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.