Our Savings Terms and Conditions

Our Savings Terms and Conditions make up part of the agreement we have with you.

This agreement is also made up of:

When we talk about the ’agreement’ or the ’terms and conditions’ we mean all the information mentioned above. Our right to change the terms and conditions (see Sections 04 and 12) applies to any of this information.

As well as the terms and conditions, our Rules will apply to you because you’re a member of this Society. You become a member by having a savings account with us. You’ll find an up to date version of the Rules at nationwide.co.uk

If you prefer paper, you can ask us for a copy of the Rules, or any other part of the agreement whenever you like.

These are specific to your savings product and they have priority over anything that’s said differently in another part of the agreement. Your Product Terms and Conditions include:

• how and when we pay interest
• the ways you can pay money in and take money out
• any limits on the amount you can pay in
• any restrictions on taking money out. For example, if there are limits on how many times you can withdraw money, or if you have to pay early access charges or give us notice.

Your savings account is for your personal use to help you save money for when you need it. You must not use it for business purposes and it’s not intended to be used like a current account for managing your day-to-day finances. If you’re looking for an account for these things, just let us know and we’ll try to help you find something that suits you better.

When we say these things, we’re talking about Nationwide Building Society. Our Head Office is: Nationwide House, Pipers Way, Swindon, Wiltshire, SN38 1NW.

And when we say these things, we’re talking about the person(s) named as the account holder(s).

A working day is any day except a Saturday, Sunday or bank holiday.

You can contact us in a way that suits you:

• message us through the Internet Bank (if you're registered)
• visit one of our branches
• phone us on 03457 30 20 11 or +44 1793 65 67 89 if you're calling from outside the UK.

You can also make a complaint by completing a form on nationwide.co.uk

If you’re worried someone else knows your security information or that money’s been taken from your account without your permission, you should tell us in branch or by phoning us. You can call us on either of the above numbers 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

We hope we always live up to your expectations, but if we don’t, we want to know so we can put things right. If our service isn’t what you expected, or we make a mistake, you can contact us in any of the ways set out above. We’ll investigate and try to put things right as soon as possible.

If you're unhappy with our response and want to take your complaint further, you can ask the Financial Ombudsman Service to look at it. This is a free, independent service and you can find out more at financial-ombudsman.org.uk

If you refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, you must do this within six months of receiving our final response. You can ask the Financial Ombudsman Service to consider your complaint without giving us a chance to resolve it first, but they will only do this if we agree.

If you opened your account online, you can also refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service using the Online Dispute Resolution platform at ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/

When we say we’ll tell you about something personally, we’ll contact you in one of these ways:

• by writing to you (by email, letter or text)
• by sending you a secure message, notice or push notification through the Internet Bank or our Banking app

If we don’t say we’ll tell you personally, we may contact you:

• by displaying the information in branch
• by displaying the information on our website

And at any other time, we may also contact you:

• by phone
• by talking to you face-to-face (in branch)
• in any other way that’s appropriate.

If you change any of your personal details, such as your name, postal address, phone number or email address, please let us know straight away. If you don’t, you might not receive important information about your account. You also risk confidential information being sent to your old address, where it might end up falling into the wrong hands.

We’ll give you details of your annual interest rate when you open your account, including whether we’re free to change the rate.

We work out your daily interest rate by dividing the annual interest rate by 365. We then work out your interest based on the amount of money you have in your account at the end of each day.

So, if you pay money into your account, it’ll usually start earning interest on the day we receive it, but it won’t earn interest on the day you take it out.

If you pay money in by cheque, it’s a bit different. Your money will usually start earning interest from the next working day after we receive it.

For most types of paying-in machine, we’ll receive your cash or cheque on the day you put it in the machine.

Sometimes though, you’ll need to place your cash or cheque into an envelope before putting it into the paying-in machine. We call this a ‘drop paying-in machine’. With this type of machine, we won’t receive the cash or cheque until it’s emptied, which will be no later than the next working day.

