Further to the previous post, I have discovered that NONE of the geo nos in the database other than the 01268 nos are any use for card services, all that anyone on the other nos can do is email card services and ask them to call you or try putting you through on the same no on which you have just failed.  On Monday, this is eventually what happened BUT it took the four and a half hours for them to phone me.   I pointed out that this would be no use to me if I was abroad and had a problem (their commission-free use being the great benefit abroad) and this was accepted.   I was told (1) Mondays are busy (2) there had been an error in people's bills so it was exceptionally busy.   Neither of these statements is true as I have being trying to get through again every day since then  as I needed to check something regarding my original request (also trying the Lost & Stolen no which customer service staff said they have to use sometimes when they can't get through!!) but with no success whatsoever, I am permanently on hold on both numbers.   I want to make a complaint but they have no email facility for this and the main switchboard seem unable to put me through to anyone in card services to take my complaint and main customer services cannot deal.   

Does anyone have any email link to someone in authority at Nationwide?  I have found somewhere on their website that the CE is Graham Beale but would be grateful for any guide on their email addresses.  I have always been impressed by Nationwide until now but this situation is an absolute disgrace.  If I had been abroad with my PAYG mobile and had a problem with my card, I could be in a dire situation.   Has anyone got any ideas?   Thanks.

For Nationwide Credit Card services the number is

BASILDON 01268 567213.

They outsouce to First Data Resources for Credit Card Handling, much like many other banks do.

As others have stated here, I also have had severe problems with Nationwide as a longstanding customer of over 17 years. When you make any complaint about their failures now they just brush them off and refuse to accept that your complaint is true. I have had to complain about their failures to honour the DD Guarantee, failure to calculate interest on savings accounts correctly, failures with their credit card accounts, failures to provide various other services, and also their failure to treat their longstanding and significant customers with any respect at all. Nationwide now treat all of their customers as cash cows who can either accept their nonchalant abuse or not as they choose. Their attitude, like so many financial institutions today, is if you don't like being treated as an insignificant customer like dirt on the wall then you know what you can do! They have even had the effrontery to write a letter to me claiming that they only have to abide by the DD Guarantee scheme until the payment has been made by them from your account; once they have made it then the DD Guarantee scheme does not apply! I have complained about this at the highest level in their complaints process and they just brush it off and refuse to treat the complaint seriously, still claiming that they have not broken the rules! Eventually if you try to insist on a resolution they cease to respond to your letters any longer and hope that you will go away and crawl under a stone somewhere.

I am currently moving the majority of my funds out of Nationwide, not the least because it is now too risky to have more than £35 000 invested with any banking/BS group registered as one entity with the FSA scheme. They clearly do not care whether they lose investment customers or not. This may change in the relatively near future of course, as things get more difficult with more defaulting mortgages, but for them it will now be too late. Customers will not forget their treatment at the hands of Nationwide. The only answer is to act with your feet. They will certainly not now pay any attention to you otherwise.

This is very sad in reality, since they used to be an example to most other financial institutions until about 5 or 6 years ago when the rot set in. It seems they have just become too successful and too big! I have complained consistently about their use of disguised Premium numbers for contact and no geographic number being given, for all their service departments including credit cards. They have persistently followed the lying routine that they receive no revenue from the use of these numbers, and that they are only charged at National or Local rates; even when I have persisted in explaining that this regurgitated rubbish was inappropriate any longer, and there were now no such designations, they will not accept anything which a customer states to them. Until enough customers leave them they will now never wake up to reality, and like the politicians, even then they will not be able to understand what they have done to cause this! As with all other large financial leviathans, it is the senior management who are to blame for these failures, just as is currently being observed with Northern Rock and UBS. Totally inadequate senior management leads to totally inadequate and eventually failing entities. If you look at the decline in customer service at Nationwide it correlates with the change to the current chief executive!

Do the old numbers for the branches still work? Often these are disabled when an organisation goes over to 08 numbers.

Or are they replacing all branch numbers with a central call centre?

The geo number for the Barnsley branch still works - 01226 269000 vice 0845 2660820 per the Nationwide website.

I think it is worth collecting these numbers before 192.com etc start listing the new numbers.

Any thoughts?

I notice the branch finder on the Nationwide website is actually on the Multimap website:
http://www.multimap.com/clients/places.cgi?client=nationwide_02

I wonder whether this is something Multimap have decided to do without Nationwide's knowledge, in a similar way to the restaurant guides that features a year or two ago? Or could it be a deal Nationwide did with them: Multimap are allowed to use 0845 forwarding numbers to pay for the map service.

Has anyone seen the 0845 numbers in use on any literature from Nationwide?

I think anyone who's a Nationwide customer should bring this matter up. They are a bit more customer-friendly than the big banks, so may listen, particularly if it's something Multimap have decided to do.

I was very angry & alarmed to see this thread, it seems Nationwide is going the same way as all the other disgraceful financial institutions and phone nos were one reason why we left HSBC.

I have this morning rung my local branch on 01799 569800 (9 Market Walk, Saffron Walden, Essex CB10 1JZ) and the no worked.  The lady I spoke to had not heard anything about 0845 but spoke to the manager who had heard brnach numbers would change but not to what!

I then tried ringing their main no and after ages going round in circles (best no 01793 656000, ask for operator & input no data), I did speak to a girl I believe called Kylie who said they weren't going to 0845 but already were as one should phone the call centre as branches were busy(!!) and it was a local rate call.  As I began to explain this was NOT the case, she hung up on me.   Have now also logged complaint with senior supervisor/manager.   The Senior Supervisor was initially unaware of this change but now confirms that they are changing the platform for branch numbers and will be switching off all geo branch nos by June 2009 starting soon.   Apparently the only way to contact a branch without using 0845 after next June will be via Nationwide's swichboard!   I have also spoken to a manager who again trotted out the "local rate" rubbish - I put him right.  I have expressed my absolute disgust with this situation and referred them to this website on which there are many posts praising Nationaide for its use of geo nos, particularly for branches . 

I also intend to email a complaint to their Chief Executive & will post his details here when I have done this.

I also  think we should help each other out by seeking a reliable bank/building society which does still have geo nos for its branches and is easy to contact.  Nationwide have also introduced a rubbish new menu where a woman's voice asks you about your query, I said enquiry re branch phone numbers & was transferred to home insurance.   A ploy to keep me hanging on as long as possible?!   My call via their switchboard lasted over 30 minutes - if I had dialled 0845, a very expensive complaint.

Barbara wrote on Dec 16^th, 2008 at 11:24am:


Interstingly, talking about 'local calls'. When you look 'on line' to see your BT account, you can see what calls you have made and guess what? There are two headings, one 'other calls' and (yes you have guessed right) , the other is 'local calls'.