I had an issue recently, just thought I’d share the details in case anyone else is affected.
I was browsing through the Nationwide app - I sometimes look to see what the current balance transfer options are. When I clicked into that screen, I got a message saying they couldn’t offer me a balance transfer as I was in “persistent debt” (PD). Now, my Nationwide card isn’t my day-to-day spending card, but I do use it sometimes. I always pay the balance off in full each month - my monthly statement always shows £0.00 owed.
I called them and they seemed a bit baffled. The flag had been added to my account earlier that day and they couldn’t tell why. They acknowledged that I’d not even been in debt, never mind persistent debt! They cleared the flag and said everything was OK. I wasn’t too happy with the resolution as there were unanswered questions - why was the flag added, how did it happen, are there any other ramifications, e.g. could my credit file be affected, etc. I requested a proper investigation.
They called me last week to let me know that they’d had a problem whereby a number of accounts had ended up being incorrectly flagged as in PD. I was told it was an internal error and there would be no impact on my credit file. The surprising part was when he said that my card was now unlocked and I’d have no further issues. I told him that, as far as I was aware, my card hadn’t been locked. He confirmed it was actually locked at the same time they marked the account as PD, but that they’d now unlocked it. Good job I don’t rely on this card as it could have been a bigger problem, or at least caused some embarrassment if it was declined.
If anyone else has a Nationwide credit card that you don’t use regularly, you may just want to check that everything is working as it should.
I’ll ask the Wife to check as she’s the main account holder so I don’t have any view on my Nationwide mobile banking.
If indeed she has the same, I won’t muck about and I’ll just ask her to tell Nationwide to close the credit card account. We rarely use it anyway. There are far better cards out there in my opinion.
Well, to balance things up - I used to use Nationwide as my main bank account, still use it for our household joint bank account, have a couple of different savings products with them (and others in the past) as well as a credit card and I have never had any issues.
I only moved my main current account away for an incentive and then I got interested in fintech, so then moved it to Starling. If I ever got annoyed at Starling I’d happily move back to Nationwide.
I do have to admit the app & online banking is a bit basic - but it does the job.
For the insurance, I think, and it’s obviously just my opinion, the account is worth it. Otherwise, I’d look at another bank for everyday stuff. Nationwide do of course have a good branch network if you need it.
I just checked the balance transfer screen in the app (never even looked in there before) and it seems fine for me.
What does annoy me a bit is if you don’t use your card for a month, Nationwide report it as inactive to CRAs. Other cards always just report a £0 balance, as the credit line is still active. Oh well, it’s a minor thing, and I want to keep the card in case I’m ever in a situation where only Visa is accepted abroad!
Not sure if it was here or on MSE (I was still sleepy) I read about them also charging big premiums for minor health conditions too and I don’t want to find out about it after a hard search. I’ll have to consider my needs…
Agreed - it seems the best combination is Nationwide FlexPlus purely for the insurance, then probably Santander 123 Lite for joint bills.
If you want a joint spending account, then maybe even also add Starling or Monzo.
Depending on exactly which insurance coverage you want, Halifax might also be a good bet instead of Nationwide (especially since you can offset £5 from the cost via their Reward Extras).
Unless that is too much complexity for some, although everything except for the spending account would pretty much be “set it and forget it”, the other accounts would look after themselves.
I’m afraid I just can’t do Santander. I have my reasons!
The Wife has said she’ll do a joint Starling account. We’ll then move all of our cash out of there and split it between Starling and RBS and just pay the £13 a month for the insurance.
I was just thinking about account featureset and nobody other than Santander offers a fixed percentage cashback on bills any more. It depends on how far you want to go with these things.
MSE is quite good at breaking down the cost of the insurance and the relative levels of cover from different providers.
Nationwide isn’t bad overall, depending on what you want it can’t really be beaten on insurance. Halifax would give you emergency home cover for £1 less a month, but you lose Europe-wide breakdown and the ability to claim under family cover.
Honourable mention for the Co-op too, who are best for older travellers.
I don’t have this credit card issue but I’ve been having an issue with my Nationwide flexible cash ISA.
I withdraw cash from it at the start of each tax year to temporarily put the money in higher interest accounts elsewhere and then put it back in the ISA near the end of the year. I’ve been doing this for several years and the account page always accurately summarises how much I’ve withdrawn (and by extension how much how can pay back in before the end of the year without affecting my ISA subscription allowance).
This year that summary amount is inaccurate. Not just slightly inaccurate - its thousands of pounds away from what it should be. I reported this to Nationwide and they said they’re investigating but they’re taking their time about it. I reported it at least one month ago and they still haven’t resolved it.
I had a similar issue years ago when I first re-joined them (after having had a Portman savings account as a child, which became Nationwide before I closed it).
I applied online for a FlexDirect account, to get the year of (at the time) 5% interest. I then asked for a chequebook, because I was also planning on using the account a bit, not just getting it for the interest.
The chequebook arrived with my name prefixed with the title “Master” and not “Mr”! Clearly, somebody had selected the wrong thing from a drop-down box. I sent them a message through online banking and they replied quickly to apologise and dispatched a new chequebook with the correct details very quickly.
Also, a more minor thing; they have drop-downs to pick how you would like your name to appear on your debit card during the application and mine turned up not how I’d specified. I didn’t bother to complain about that. So my overall impression was service, good but processes, bad.
I thought it seemed odd as you would think everything would be automatically filled in from an online application - given the customer had typed it in?
This is a bugbear with Nationwide and one that I have never been able to resolve. In the scheme of things it’s a small thing I understand. It means that I’ll keep my mortgage with them but won’t routinely use them for Faster Payments.
I have a pretty common name and so have used my full name (including middle name) professionally and in all written stuff for decades. Nationwide supress my middle name in correspondence and on cards. I have asked them not to but they just wrinkle their corporate brows and fail to do anything about it. There comes a point where it’s just rude not to use the form of name that a customer asks you to.
What am I talking about?
I always call myself MICHAEL JAMES MOUSE and I like to have that on cards and accounts. I’m equally happy with M J MOUSE.
I don’t like M MOUSE, and I don’t like MICHAEL J MOUSE, both of which Nationwide (and MBNA) can’t seem not to call me. If I send a Faster Payment it comes from Mouse Michael, and they can’t seem to implement any alternative.
Dozens have started doing the same “surpressing middle names” thing, there are others.
As I say, I’m not eccentric enough to let it give me sleepless nights. Or to cut my ties. But I am obsessive enough to write a forum post about it!
There must be people with unusual names or expectation about how they like to be addressed or refererenced and I’d have though it was part of good customer service to facilitate that.
Is it worth a “CALL ME BY MY NAME” thread somewhere?