The interest may be subject to income tax or other taxes and costs which are not charged by us. You can find out more by contacting your local tax office or by visiting hmrc.gov.uk

In this Section, we set out when we can change your interest rate or make any of the following types of change:

• introducing or changing an account fee for holding your account with us
• introducing, removing or changing interest rate tiering on your account (where you’ll get a different interest rate depending on how much money you have in your account)
• changing the amount of any interest you lose or any charges you need to pay if you close your account early
• changing any period of notice you must give us before you take money out.

And just so you know, when we make any changes, we’ll always act proportionately and responsibly in the broader interests of our members.

We may increase your interest rate, or make other changes which benefit you, at any time. We don’t need a reason to make a change that benefits you.

We may reduce your interest rate, or make other changes which don’t benefit you, for the following reasons:

• To manage the cost of raising money we lend

  This is because we use your savings and money raised from other sources to help members borrow money, for example in the form of mortgages. So, we need to balance the interest rate we pay (and/or account fee we charge) with the rates we charge borrowing members and the cost of raising money from other sources. For example, we may make a change if:

  • there’s a change to the Bank of England Base Rate or another relevant market rate
  • we need to reduce our rates to attract and retain members who borrow from us.
• If there are changes to rates or account fees on other savings accounts

  We may reduce the interest rate and/or increase any account fee to reflect rate or fee changes that others are making on similar savings products. We may also make changes to make sure interest rates and/or account fees are consistent with those for new members.

• If there are changes in the law

  We may make a change to reflect any changes, or changes we reasonably expect to happen, in the law or any code of practice, which apply to us. We may also make a change to respond to the decisions of any court or ombudsman.

• To meet regulatory requirements

  For example, we may make a change to reflect any changes in regulatory requirements or guidance, or to make sure we can continue to meet existing requirements or guidance. This includes any requirements affecting the amount of money we have to hold in our reserves.

• If our running costs change

  If these costs change, we can make a change to reflect them. Our running costs could include administrative costs, employment costs, building costs and technology costs or the costs of a service or benefit provided by someone else.

  If your product doesn’t have a fixed end date, you could hold your account with us for a long time. We can’t be aware of everything that might happen during this time, which means we may also need to make other changes. If we do, when we tell you about the change, we’ll explain how it will affect you.

  Where your product has a fixed end date, we can still reduce the interest rate, or increase any account fee or charge for any other valid reason which isn’t listed above.

• Increasing the rate

  We may not tell you before we increase your interest rate, but we’ll let you know within 30 days after the change. We may not tell you personally.

• Reducing the rate where you have £100 or more in your account

  We’ll tell you personally at least 14 days before we reduce your interest rate. If you don’t want to accept the reduced rate, you can close your account. Sometimes, your Product Terms and Conditions say you must pay a charge, lose interest or give notice if you want to close your account or switch to another product. This won’t apply for 30 days after we tell you about the change.

• Reducing the rate where you have less than £100 in your account

  We won’t tell you personally, but you can find out your new rate at nationwide.co.uk or in branch.

Section 12 includes details of how we’ll tell you about these changes, and what happens if you don’t want to accept them.

Depending on the savings product you have, you may be able to pay money into your account:

• in cash
• by cheque
• by electronic transfer.

Your savings product may also have limits on when and how much you can pay in. For example, on some products you can only pay money in just the once, when you open it.

Any payment into your account must be in UK pounds sterling and any cheques must be from a UK building society or bank. You can’t make overseas electronic transfers into your account except for CHAPS transfers, BACS transfers or Faster Payments from an account in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.

You can pay in a cheque as long as it doesn’t have a date in the future and it’s less than six months from the date on the cheque.

If someone pays money into your account by mistake, we may be asked to pay it back. If this happens, we’ll look into it and if we reasonably think the request is valid, we’ll stop you from taking the money out and try to contact you.

We’ll then aim to give you time to tell us if you disagree that the money was paid in by mistake. If we don’t hear from you, we’ll take the money from your account and return it.

If we don’t return the money, we must give information about you, your account and the payment to the building society or bank that made the payment. It’s legally entitled to this information so that it can take steps to get the money back.

If you pay money in by electronic transfer or in cash, it will be available for you to take out on the same day we receive it.

