... With the Nationwide Mini Cash ISA you have easy access to your cash. There is no limit to the amount of withdrawals you can make and you are not penalised for making withdrawals.
There is an upper deposit limit of £3,000 during one financial year. Otherwise you’d be able to have tons of ... Read review
Advantages: tax free savings, easy accsess to money Disadvantages: Savings limit per year
...need to purchase. With the Nationwide Mini Cash ISA you have easy access to your cash. There is no limit to the amount of withdrawals you can make and you are not penalised for making withdrawals.
There is an upper deposit limit of £3,000 during one financial year. Otherwise you’d be able to have tons of tax free savings! This limit applies to the total amount of credits during one year. So if you save £3,000 in a year and withdraw ... ...
To open a Nationwide account you need a minimum of £1. Joining forms are available from your local Nationwide branch. You’ll need to show two different form of identification one to prove your name (passport,driving license etc) and one to prove your address (a utility bill or a phone bill that isn’t for a mobile phone etc). These needs to be 3 months old or less. Don’t be like me waiting for ages and then having to come back, because I didn’t ... more
If you’re a financial dunce like I am, then negotiating the minefield that is advertising for financial products can be a nightmare. Unit trusts, PEPs, bonus gold accounts it’s all very confusing. A lot of my saving goals are short term for the moment, as there is no chance of being able to buy a house in the next five years!
When I chose my ISA I thought about my financial situation. I don’t earn a lot of money, so anything that stipulates a £5,000 minimum deposit to start, is out for me. My savings may be meagre, but it’s nice to get some interest on them that hasn’t been pillaged by the taxman and that is what is so great about ISA’s.
ISA stands for Individual Savings Account. These were introduced by the government to encourage people to save, they replaced Tessa’s. The big plus is that interest is paid tax free.
Also I don’t like the idea of having to lock money away in an account for years and not being able to touch it. This is all very well if you can afford to have a couple of different savings accounts, with varying lengths of notice, then I'm sure it’s financially beneficial to you. However, you never know what’s round the corner, there may be an emergency new car or holiday you need to purchase. With the Nationwide Mini Cash ISA you have easy access to your cash. There is no limit to the amount of withdrawals you can make and you are not penalised for making withdrawals.
There is an upper deposit limit of £3,000 during one financial year. Otherwise you’d be able to have tons of tax free savings! This limit applies to the total amount of credits during one year. So if you save £3,000 in a year and withdraw £1,000 you aren’t allowed to make up the difference. If you go a year without making a deposit you need to complete a renewal form available from your local branch.
There is no limit to the amount of years you can spend saving. I seemed to recall in the dim and distant days of Tessas, something about 5 year maturity rates. So theoretically you can save £3,000 a year for 10 years and have £30,000 of tax free savings and interest. Although I think that the Chancellor can pull the plug on it at his own discretion.
To open a Nationwide account you need a minimum of £1. Joining forms are available from your local Nationwide branch. You’ll need to show two different form of identification one to prove your name (passport,driving license etc) and one to prove your address (a utility bill or a phone bill that isn’t for a mobile phone etc). These needs to be 3 months old or less. Don’t be like me waiting for ages and then having to come back, because I didn’t have enough I.D.
When I did get to join up it was quite painless, took about ten minutes and I was able to open the account that day. The only thing I would reccommend is not trying to open one during the lunch hour if you can possibly help it. The counter staff don’t do opening new accounts, so you need to go to the enquiries section of the branch, which runs the risk of being stuck behind someone’s long drawn out mortgage problems. I’ve always found the staff in my local Nationwide branch to be friendly and helpful.
The account is operated by a passbook ( a very nice navy blue with gold writing and they give you a plastic cover to put it in!) and you can deposit and withdraw money using just this passbook. You don’t get a Link card, so you can’t money out of a hole in the wall. Not like my old post office account where I’m sure a whole wad of forms were needed to do anything.
The passbook keeps a running total of withdrawals, deposits and balance. Unlike a lot of financial products, you don’t need to give notice of your intention to withdraw money. Nationwide sends you a statement at the end of each financial year.
Interest on your account is calculated on 31st March. The Nationwide interest rate is currently 4.25%. as of December 2001. Interest is paid for each day your money is in there. So although there is no penalty for withdrawals, it does benefit you if you can keep it in there for as long as possible. So if you put your opinion writing cash in there and keep it in there you’ll see the rewards in the interest! Unfortunately since I opened my account, the interest rate has decreased with national trends. Good for mortgages, not so good for savings accounts.
If you’re in to internet banking, Nationwide like most financial organisations has a web site www.nationwide.co.uk and you are able to manage your account via the internet. Although you do need to see a human at a branch to set it up. I’ve had a quick look at their website and it is comprehensive and well laid out.
Another important point is that you are only allowed to have one ISA, I presume there are ways of checking this. Obviously if this weren’t the case lots of people would have a collection of different ISA accounts and would all be paying no tax on their savings.
There are other kinds of ISA’s available from Nationwide, but these involve investing in stocks and shares.
In short the Nationwide ISA is a great way to get the best return on a relatively small amount of cash.
Advantages: Good Friendly Service,Competative Rates of Interest Disadvantages: None
I've had a Nationwide Instant Access ISA for nearly two years now and have been totally satisfied with both the competative nature of the account as well as the excellent service i have received when visiting the branch.
For me an ISA is all about saving cash in an account that pays a good rate of interest and as importantly is free from the Government taking a slice of any interest earned.
I know ISA's have two other possible parts which make ... ...I particuarly like about the nationwide account is the great flexibility it gives you.
Opening the account was easy(15 minutes tops)
Interest is accrued on a daily basis.
