Helpful and efficient (Nationwide Building Society)

Member Name: CabbageBeans

Product:	Nationwide Building Society
Date:	01/07/09 (23 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Better standard of customer care than average

Disadvantages: None encountered yet

I have held my account with Nationwide for some nine years now, and unlike another bank that I hold accounts with (HSBC), I've never felt like they're just using me as another means to get as much money out of me with the minimum amount of input from their side.

It's rarely very often that you look forward to speaking to call centre staff, but I really can't think of any time that I haven't felt listened to and treated with courtesy whenever I've had to contact the bank for whatever reason at all - the very same can be said for branch staff, such as when I had to ask for an extension on my overdraft.

For those that like to manage their accounts online, the internet banking approach is a very simple and effective way of checking balances, statements, transferring money and requesting loans/overdrafts etc, which is in contrast to my experience in using HSBC's equivalent, which isn't so bad, but certainly is not quite so simple to use and often seems to find problem with whatever I ask of it.
For added security, the bank provide a card reader to ensure an authorisation procedure for payments made - so that if someone manages to hack into your bank account, they won't be having a field day transferring all your money to a different account. The card reader features a small keypad and LCD screen, and all you have to do is slot in the chip & pin debit card, enter your pin, then copy the reference number and amount to be paid as displayed on the website, and the card reader then displays a security number that allows the transaction to be authorised to go through. This to me has been a very useful security addition to this side of the banking.

On the subject of security, when someone somehow managed recently to get hold of my debit card details in a fraud (I'm still not sure how, I try my best to be very careful), and had 'tested' the card by making a couple of mobile phone top ups, I was struck at how efficient they were at dealing with this - cancelling the compromised card and supplying me with a new one, and then also refunding the money that I lost into my account within a week of the payments, whilst keeping me informed in letter correspondence.

In the current state that banking has fallen into in the current economic climate, it's good to know that there is a relative major player like Nationwide in amongst the more ruthless and profit-centered corporations, and to date I have nothing but praise for the group.

Summary: Thoroughly recommend this building society