I have been pursuing this issue, unsuccessfully with the Nationwide for a couple of months.  The key text of their latest (and final) reply is:

"We have thought about your concerns carefully and reviewed with BT the systems we use for members to contact us by telephone.  This review has highlighted that the introduction of additional numbers or a change to geographical numbers would be difficult to manage, and subsequently, have an adverse impact on the level of service we're able to provide"

Really the answer is - we can't be bothered.

They reviewed it with BT...so BT convinced them to use NGNs as it's in their interest!

Keith wrote on Nov 23^rd, 2006 at 5:17pm:


You need to write to the Chairman and CEO of Nationwide on this issue as they both make a big point in their Annual Report of how they personally like to read correspondence they receive from their customers.  The key thing to ask on their 0845 call centre numbers is how rapidly they are planning to replace them with 03 numbers which will be part of inclusive call packages and not charged at Premium Rate from Payphones.

This will head off the argument that they have to use 0845 numbers for their large multi centre centre call units for routing etc.

See www.nationwide.co.uk/about_nationwide/corporate_governance/management.htm

I imagine jonathan.agnew@nationwide.co.uk, philip.williamson@nationwide.co.uk, bernard.simpson@nationwide.co.uk and stuart.bernau@nationwide.co.uk would be the relevant people to email.  You might particularly like to ask Communications Director Mr Bernau to communicate to staff that 0845 is not Local Rate.

Presumably if Nationwide really thought 0845 was National Rate they wouldn't be so keen on keeping their geographic phone numbers for their branches.

I really did not know where to post this & it is not much to do with telephone numbers but it does follow up on previous threads including comments on Nationwide & good news is surely always welcome.

On Monday, my student son lost his wallet containing, among other things, his Nationwide card.  After fruitless searching & reporting it to the police, in late afternoon he rang Nationwide (using the geo no without any problems) to report it & order a replacement which he was told would take a few days.  At this time of year we expected more like a couple of weeks.  I was amazed when, in this morning's post (Thursday), his replacement card arrived!

Does this prove, as many here must feel, that companies which use or include geo nos are also more customer focussed in all ways?  Certainly the case with Nationwide!

Heinz wrote on Dec 21^st, 2006 at 11:09am:


It was the increase before that they ignored but then so did loads of others including now highly uncompetitive Dutch bicyclists and life-belt throwing boys ING Direct.

After the last base rate rise Nationwide increased the rate of interest on their Esavings account by a full 0.25%.

I have just opened an account with the nice Icelandic people at www.icesave.co.uk who unlike ICICI seem to be a highly reputable outfit fully signed up the banking code and yet are promising to pay way over base rate until 2010 or something and currently pay 5.45% with no penalties or strings.

Nationwide sending out a new card in only one day is entirely typical of the generally good service of a body owned by the building society' members.  It is therefore they who come first rather than the shareholders.

lompos wrote on Dec 21^st, 2006 at 6:23pm:


How do you know it was with great reluctance lompos.  Were you the person who extracted the number from them then?

At least they did provide it in the end and I'm fully hoping that I will only ever need to deal with them online.  Certainly they seem to have shown a great deal of action on my account opening since I applied at the weekend and despite the Christmas post I have received two letters with direct debit mandate confirmations and an account welcome pack too.  My main intention was really to replace ING Direct with them because its clear ING have no intention of ever offering a decent rate of interest again.

Icesave's parent bank now own some extremely crusty and traditional Blue Blood UK private banks which certainly gives one a good feeling about them, even though Iceland is only a member of the European Economic Area and not of of the full EU.

With ICICI they may have joined the Investors Compensation Scheme but they haven't signed up to the Banking Code and if their UK subsidiary went bust you could still lose up to £3,000 or 10% of your money which would rather negate the benefit of getting 0.5% more interest.  Also I know its probably wrong of me but I felt comfortable giving various ID details from my Passport and Driving License as online ID decks without the need for any paper ID sending to IceSave but I really wouldn't have felt comfortable about that with ICICI, especially after the recent Channel 4 Dispatches program with horrendous revelations about sale of confidential personal data by certain staff in Indian call centres.

I'm still annoyed I failed to apply in time for the GE Money Everyday Credit Card that gave 3% Cashback on groceries and petrol (although in fact seems to give 3% Cashback on everything according to the MoneySavingExpert discussion forums due to an admin cockup on their computer system).  They have now pulled the card though and I expect its only a matter of time tlll they cut the 3% cashback to the 1% (or perhaps less) that my Conran Visa card has been paying for over 5 years..............

I have to say a big WELL DONE to NATIONWIDE BUILDING SOCIETY for its latest leaflet about it's telephone banking, they not only have advertised the 0845 number, but also have actually put an 01 number in there too with the explaination: use if you have a call package with inclusive minutes

This must be the first company I have seen with this.

OK they still have a lot of work to do with all the other 0845 number they have, but it's a start

Ah this ties in nicely with my comments about them last week in being so efficient that they got my son's replacement for his lost debit card to him in only 3 working days, in the run up to Christmas.   I said they were good people and always very helpful on the telephone as well.