More than four million people received a £100 Fairer Share payment from Nationwide this summer.
It’s the third year in a row that the building society has paid the bonus to some of its customers.
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The £100 payment is different to Nationwide’s £50 Thank You bonus, which was paid earlier this year, following its takeover of Virgin Money.
It means the building society has paid out more than £1 billion to eligible members this year, via Fairer Share (more than £400 million) and the Thank You bonus (£615 million).
When was the Fairer Share £100 bonus paid?
Almost all eligible Nationwide customers received the Fairer Share payment on 18 June.
In fact, the building society processed 99.97% payments before 12.30pm on that day.
Nationwide members got app notifications and text messages on 18 June, informing them the payment had been made. A message in the Nationwide mobile app read: “Happy Fairer Share Day! Good news - your £100 Fairer Share Payment is now in your current account”.
The remaining payments were processed by 4 July.
How can I check if the payment was made?
The money would have appeared in your Nationwide current account as “Nationwide Fairer Share Payment”.
The building society said that if customers held more than one current account with Nationwide, it may pay the money into any of them. “We will pay the money into an account in your sole name if you have one. Or into a joint account if you do not.”
You must have had an open Nationwide current account when the payment was due to be made.
A Nationwide spokesperson told MoneyWeek: "All payments have now been made.”
If you didn’t receive the bonus, it’s likely that’s because you didn’t qualify for it. While more than four million people were eligible for the payment this year, bear in mind that the building society does have more than 17 million customers - so many people missed out.
“I’m a Nationwide customer. Why am I not eligible for the payment?”
To get the Fairer Share payment, you need to have had a qualifying current account and either a qualifying savings account or qualifying mortgage as of 31 March – and still had them when the bonus was paid. So, it’s important you had at least two products with Nationwide.
We explain the Nationwide Fairer Share Payment eligibility rules in a separate article.
You can also check if you were eligible for the payment via a tool on Nationwide’s website.
Rachel Springall, finance expert at Moneyfactscompare.co.uk, told MoneyWeek: “The reward payment from Nationwide is designed for the more active members, as they need to meet specific requirements to be given the bonus. However, this will of course perplex customers who have been loyal for many years and may not have realised that they had to meet certain eligibility criteria.
“That said, it is still a great initiative by Nationwide and comes back to the mutual ethos of rewarding their members.”
“I think I was eligible, but I didn’t receive the payment. What should I do?”
The building society says customers who think they were incorrectly excluded from the Fairer Share payment should get in touch.
Nationwide said: “If a customer thinks they were eligible and missed out they can check their eligibility and/or find out more info on how to contact us on our webpage Nationwide Fairer Share.”
As well as a live chat function on the Nationwide website and app, customers can call the building society on 0800 30 20 11 (Monday to Saturday 8am to 8pm; Sundays 9am to 5pm) or pop into a branch to speak to staff.
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