Daily Mail: Nationwide forced to defend £50 takeover reward
My thanks to Patrick Tooher and Jane Denton for writing this article for the Daily Mail (online edition: This is Money).
It follows a longer post I wrote about the “Big Thank You” payment: The Big Nationwide “Thank You”: £50 for what and why?
You can read the article in full here: Nationwide forced to defend £50 takeover reward (17 March 2025)
Patrick and Jane quoted me as follows:
James Sherwin-Smith, who led the campaign for a vote and wants to join the Nationwide board, said the society should be more ‘upfront’ about how its reserves, which belong to members, are used.
‘Nationwide has a habit of doing something first, and then asking or ignoring members afterwards,’ he added.
‘This “thank you” payment is another example of why members should be more engaged, and their perspectives better represented,’ he said.
He also fears the final bill for buying and integrating Virgin Money could top £5billion.
The Daily Mail: Nationwide accused of ‘rampant profiteering’
My thanks to Simon English, who wrote this article in the Daily Mail (online edition: This is Money) examining the recent increase in members’ credit card interest rates.
“Rampant profiteering” had to be justified – see my detailed research here into the history of credit card offers and rates in this article: Is Nationwide becoming more like a bank? A case study of credit card pricing.
Read the full article here: Nationwide accused of ‘rampant profiteering’ as it hikes credit card rates by up to 50% (6 March 2025). It was further syndicated in a number of regional and local titles across the UK.
Simon quoted me as follows
Nationwide is widening its profit margins at a time of stress for many of its members, perhaps giving cover to banks to do the same. It is rampant profiteering and I cannot see how they can justify this move.
And:
Long-standing Nationwide cardholders face higher rates. Mutuality should mean lower prices, but instead members are getting the same treatment as customers of a profit-maximising bank. I wonder where Nationwide is going with this?
UPDATE: An interesting development – BBC “Watchdog on The One Show” (19 March) followed up on the story, disclosing that members could opt-out of the announced rate increase and stay on their current rate. However members would not be allowed to add further purchases to the card as a result. So members with big balances will not have to accept a 50% increase from 9.9% to 14.9%, provided they use a different card for future purchases.
You can watch the clip on BBC iPlayer – it’s 2 minutes starting at the 9m 10s mark.