This means that when you pay cash in using a ‘drop box paying-in machine’ (see Section 03), the money will be available to withdraw no later than the next working day.

If you’re paying money in by cheque, it needs to go through a process called ‘clearing’ first. The clearing times are as follows:

When we say a cheque’s cleared for ‘certainty’, we mean that the money belongs to you and we won’t be required to pay it back to the paying building society or bank. This won’t apply if you’ve knowingly been involved in fraud, or we reasonably suspect you have.

Please note that, even if the money in your account is available for you to take out, your agreement may limit or restrict you from doing this.

Depending on the savings product you have, you may be able to take money out of your account:

• in cash
• by Building Society cheque
• by electronic transfer.

If you can't view the whole table, swipe or scroll to show more > > >

* When you put money into a new savings account or withdraw money at the end of a Bond’s term, you may ask for the transfer to be made on a future date. You can cancel a future dated transfer any time up to 4pm on the day before it’s due to be made. You can do this by getting in touch with us in one of the ways set out in Section 02.

Our savings products don’t allow you to make withdrawals by setting up a direct debit or standing order. And the only overseas electronic transfers allowed are Faster Payments to an account in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.

We need to make sure we have your consent before we can go ahead with your request to take money out. You give your consent by following these steps:

• Through the Internet Bank and Banking app

  Logging on using a combination of:

  • your log-in or other security details
  • biometric information (such as your fingerprint)
  • your card reader
  • your mobile device
  • a security code,

  and confirming details of the withdrawal you want to make.

• At a branch counter

  Handing a signed written request, together with your passbook or cash card to one of our branch staff. We may also ask you for additional information to confirm your identity.

• Using a cash machine

  Putting your cash card into a cash machine, entering your PIN and confirming the amount you want to take out.

• Through the post

  Sending us a signed written request to take money out.

  If you’ve followed the correct steps for making a withdrawal, we may assume you’ve made the request and won’t have to make further checks.

  To help prevent financial crime, we may need to make extra checks to make sure it’s really you who’s asking to take money out of your account. This might delay it, or we might not allow the money to be taken out at all. We won’t be responsible for any loss because of this.

If you want to transfer money to another account, you’ll need to give us the following information:

• If you’re moving money outside of Nationwide, the name and address of the building society or bank you’re making the payment to.
• The sort code and account number. Please make sure these are correct as we’ll use them to make the transfer.
• The name of the person or organisation you’re transferring money to.
• The amount.
• A reference – so you can keep track of the transfer.

If you give us the wrong account details, we’ll try to get your money back if you ask us to, although we may charge you for doing this. We’ll agree any charge with you before taking any action.

Sometimes, you might ask us to transfer money or pay interest to another account, but we’ve been told the account has been moved to a different building society or bank. When this happens, we’ll transfer the money to the new account and make sure that future transfers or interest are also paid to the new account.

There may be limits on the amount you can take out of your account at any time. Examples include:

• A limit on the amount you can send by Faster Payment in one go. If you want to take out more, you’ll need to make separate withdrawals for amounts below the limit.
• Daily limits on the amount you can take out by cheque or in cash at a branch counter.
• Daily limits on the amount of cash you can take out from a cash machine.

But we’ll let you know of any limits when you ask to take money out. You’ll also find details on nationwide.co.uk

Sometimes, for security reasons, we’ll also set other limits without letting you know.

You can’t take money out unless you’ve got enough money in your account to cover the withdrawal amount and any charge for making it. If you do have to pay a charge, we’ll take it from your account along with the amount you’re taking out.

If your account balance goes below zero, you must take steps straight away to return it to at least zero.

If any of the money you take out of your account is refunded or returned to us, we’ll pay the money into your account when we receive it. This may happen, for example, if you’ve asked us to transfer money to an account that doesn’t exist.

Sometimes we won’t be able to go ahead with a withdrawal from your account. This may be because:

• your account has been closed; or
• something unusual or unexpected has happened which we couldn’t control, and we couldn’t have avoided despite our best efforts. For example, because of a failure in the systems processing the payment or due to an industrial dispute.

