written by cvDaley279 on 04/12/2020
Be it through death, separation or ill health, entirely ignore their rhetoric about being helpful and 'more' caring as a Mutual Society when problems raise their ugly head (even to long standing customers) as they care but for themselves. STAY CLEAR. I have been banking for many years with different companies, and never come across such an arrogant and inconsiderate bank, with entirely lousy and incompetent customer service. Based on implications from the FOS they just about operate within legal requirements, but with little consideration for the customer. This is the first of many reviews, as despite their prominence in the market, stay away. Loyalty and history count for absolutely nothing with the Nationwide. When life throws a curve ball at you, as it does, there is no help despite a campaign to say otherwise. I believe other reviews support my comments, and you should listen to them.
written by on 02/08/2014
LAST YEAR MY WIFE OPENED AN ACCOUNT AT THE BRAINTREE BRACH ,DAYS LATER SHE RECEIVED A LETTER FROM SWINDON SAYING SHE HAD OPENED THE ACCONT ABOVE THE CEILING LIMIT,THEY SAID SHE MAY HAVE MADE A MISTAKE ,NOBODY TOLD HER ABOUT ANY LIMIT ,THEY REFUNDED THE OVER-PAYMENT BY CHEQUE ,AND RE-OPENED THE ACCOUNT WITH A NEW REF NO ,THEY DID NOT INDICATE ON THE NEW ACCOUNT THAT SHE WAS A NON TAX PAYER ,SHE HAS NOW RECEIVED HER FIRST STATEMENT AND FOUND TAX DEDUCTED ,SHE IS NOW FILLING-IN FORMS TO THE TAX MAN CLAIMING THE TAX BACK ,IN MY OPINION THE ONLY MISTAKE MY WIFE MADE WAS WHEN SHE WALKED INTO THE BRAINTREE BRANCH THINKING SHE WAS GOING TO RECEIVE GOOD PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE .
written by on 05/11/2013
This time I've had to close my business and am stuck at home because the automatic renewal of my Debit card has had a problem. Apparently a batch of cards with the same series of numbers weren't automatically renewed. Unimpressive. But try and get it sorted out through their Help Desk and you have NO hope. They're very courteous and they'll tell you all the right things but nothing actually happens. Internet suppliers are cutting services and there's no way to access or purchase goods on line. Complaints we're so quick I'm still waiting 18hrs later. So five days after my card came to end and this business breached their contract I'm still stuck - and it isn't the first time. Last time, I needed a new card when a supplier was hacked. The card duely arrived and I filled my car with petroleum only to find that it was faulty. Apart from the humiliation of having to give all my details to the petrol station I was publicly warned if I didn't pay in 24 hrs the police would be informed - and all because of this business' incompetence. It took almost a month to sort out. Would I recommend ever reporting possible fraud. God - now. Let the scammers have the cash it will be a lot less hassle!!! As for recommending the business - well thye do have some very nice and helpful branch staff but unless you can be sure of these hassles and are younger enough to put up with the stress - I'd give them a miss.
written by on 17/09/2013
MY WIFE HAD A CHAMPION SAVER ACCOUNT ,SHE WENT INTO THE BRAINTREE OFFICE AND ASKED IF THERE WAS ANOTHER THAT WOULD GIVE A BETTER RETURN ,THEY SUGGESTED A LOYALTY ACCOUNT ,MY WIFE AGREED AND THE ACCOUNT WAS OPENED ,DAYS LATER A LETTER ARRIVED SAYING GOOD NEWS THE ACCOUNT IS OPEN ,DAYS LATER ANOTHER LETTER ARRIVED SAYING THE ACCOUNT HAD BEEN OPENED OVER THE MAXIMUM LIMIT AND THAT MY WIFE MAY HAVE MADE A MISTAKE ,THERE WAS NO SORRY OR ANY WORDS THAT IMPLIED THEY HAD MADE A ERROR ,LOOKING BACK THE ONLY MISTAKE MY WIFE MADE WAS WHEN SHE WENT INTO BRAINTREE FOR ADVICE ASSUMING SHE WOULD RECEIVE GOOD PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE ,THE ERROR WAS PROBABLY ONLY NOTICED BY A COMPUTER ERROR STOPPING THE CONTINUED PROCESSING OF THE ACCOUNT . NEVER AGAIN
written by on 22/08/2013
Our endowment comes to an end next month as do (I presume) hundreds of others. Nationwide seem totally unable to give advice or help even though I have my mortgage with them. They behave as though I am the one and only customer that has an endowment or wants to use it to pay off a mortgage with them. They sound knowledgeable on the phone but nothing comes of it. Phone again and again they sound like they know what they are talking about and say the first member of staff gave wrong info and now they are giving us correct information. But....then a letter arrives saying what was said on the phone was wrong and the information in the letter is the correct information. How do I know this latest information is correct....why am I paying Nationwide for financial advice.
