumably for December (fee usually paid in advance not in arrear?), was £13 and not (yet) £18.