Financial Education

Offering simple, transparent products and supporting customers when they are in debt. Providing people with the skills and knowledge to manage their finances and avoid difficulties.

The ability to manage finance is at the heart of what we do and an essential life skill for everyone, so it makes sense for us to focus on this area. At Nationwide we are committed to developing initiatives that we as a financial services provider, have a close affinity with. We are a responsible lender, and we want to do business with responsible customers.

Financial Exclusion - those who cannot or do not access or use appropriate financial products - estimates of numbers affected range between 1.5 million to 3 million in the UK.

Through our Nationwide Education and MoneyActive programmes, we are providing more resources to help alleviate this problem in the UK.

Responsible Lending

Our triage team continues to support customers approaching financial difficulties. Working together we explore options to alleviate customer worries. The phone support service has been successfully running since March 2010 and our Payment difficulties section of the website provides information and reference points for customers with money worries. Telephone 0845 600 5707, Option 5 then option 1.

For the fourth successive year Nationwide has won a top award at the prestigious Card and Payments Awards 2011 for "Most Responsible Credit Card Lending Practices".

The award was for our "More Than Words" responsible lending programme, and recognised:

• our ability to lend responsibly, yet still grow our customer base
• our successful campaigning to apply credit card repayments to the most expensive debts first - now required of all providers
• our continued support for Nationwide Education and for our MoneyActive partnership with Citizens Advice

The Judges said that the award; "builds on Nationwide's existing and extensive responsible lending practices, which seem to be part of the DNA of the organisation".

"Four straight wins is unprecedented in these awards. At a time when so much focus is on responsible lending this shows our approach is the right one – both for our customers and Nationwide."
Paul Carvell, Head of Nationwide Credit Card

In 2010 we also launched our seven Savings Promises - designed to help our customers make the most of their savings. As a building society, with no shareholders to answer to, we focus on our customers. That means doing all we can to look after them, treat them fairly and give them great value. These Savings Promises reflect the way our customers needs shape both our products and the service we provide.