written by lozzz on 23/09/2012
A 20 pound monthly fee for a 1p overdraft is excessive, particularly if the 1p overdraft is due to Nationwide's own mistake! My daughter has a Nationwide FlexAccount (not her main account) and went about £15 overdrawn by accident earlier this year. When she realised this in July, she rang Nationwide and they arranged to pay-off what was owing from another card, and promised to cancel future arising charges and interest. Due to their mis-calculation, her account remained 1p overdrawn after this exercise. So since then, nationwide have been putting £20 charges on the account, and then after a phone call, re-imbursing that charge (so far!). She also asked them to set up internet banking for her, so she could keep tabs on her account and be able to send them secure messages free rather than having the cost of phoning them, but that paperwork has never arrived. One way to put right this ludicrous situation of charging £20 for a 1p overdraft would be to have a safety buffer (even it's only a fiver) for unauthorised overdrafts.
written by southeasternwoman on 27/08/2012
I decided to open an account with Nationwide because my husband has been with them for years. He had nothing but good to say about them. However, when they applied bank charges to my account in error I was bounced from pillar to post trying to sort it out. In the end, I sent an email to their CEO asking him to get it resolved. I also let him know that I am aware all financial institutions are required to record their calls by law and provided him with the dates and times I had contacted his customer service team. During those calls I was given incorrect information, misleading information and was told by some staff that their colleagues wouldn't have said what I told them they said. In my email I included the usual info i.e. dates, times when I called who I spoke to and what was said. I made a formal request to him in the email to retrieve the relevant recordings. I can only assume this was done as I received a phone call from someone who told me they were a manager, they had listened to the recordings and upheld my complaint while acknowledging they had messed up in the first place. Why do we have to go through all this just to get service we are paying for?
written by on 03/08/2012
I have been with the Nationwide for over 40 years and did feel that they were different from other banks/building societies - in fact I encouraged MANY people to join, take out mortgages etc with them. However, last year they closed 2 of the local branches I and many people I know used, Louth and Horncastle (both in Lincolnshire). I now have a 50 mile round trip if I wish to visit a branch AND I DO! Both branches could easily have been kept open if the chief executive and others had not awarded themselves obscene pay packages. I want a local branch where I do my shopping so after all this time I am looking elsewhere.
written by deanosreviews on 10/05/2012
this building society acts just like a greedy bank with charges of £20 and £15 (total £35) even if overdrawn by one pence for 1 day only. An interest rate of probably a Billion APR. I moved from the Halifax to escape from the greed and arrogance and as a reaction against them partly causing the economic crisis - yet feel Nationwide , with its charges , is just the same . I fact despite them refunding the original charges as a Goodwill Gesture, the account was overdrawn so Another Charge has been applied!! Double charged.... a vicious circle of charges leading to more charges on a dormant account. Definitely not on Your Side....more their own side . Additionally the interest rates payable on savings are quite terrible - mostly not above 1% whilst inflation is 4.5% hence losing 3.5% of the value of your money per year. Why bother at all when rates are this low . Yet they happily charge 10% minimum on loans so why the difference? Its likely I will migrate again or just use my credit union...
