As a loyal Portman Building Society Customer I was a little sceptical as to what to expect when they were bought out by Nationwide Building Society.
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 Building Society and Britannia. In a passbook I like to be able to clearly see my transactions listed down the page through the aid of the coloured rows. Within the Nationwide book these rows are a light blue as too are the columns and column headings...it's ok as long as you've got a good pair of eyes!!!
Transfers are the biggest fault with this building society as far as I'm concerned. After several months with them I was offered a better rate of interest elsewhere so decided to transfer my existing ISA from them to a new provider. I approached the new building society in October to set up my new ISA and get the wheels moving on my transfer. By November I was still waiting for Nationwide to release my money when I received a letter through the door stating I had to "black light sign" my book and return it to head office to prove my identity. Although this is all well and good they replied a few weeks later to say my application had failed requirements and I had to go back in branch for an identity interview which was carried out by one of the cashiers. Eventually towards the end of January my ISA was finally complete. I mean I've heard of transfers taking an age to clear but this was an absolute joke!
I mustn't grumble too much though they still offer consumers a wide and varied variety of products and a competitive rate on credit cards and loans.
~Savings~
e-Savings 5.05% 1 Yr e-Bond 6.50% 2 Yr e-Bond 6.25% Regular Saver up to 6% InvestDirect up to 4.35% Cashbuilder up to 3.05% Member ISA Bond up to 5.25% Instant Access ISA up to 5.00% 1 Yr Fixed ISA 6.15% 2 Yr Fixed ISA 6.15% 3 Yr Fixed ISA 6.15% 1 Yr Tracker Bond up to 6.10% 6 Mnth Fixed Bond up to 6.70% 1 Yr Fixed Bond up to 6.50% 2 Yr Fixed Bond up to 6.25% 3 Yr Fixed Bond 6.05%
They also offer accounts to the over sixties and under eighteens as an incentive to get them saving early.
In conclusion their not a bad building society for savings, investments and mortgages...they just don't make life very easy for the customer when it comes to monetary transfers.
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Advantages: Great High Street bank (building society), helpful friendly staff Disadvantages: internet banking - a complete waste of time, very slow, no staff to run it
Connoisseur_Haggler 06.10.2000 (01.02.2001)
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Review of Nationwide Building Society
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