If this happens, you’ll be responsible for finding another way to make the payment.

You can find out about payments into and out of your account by viewing them in the Internet Bank (if you’ve registered) or by contacting us (see Section 02).

When you make a payment out of your account, we’ll usually record the information in your passbook (if you’ve got one) or tell you about it personally within a few days. Sometimes, we may choose to group payments together - if we do this, we’ll still tell you personally about payments from your account at least once a month.

If you make a payment using the Internet Bank or our Banking app, we’ll always tell you personally about the payment using the Internet Bank. This means that other joint account holders who aren’t registered for the Internet Bank may need to ask us for the information.

Withdrawals made by cheque or in cash are treated differently. Here, we may not tell you about the payment personally, but we’ll always give you information about it if you ask.

We’ll do all we can to keep your account safe but there are things you need to do too:

• Keep your security information safe

  This can include:

  • your personal identification number (PIN)
  • your password
  • a security code
  • your log-in details
  • any other security information.

  Take care not to write them down in a place where they might easily be found or in a way that makes it obvious what they are.

  Let us know as soon as possible if you think someone else knows any of your security information or is using it without your permission.

• Take care of your cash card or passbook

  Please tell us as soon as possible if it’s lost or stolen. If you find your cash card later on, you must destroy it.

  If you need to sign your cash card, sign it as soon as you get it.

• Let us know if something doesn’t arrive

  If you’re expecting to receive something from us, such as a cash card, PIN or statement and it doesn’t arrive, let us know straight away.

• Check your account regularly

  Tell us immediately if you see anything unexpected or you don’t recognise something on your statements, passbook or the Internet Bank.

• Please do the things we ask you to

  Sometimes we may ask you to do other things to keep your account safe and it’s important you do as we ask. But please make sure it’s definitely us contacting you and not someone pretending to be from Nationwide. Our staff will never ask you to tell us your PIN or other security information in full.

  You can find out more about how to keep your account safe on nationwide.co.uk

We may sometimes ask you for extra information to prevent money laundering, financial crime and sanctions breaches and to meet other legal and regulatory requirements. If we ask, you must give us this information straight away - if you don’t, we may delay or refuse your payment, or stop you from using your account. We won’t be responsible for any loss you suffer because of this.

If you think this has happened, tell us as soon as possible.

And don’t worry, you can ask for the money back as long as you tell us within 13 months of the money leaving your account.

If you tell us that money has been taken out of your account without your permission, we’ll look into it immediately. Normally, we’ll refund the money by the end of the next working day and put your account back to how it would’ve been if the money hadn’t been taken out. However, we won’t do this where we think you may not be due a refund.

If we ask you to, you must help us with our investigation and with any action we take against whoever took out the money without your permission.

If you’ve been fraudulent, or we reasonably suspect you’ve been fraudulent.

We also won’t refund money taken from your account if you’ve not done something you have to do under these terms and conditions, either on purpose or with ‘gross negligence’. This will only apply to money that’s taken before you tell us there is a problem with the security of your account (see Section 02).

When we say, ‘gross negligence’, we mean you’ve done or not done something that was very obviously wrong or careless. For example, you may not have kept your cash card safe or your PIN secret.

If we reasonably think there’s fraud or other unlawful things happening on your account, we can stop money being paid into it or taken out. We can stop just one payment or all payments.

We can also stop you from making a withdrawal from your account if:

• there’s not enough money to cover it
• the terms of your savings product don’t allow you to take the money out
• we reasonably believe you didn’t ask to take the money out
• your request to take the money out is unclear, incomplete or the details of the account you want to pay money to are wrong
• it might cause us to act unlawfully or in breach of a regulation, code of practice, court order or other duty
• we’ve told you that we’re going to use our right of set-off (see Section 13).

We can stop you from using your cash card, PIN, password or log-in details for the Internet Bank or our Banking app where:

• we think your security information is being used without your permission or fraudulently
• we think that the device or the security information you’re using to request a payment may not be secure.

Where we need to act urgently, we’ll do so straight away and tell you about it afterwards. If it’s not urgent, we’ll tell you at least seven days before we take any action.

