Nationwide Building Society
We love Nationwide! It does everything that we would expect a Great building society to do:
- Does not lend to companies involved in the fossil fuel sector (and has a clear policy on this)
- Measures and discloses greenhouse gas impacts of its lending
- Has credible climate targets
- Offers green lending products (e.g. cashback incentives for customers who choose to buy more energy-efficient homes)
Have you opened an account with Nationwide Building Society since visiting Bank.Green?
Key Facts
Type: Building Society
Mobile Banking: Yes
Environmental Policy: Yes
Founded: 1884
Serving: Consumers & Orgs
Local Branches: Yes
Products
Current Accounts: Yes
Savings Accounts: Yes
Credit Cards: Yes
Mortgages or Loans: Yes
Business Lending: No
ISAs: Yes
Fees
Overdraft Fee: Yes
Account Maintenance Fee: Maintenance fee applies to FlexPlus accounts only
Free ATM Network: Yes
Impact
• Nationwide’s Green Additional Borrowing mortgage offers lower initial interest rates on home loans intended for energy-efficiency upgrades.
• Nationwide claims that its business operations have been carbon neutral since 2020.
• The Green Reward offers up to £500 cashback to those customers buying homes with a high Energy Performance Certificate score.
• The building society is a member of the Green Finance Institute’s Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings.
Security
• Nationwide is registered with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, so your money is insured against loss up to £85,000 in total.
• Nationwide is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
• Nationwide securely verifies online payments in a variety of ways, including card readers, biometric security and Visa’s Secure authentication service.
• Nationwide’s 24/7 Scam Checker phone line assists customers questioning the legitimacy of any payment and the building society is also a member of the 159 anti-scam phone service.
• Nationwide’s Digital Banking Promise guarantees the automatic refund of any unauthorised, fraudulent withdrawals made via its app, internet banking service, or Open Banking service; refunds for scams are decided on a case-by-case basis.
• Nationwide’s strong security measures are known to trigger inconvenient delays and account freezes when larger transactions take place.
Service
• Nationwide’s main customer service line is open Mon-Sat, 8am-6pm; its current account and credit card emergency helplines are available 24/7; stolen cards can be temporarily frozen in the app.
• In-branch interactions are generally reported to be very positive, as are Nationwide’s fraud and scam resolution procedures.
• SignVideo British Sign Language-interpreted calls with qualified and registered NRCPD/SASLI interpreters are possible (office hours only).
• Nationwide has at least one induction loop counter per branch and British Sign Language or deafblind interpreters, lip-speakers, or speech-to-text reporters can be booked; most communications are available as large print, braille or audio CD.
• Chip and Signature Cards remain available on request.
• Common complaints include long waiting times for Nationwide’s call centre, unhelpful chatbots, and insensitive complaint resolution procedures.
Convenience
• As of July 2023, Nationwide had more than 600 physical branches around the UK, the majority of which are open for approximately 3.5 days a week.
• Any of Nationwide’s current accounts can be opened online, unless you are under 13 years old.
• The Nationwide app is basic and lacks the advanced features of its larger competitors, but it can be used to securely authenticate online payments. As of 2023, it was still necessary to use a card reader for certain in-app actions but this feature is being phased out.
• Generally speaking, Nationwide’s online banking experience is less advanced and convenient than that of a large and/or online-only bank.
Have you opened an account with Nationwide Building Society since visiting Bank.Green?