Written on: 12/02/2013
This is exactly what happened to me. Overdrawn in December by £17, which I didn't realise until about 5 days later.
I checked my account yesterday, and I was in credit. Today, I am in debit as they had applied the charges, and even though I immediately added funds to clear the overdraft, I have now incurred more charges for being overdrawn for about 10 hours.
And I was told by support there will be more charges as I was overdrawn in January. Well, no I wasn't. It is the way Nationwide debits the account before applying credits ON THE SAME DAY, something the customer services rep I spoke to seemed incapable of understanding.
I moved from Lloyds as I hated them with a passion. However Nationwide are even worse. I'm out of there as soon as I can find another, more reasonable bank.
And by the way, they just lost the chance for getting £70 thousand from me, as part of my redundancy package.
Nationwide, you are rubbish.
written by on 30/04/2012
Nationwide is not awful, but there is a lot of room for improvement. For such a large company, some of the staff in the branch come across as frequently unprofessional. I discovered that at my local branch, most of the staff are part time, and I really get the impression that they just don't care about the job. Cashiers are often petulant and reluctant to do more than the absolute minimum. In addition, the staff turnover at my local branch is massive. I have since moved to HSBC and have been so happy I did this. I really feel like a customer and the HSBC branch staff are more than happy to have a chat with me about any queries that I may have.
written by on 14/03/2012
I have been with the nationwide 26 years they where friendly but over the last 3 years, they have gone bad, you pay money in to pay DD but they tell you it is unpaid, and charge you £15 even the the statement states the money is there on that day, if you message them on line you get scripted message, then you have to complain to the Ombudsman, before you get results I found the telephone customer services very nice and help full, but the online message response bad, I asked for £50 overdraft in case of emergency, i have my pensions paid into there bank every Monday, there response Im a risk, and they have to safeguard, what risk they can take the money on Monday, just another greedy bank getting as much money from you as they can the friendly society has gone, word and mouth is there best form of getting new customers, I have 6 grand children and 1 great grand child, they certainly wont get them in Nationwide
Written on: 12/04/2012
Yes I have noticed this also, more so in the last 12 months. I have made several flippant replies to their responses as my messages clearly have not been read.
Also I have pulled them up on promises made and never delivered, trying to charge me into the bargain. Fortunately, over the years I have learned to request written confirmations of promises. But I should have to be the one doing the chasing.
What appeared to be a flawless service for the last 30 years is diminishing fast
written by on 02/02/2012
I changed my bank account in December and wrote to Nationwide to let them know my new bank account details so that my mortgage and further advance payments could be amended. However they have still not been able to set up the direct debits and have blamed my bank for the direct debits not working. My bank had not received instructions from them and so were unable to make any payments. I have been making manual payments for the past 2 months and to date they have only managed to set up one direct debit, for the further advance. As a gesture of goodwill they did not make any charge to my account! Not impressed with this service - all I want to do is pay off my mortgage.
written by on 11/01/2012
In order to open an online isa, I had to open a card account. This came in the form of an InvestDirect account. To obtain money from the Isa the funds need to be transferred to this account. However, for large amounts this account cannot be processed over the phone or internet to transfer money to another bank. This information was given to me in a telephone conversation with Nationwide. I was informed that I could print off an order form, sign, date and post it to them but NOT AT THE ADDRESS PRINTED ON THE FORM!!!! My husband had ordered a cheque from them a few days ago using the address provided so when will he receive his cheque is anyone's guess. What a joke this Building Society is! If you want your money in a hurry give this account and the on line isa a big miss!
Written on: 10/03/2012
This review is not factual. Yes, you do need to have a card account to use any Nationwide online account (including the Online ISA).
However, there are several types of card based accounts and I do not know why you believe the InvestDirect (a postal account) is your only option.