Sometimes, we won’t tell you at all because it would be unlawful if we did.

If an account is held by more than one person and there’s a dispute between you, you must tell us straight away. We can stop any request to take money out or to close the account, or we may ask all account holders to make a request in writing.

We always try our best to get things right, but sometimes we may do something that means a payment into or out of your account goes wrong. If this happens, we’ll make any refund immediately and put your account back to how it would have been if the mistake hadn’t been made.

If we later find out that it was your mistake and not ours, we’ll deduct the amount of any refund from your account.

Sometimes, our mistake may mean that a payment to an account with another building society or bank is made late. If this happens, you can ask us to make sure the other building society or bank, applies it to the account as if it had been made on time.

We won’t be liable for things that go wrong if they happen because of something outside our control. For example:

• Something unusual or unexpected happens and we can’t avoid it despite our best efforts, such as a technical failure with our cash machines.
• We have to comply with the law.

In Section 04, we let you know when we can make changes to your interest rate or related product features. This section sets out when we can make changes to any of the other terms and conditions for your account, including changing administration fees.

When we make any changes, we’ll always act proportionately and responsibly in the broader interests of our members.

• If there are changes in the law

  We may make a change to reflect any changes, or changes we reasonably expect to happen, in the law or any code of practice, which apply to us. We may also make a change to respond to the decisions of any court or ombudsman.

• To meet regulatory requirements

  For example, we can make a change to reflect any changes in regulatory requirements or guidance, or to make sure we can continue to meet existing requirements or guidance.

• If our running costs change

  If these costs change, we can make a change to reflect them. Our running costs could include administrative costs, employment costs, building costs and technology costs, or the costs of a service or benefit provided by someone else.

• Due to developments in technology, or to the way we want to provide our services, or the way the banking industry generally delivers services

  For example, to reflect advances in digital banking.

  If your product doesn’t have a fixed end date, you might hold your account with us for a long time. We can’t be aware of everything that might happen during this time, which means that we may also need to make other changes. If we do, when we tell you about the change, we’ll explain how it will affect you.

  Where your product has a fixed end date, we can still increase or introduce an administration charge for any other valid reason which isn’t listed above.

  If we want to make a change that benefits you, we don’t need a reason to make that change.

How and when we’ll tell you about a change depends on the type of change we’re making.

• Where the law requires us to give you two months’ notice

  For some terms and conditions, we’ll tell you personally about the change at least two months before we make it.

  This is a legal requirement and mainly applies to terms and conditions dealing with the way we manage some payments into and out of your account. It includes changes to Sections 05 to 11 and Sections 14 to 15. It also includes changes to other information such as how we can contact each other about a payment and when we can make changes to this paragraph.

• Where the law doesn’t require us to give you two months’ notice

  If we make a change to the terms and conditions that disadvantages you, we’ll tell you personally at least 30 days before we make it.

  If we’re making a change that doesn’t disadvantage you, we may make it without telling you first. We’ll always tell you about it within 30 days after the change, although we may not tell you personally.

If you don’t want to accept a change, you can close your account. If you don’t close your account, we’ll treat you as having accepted the change on the day we made it.

If your Product Terms and Conditions say you have to pay charges, lose interest or give notice when you close your account or switch to another product, this won’t apply:

• from the date you’re given notice up until the date the change is made (if the law requires us to give you at least two months’ notice)
• for 60 days from the date we give you notice (if we must give you at least 30 days’ notice of a change that disadvantages you).

Sometimes, we may move your account to a different savings product, for example, where we’re closing the type of product you have.

Where we do this, it’ll be for one of the reasons for changing the terms and conditions listed above. We’ll also compare the terms and conditions of the old and new products and treat you in the same way as if we were just changing the terms and conditions. This applies to how we tell you about the move and what you can do if you’re not happy for this to happen.

Just so you know, the above will not apply if your account moves automatically to a different product, for example, when a fixed term ends.

