ALERTS have started being issued to more than 12million Nationwide customers over free bonus payments.
The building society is issuing £50 each to eligible members .
Payments (April 9) and the vast majority will be made by April 30.
The one-off payments, dubbed “The Big Thank You”, are separate from Nationwide's annual “Fairer Share” Payment.
To qualify for the £50 payment, members must have held a savings account,, or as of September 30, 2024, and still have the account open at the time the payment is made.
Members must also have either completed at least one transaction on their current or savings account or maintained a minimum balance of £100 across their accounts or mortgage within the 12 months preceding September 30, 2024.
You are also eligible if you completed a switch to any Nationwide current account between July 1, 2024 and September 20, 2024, using the Current Account Switch Service (CASS).
Members can check if they qualify for the payment by visiting nationwide.co.uk/about-us/the-big-nationwide-thank-you/check.
Alerts for those who have been issued the £50 payments have started being sent via text message and online and banking.
The text message reads: “Good – we're pleased to let you know that £50 has been paid into your account.”
Meanwhile, payments that have been made are showing up in mobile banking as “The Big Nationwide Thank You” followed by the £50 figure.
While the majority of the £50 payments will be made by April 30, anyone being paid by cheque will receive theirs later.
Nationwide said cheques will be sent by May 14 and once received must be paid in by January 1, 2026.
Is another Fairer Share payment coming?
The new £50 payment is different to Nationwide's “Fairer Share” payment which has been issued twice since 2023.
Each year the payment has been worth £100.
The building society has expressed that it wants to issue another of the payments this year depending on its financial performance.
It has exclusively revealed to whether the payment will be issued this year or not.
However, Nationwide's boss Debbie Cross said in December it was “well positioned” to issue the payments.
Of course, eligibility criteria for this year's payment may be different to previous years.
But, assuming the eligibility criteria remains the same as in 2024, you'll need to do two things. You must have:
- A qualifying current account and qualifying savings
- Or a qualifying current account and a qualifying.
You will also need to have used your current account between January and March.
For what the full eligibility criteria could be this year, .
In other Nationwide news, the building society axed passbooks .
If you had a passbook, you can now instead get a savings wallet which can be used in your local Nationwide branch.
You can find out more about the saving wallets via www.nationwide.co.uk/savings/passbook-accounts.
Meanwhile, you can find your nearest Nationwide branch by visiting www.nationwide.co.uk/branches/search.
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