You could have opened a current account which you can manage online and transfer money in and out from instantly. There are also other branch-based card account options for you to choose from.
written by Woollison on 18/11/2011
For about 10years reasonably good service and occasional charges for unauthorised overdraft on Flexaccount. Fair enough. Moved house and had 50K repayment mortgage for a few months, reduced to 25K on sale of house. This was to cause a problem. At one time staff at branch needed manager to sign authorisation to pay cash against uncleared cheque. The manager had a very loud rant saying "this is the last time he can do this..etc." Felt very belittled at my time of need. Then got made redundant. Went into branch to explain. They reduced mortgage payments to interest only. Said not to worry as you have mortgage protection cover. Went to a lot of trouble to get MPC forms filled and Nationwide lost them. Started to get phone calls from collections dept. saying they had no knowledge of agreement to reduce payments. Started again to get another set of MPC forms done, then told don't bother as you do not have MPC. After lot of hassle found they were looking at wrong account. They agreed we had cover and miraculously found lost forms. Them bombshell. Because the original mortgage was 50K and we had only paid premiums on 25K they would not pay MPC. Said to them it was agreed in a letter that 25K was final mortgage. Had to find letter and send it to them for proof as they had no copy. After about 6 months of anguish at a time when we needed help they gave us nothing but worry. Started a new job with good money but as a contractor. Went to Nationwide to ask for bigger Mortgage for extention to house. House was worth about £80,000 and we only had £30,000 existing mortgage. They said no. Didn't like contractors. Went to Barclays, they said absolutely no problem. Again in our hour of need let down by Nationwide. I was happy to stay with Nationwide but them last week I needed them, as my bank to sign to certify a document copy. NO we don't do it. All that was needed was copy driving licence and sign that the picture looked like me. 30 odd years of loyal custom and in another time of need Nationwide say no. Went to Barclays where I don't even have an account now and they did it instantly. I think it is time to change Bank. (Oh no that's not right because Nationwide is not a Bank they tell me, what relevance that is I do not know)
written by Jamsarni on 16/06/2011
Hopeless administrators. Lost three sets of personal documents, promised call backs numerous times without actually doing it. Took weeks to sort out problems and had to pay me compensation more than once for different maladministration mistakes. Honestly not worth it. Avoid this joke of a financial institution unless you are happy to check and double check everything they do for the (almost inevitable) errors and cock ups.
written by on 08/04/2011
I wasnt happy because I was told about ISA interest and have agreed to transfer e-isa which be easy for me to banking online and I was told e-isa will be ready in 2 weeks transfer from normal ISA which after 5th April but they have already transfer it before the 5th April.. Now I am getting nothing.. Cheeky of them!
written by on 30/01/2011
I used to work for Nationwide and the customer service has really gone down hill. They are just after making as many sales as they can and not putting the customer first. Alot of staff are off sick with the stress they are under.
written by on 05/01/2011
I think this building society
is like any banking institution. out to make as much profits as possible it trys to make out it is different, i will go back to my old bank first direct.
written by on 21/11/2010
I am a Nationwide employee and have been for over 2 years. It has changed so much. All the managers care about is VALUE, the money we get for selling a product. The normal staff are treated like expendible rubbish that can be discarded at a whim and this is why the customer service is dropping. In my branch, 4 out of 12 non managment staff have been off with work related stress within the last year. Needless to say, most of us are now looking for a new career!
written by on 18/08/2010
I have been with Nationwide for about 30 years, since amalgamation with other society's, service has declined, unfortunately their latest "scam" is to join other financial merchants and ditch their older loyal long term customers, in favour of making " a quick buck.
I am referring to their new tactic, of charging for withdrawal of money from ATM's in Europe, anybody over 65 with a Flex Account now have
no perks whatsoever so much for years of loyalty.
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Yorkshirerose17's Response to southeasternwoman's Review
Written on: 05/12/2013
Hi, please can you give me the CEO email address. Thank you
Southeasternwoman's reply to Yorkshirerose17's Comment
Written on: 22/01/2014
Hi, sorry; I've been offline for a bit so have only just seen your message. I got the email address from here: [removed]
I hear he has since changed his email address, but it's worth a try if he is still listed.
Good luck!