Nationwide making big change to bank accounts and customers 'will be worse off'

Nationwide is making a big change to millions of accounts in weeks and savers will be worse off. The biggest building society in the UK is slashing the interest rates on almost 90 savings accounts from February 1, 2025, it has confirmed.

Nationwide will lower rates by between 0.10% and 0.26% on 89 variable rate easy and instant access savings and cash ISA products from February 1. Nationwide said: "From 1 February 2025, we’ll be paying a lower rate of interest on some of our savings accounts, as listed below. We’ve listed the accounts affected below in alphabetical order and tables are included to show your current and new interest rates."

Nationwide added: "The information in this leaflet is correct on 3 January 2025. We may vary our offers or withdraw products from sale at any time without telling you first. Interest and tax-free saving: We pay interest without taking off tax.

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"However, you may have to pay tax on any interest if it’s more than your Personal Savings Allowance or you go over the tax-free annual allowance if you’re saving into an ISA. You can see the current allowances at nationwide.co.uk/tax-freesaving

"An account year is the 12-month period from the date (or anniversary) of account opening. AER stands for Annual Equivalent Rate and illustrates what the interest rate would be if interest was paid and compounded once each year.

"Gross a year is the interest rate without tax deducted. Tax-free is the contractual rate of interest payable where interest is exempt from income tax. The tax information provided is based on our understanding of current law and HM Revenue & Customs practice, both of which may change."

The move follows the Bank of England's (BoE) earlier decision to cut the base rate from 5% to 4.75% in November, before maintaining it in December. Tom Riley, Nationwide's director of retail products, said: "We have worked hard to limit the impact of the recent rate cut on our savers and have taken the decision to hold rates on some of our most popular accounts, such as our leading Flex Regular Saver.

"Following these changes, our savings range will remain competitive. We returned a record £950million in member financial benefit in the first half of this year and we'll continue to give savers every reason to put their money with Nationwide."