You can pay in or take out as much/as little as you want with no penalties.(within £3,000 per tax year)
The Nationwide still,I feel, gives that more personal approach to it's customers.
One thing you should be aware of is that you can only ever save £3,000 per year.So,for instance, ...
murky5 10.03.2001
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Nationwide Building Society
Advantages: Fairly competitive interest rates Disadvantages: Absolutely horendous customer service and lack of knowledge
...didn't. OK, maybe cos Nationwide offer competitive interest rates, and there's not much risk about opening savings account (you can't really go wrong), you can just go in and get the admin done, but for ISAs, where your money have risk attached and can easily lose some in that sense, they are not a good source of advice and info, and I really don't recommend anyway to take that kind of unnecessary risks when much much better options (with banks) ...
Ruby 05.10.2001
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Nationwide Building Society
Advantages: Instant access; higher interest rates due to mutuality Disadvantages: Instant access facility means interest rates are slightly lower
...access cash ISA from the Nationwide for about 18 months now, and so far I've no complaints at all. The interest rate, although not the best you can get, is fairly competitive, and in lieu of this you do get the instant access facility which is reassuring - if you need to you can get to your money in a hurry. Being a building society means that, usually, the interest rates offered on the various accounts will be slightly higher than for similar products ... ...please. Check for yourself whether this is, in fact the case - rates can change daily of course. If you do sign up then you will be required to sign a form which waives your rights to any benefits that might come if the society converted into a bank, and assigns them instead to a charitable foundation set up by the society. This is intended to stave off the advances of carpetbaggers, and may put some people off - but in my opinion, the benefits of ...
Alternum 04.08.2000
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Nationwide Building Society
Advantages: Consistently high interest rates, good service Disadvantages: Not obvious how to make payments from accounts outside Nationwide
I opened the Nationwide cash mini-ISA 18 months ago (just after graduating and no longer being entitled to tax-free savings). At the time it had the best interest rates available for the amount I had to invest, and the rate was guaranteed for several months.
Since then I have had no complaints whatsoever. The service has always been excellent, and the interest rate has remained competitive, although recently it has been overtaken slightly by internet ... ...other accounts with Nationwide it is very easy to transfer money into the ISA. Nationwide also provide excellent internet banking, and the ISA has recently been added to the accounts I can manage online.
The only criticism I have is that it is not obvious what the sort code is for transferring money in from non-Nationwide accounts. As my main current account is elsewhere I have to take a cheque into the local branch. ...
rachelcoleman 24.12.2000
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Nationwide Building Society
Advantages: Good rate of Interest, Easy to set up Disadvantages: None so far
...the main reasons for chosing Nationwide was the competative interest rate, and also the fact you can take money out of the ISA whenever you want. The second factor means reassurance of mind if you ever need to take a lump sum out quickly for an emergency.
The ISA is easy to set up. I spent just 5 minutes in the building to get my account. You do have to take some ID and proof of address with you (ie A passport, driving license, bank/credit card ... ...in case the society turns into a bank. This is to stop people signing up en masse for accounts whenever any merger talks, etc.. are underway.
To me, the ISA is just a like a long-term bank savings account, as i have easy access to my money, coupled with a good rate of interest. ...
sbenbow 12.12.2000
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Nationwide Building Society
Competitiveness of APR
Product package
Additional Charges
Security and Privacy
Similar reviews »
Reviews which might be of interest for "Nationwide Building Society"
Advantages: Good selection of financial products Disadvantages: If your requesting a transfer don't expect it to be easy
As a loyal Portman BuildingSociety Customer I was a little sceptical as to what to expect when they were bought out by NationwideBuildingSociety.
Nationwide claim they are "Proud to be different", and they certainly are. Although they supply a large number of high interest savings accounts, fixed rate ISA's at a whopping 6.15 percent and great value deals on mortgages I noticed a couple of downfalls as well.
With specialised savings accounts customers are normally issued a passbook to track their investment records. Nationwide's Passbook is dark blue in complexion with the Nationwide logo emblazoned on the front in gold. The pages inside in my opinion are not of very good quality especially compared to the offerings of the Yorkshire BuildingSociety and Britannia. In a passbook I like to be able to clearly see my transactions ...
Advantages: Very friendly staff, always prepared to help Disadvantages: Mistakes happen freqently.
Sorry but I could not think of a witty title, so I left it very simple!
I started banking with the NationwideBuildingSociety around 7 years ago, me and my now husband decided to open a joint account as we had been together a year by then and were ready to settle down. He already had a savings account with them so we decided it would be easier and then we could keep the savings account open as well.
We had to make an appointment as we had to take in documents to prove our identity and a utility bill. Off we went on the day of the appointment fully armed with documents and ready to open our first joint account together, oh if only life could be simple!
Now there are several different accounts you can open with the NationwideBuildingSociety.
Flex Account being the main on although there are basic flex accounts of this if ...
Advantages: over the counter transactions Disadvantages: little reward, especially for long term savers
I joined the NationwideBuildingSociety ( a mutual buildingsociety) in 1973, originally with the prospect of obtainging a mortgage when I got married. I am still a member today. The interest rate I recieve on my account is around 1% (before tax). I also have an account with Direct Line bank (a non - mutual) and obtain almost the same amount in interest from Direct Line for £6 in one account than I do for £100 in Nationwide. Although its not quite comparing like for like, (direct line takes three days to transfer money to my account, and Nationwide is over the counter, it still shows the different interest rate that can be obtained. As a member of Nationwide for almost 30 years I do not consider myself to be a "carpetbagger", but I think it's time for Nationwide to convert to a bank, allowing me to be given a reward for the years ...
