Let’s not beat around the mulberry bush. Nationwide Building Society is a force for good in the murky world of personal finance. It is more consumer-centric than its banking rivals and believes in delivering customer service par excellence. Virtues sadly lacking across swathes of the financial world.
It has even opened a new branch this year – Glastonbury in Somerset – an unlikely but welcome step given most banks are retreating from the High Street at a great gallop.
Also, unlike rivals – including the State-owned Royal Bank of Scotland – it does not believe that in order to run an efficient financial institution you have to outsource key parts of your business to distant parts of the globe.
It is even handing out £500 a year to any of its 15 million ‘members’ – savers and borrowers – who recommend five friends to take out a current account with the society. A nice little earner as Arthur Daley would say.
Yes, Nationwide is terribly British, awfully reliable and much loved by most of its customers.
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