Nationwide’s Fairer Share bonus has not yet been announced for this year, but the past two years have seen the bank offering certain existing customers a free £100 bonus. Last year alone, the high street firm dished out a total of £385million to 3.85 million customers, according to MSE. For the best chances of getting the payment, customers may need to take some action in advance of the payment potentially due in the summer.
This includes being an existing Nationwide customer. If the building society uses the same criteria this year that it has in the past, customers will need to hit three requirements.
Firstly, they will need to keep their Nationwide current account open until at least March 31, 2025. Secondly, they will need to use their current account before this deadline and, finally, they must have at least £100 in savings or owe £100 on a mortgage with Nationwide.
What qualifies as ‘use’ for the second requirement depends on the type of account you have. People with a FlexAccount, FlexBasic or FlexDirect have two options.
The first is paying in £500 and making two payments out of your account. The second option is to make over 10 payments out of the account in two of the first three months of the year.
Customers with a FlexPlus packaged account arguably have the easiest route as just paying the account fee counted as use for the scheme previously. While people on FlexOne, FlexGraduate or FlexStudent accounts must make a payment in and out of their account in March.
People trying to make themselves eligible for this account, may find it helpful to abide by these criteria that have been used previously. Although there’s no guarantee it will stay the same this year.
In fact, MSE recommends people who currently do not match the savings or mortgage criteria to put £200 away in an easy access or regular savings account with Nationwide. Just in case the rates are upped this summer.
Last year, Nationwide contacted members who were eligible for the payment by May 31. The £100 bonus was then dished into their Nationwide accounts automatically between June 13 and June 28.