If you don’t pay us money you owe us when it’s due, for example on a mortgage or credit card, we can pay it using money you have in your account. This applies to all money you owe us, or any other company in our group (including The Mortgage Works (UK) plc and UCB Home Loans Ltd).

We can do this unless the law or other restrictions prevent it. For example, we won’t use any money we think you need for essential living expenses or important debts, and we won’t use money you’re holding for someone else.

Where the account’s in your sole name, we can use money in it to pay:

• a debt only you owe us
• a debt that you owe us together with another person, or other people.

Where the account’s a joint account, we can use money in it to pay:

• a debt owed to us by one or more of the account holders
• a debt owed to us by one or more of the account holders and another person, or other people, together.

We’ll tell you at least 14 days before we use any money in this way.

If your savings product has no fixed end date, your account will continue until it’s either closed by you or we close it. Where your product has a fixed end date, your account will continue until that end date and we’ll then close it or move it to a new product.

You normally have 14 days from the date you opened your account to ask us to close it. If you didn’t receive your terms and conditions until after you opened your account, you’ll have 14 days from the date you received them.

If you ask us to close your account within those 14 days, we’ll return the money you’ve paid in and pay you any interest you’ve earned. You won’t lose any interest or pay any charges for closing your account.

If you need to pay us any money under this agreement, you must pay it within 14 days of telling us to close the account.

If you don’t close your account within the 14-day period, your account will continue as described above.

You can close your account any time you want by getting in touch with us. You'll find out how to contact us in Section 02.

You may have to pay a charge, lose interest, or give notice before closing your account unless other terms and conditions say you don't. For example, you won't have to do this if we make a change to the terms and conditions that's to your disadvantage (see Section 12).

You can't close your account until any money paid in has been cleared.

We can close your account at any time as long as we tell you personally at least two months’ before we close it. If your savings product has a fixed term, we’ll make sure the notice period doesn’t end before the end of the fixed term.

We can, however close your account straight away in exceptional circumstances, even when your product has a fixed term.

Here are some examples of exceptional circumstances:

• We’re legally required to close your account.
• You have, or we reasonably believe you have, used the account for illegal or fraudulent purposes.
• By keeping your account open, we reasonably believe we may:
  • break a law, regulation, code, court order or other duty
  • be exposed to action from a regulator, government or law enforcement agency.
• You’ve been threatening or abusive towards our staff.
• You didn’t meet the terms and conditions to open the account or didn’t qualify for your savings product.
• You’ve committed a serious breach of your account’s terms and conditions or you’ve repeatedly breached them.
• You don’t provide us with information we ask you for about your identity or your tax position.

If you’re the sole account holder, we’ll pay the money in your account along with any interest to your personal representatives. These are the people who, on your death, are responsible for administering your estate.

Your personal representatives don’t need to give us notice to close the account or take money out. They also won’t have to pay any charges and won’t lose any interest.

And, where there is more than one account holder, the surviving account holder(s) can keep the account open in their name(s) or ask us to close it.

Different arrangements may apply if the money in the account is being held on behalf of someone else, for example if the account is held in trust.

No. You can’t transfer your account or any of your rights or obligations under it to another person.

We take part in the dormant account scheme under the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act 2008. If nothing happens on your account for 15 years (or another period specified by law) - for example, you don’t pay money in or take money out - we can transfer the money in your account to a reclaim fund. The reclaim fund uses the money for good causes.

You’ll still be able to get your money back though and you can ask us how to do this at any time.

The agreement, the operation of your account and any discussions we’ve had with you about entering into the agreement is governed by English law.

If you want to bring a court claim about this agreement, the courts of England and Wales can deal with it. This does not stop you from bringing a claim in a local court if you live in another country.

This agreement is in English and we’ll always use English when we communicate with you.

You consent to us accessing, processing and keeping any information you give us, so we can provide payment services to you. You can withdraw this consent by closing your account (see Section 14). If you do this, we’ll stop using your information for this purpose, but we may continue to process information about you for other purposes where we’re required to or allowed to by law.

The Society is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority under registration number 106078. You can confirm our registration on the FCA's website fca.org.uk

Our VAT Registration Number is: GB 485 9633 89.