Nationwide Building Society has clarified the deposit rules for a savings account following a query by a customer. The member reached out on social media, questioning: “Have opened one of your savings accounts with a maximum deposit of £200 a month. Is that every calendar month so if I deposit £200 on the 29th of January, then on the 1st of Feb I can deposit another £200?”
This question most likely concerns the Flex Regular Saver account, which permits deposits of up to £200 monthly over a year-long period. Account holders with this product get a generous variable rate of 6.5%.
You can make three withdrawals within the term without impacting their rate. If you make four or more withdrawals, the interest rate falls to 1.75%. By consistently depositing the maximum £200 each month throughout the duration of the term, you’d contribute a total of £2,400.
If the interest rate remained at 6.5%, the balance would grow to £2,484.50 by the account’s maturity. In response to the enquiry, Nationwide confirmed: “Yes, that is correct. The maximum deposit limit on the Flex Regular Saver is £200 per calendar month.”
You can set up a Flex Regular Saver online via Internet Banking or through the building society’s app, but you need to hold a current account with Nationwide. Once the account is open, you have 28 days to start funding it, or it will close automatically.
You can manage the account online. There is no monthly payment requirement, but the monthly deposit limit stays at £200.
It’s also important to note that transactions cannot be made in cash or by cheque. In a separate incident, Nationwide recently experienced a technical glitch, leaving customers unable to access their mortgage accounts online.
One affected individual reported: “My mortgage account has disappeared from my online banking and banking app. It was there about an hour ago. Went to check something again and it’s now gone. No trace of it.”
Nationwide addressed the issue later that day, confirming the problem had been resolved. In a subsequent statement, the group explained: ” Some customers were unable to view their mortgage accounts on the Internet Bank and Banking app for a very short period of time earlier this morning.
“No other accounts were affected. This has now been resolved, and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.” Another customer recently expressed frustration after being unable to make a small cash deposit in-branch on behalf of their disabled son.
Nationwide responded by saying: “We will only be able to accept cash deposit from the account holder themselves. If your son needs assistance managing their accounts, you can look at setting up a power of attorney via your local branch.”
The organisation later explained that this policy is part of its efforts to prevent money laundering. According to guidance on the building society’s website: “We monitor payments and transactions, and where necessary we will stop payments, close accounts and relationships where activity is suspicious or cannot be appropriately explained.
“Potential relationships will be declined, and existing relationships terminated (where lawful to do so), where the level of economic crime risk is outside of our risk appetite.”