Nationwide to pay millions of customers £100 - here's how to check if you qualify

Nationwide Building Society has announced a generous payout to its customers, with millions set to receive £100 each.

The payment is part of this year's Fairer Share initiative and will be directly deposited into the accounts of those who qualify. The building society revealed that eligible members would receive the bonus in June, with the total giveaway amounting to approximately £385 million.

To qualify for the payout, members must have a current account with Nationwide and also hold either a savings account or mortgage product with them. Eligibility requires that the account was active as of March 31 and remains open through June, reports Wales Online.

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An estimated 3.4 million people are expected to benefit from the scheme, and Nationwide will reach out to these individuals between now and the end of May.

Debbie Crosbie, Chief Executive of Nationwide, commented on the initiative: "Our strong financial performance means we are able to offer more ways for our members to benefit from our success. This is only possible because we are owned by members and all our profits are reinvested for their benefit. We've been really pleased with how robust the customers in our society have been, we've seen arrears remain low, a very slight uptick, but we've seen people continuing to spend."

Members can check their eligibility for the Fairer Share payment online.

In essence, those who are eligible will see the extra cash in their Nationwide current account, identifiable by the transaction description "Nationwide Fairer Share Payment" on their bank statement.

The society, mirroring its high street competitors, stated that the benefits of increased interest rates were largely counterbalanced by a fiercely competitive mortgage market throughout the year.

Nationwide also noted that the housing market has remained subdued due to higher borrowing costs. Chris Rhodes, Nationwide's finance chief, disclosed that the mortgage market had declined by about 27% over the past year, with buy-to-let lending plummeting nearly 50%.

"As we look forward, we do expect the market to gradually improve, both as affordability improves from falling interest rates, and with wage inflation running ahead of CPI (Consumer Prices Index) inflation," he said.

"But it is going to be gradual, and as we look at house price data it is going to be a bit lumpy."

According to the lender's own predictions, house prices could fall by 1.1% between December 2023 and December 2024.

Earlier in the year, the company announced plans to acquire rival lender Virgin Money in a deal estimated at around £2.9 billion. It was confirmed on Thursday that the acquisition is expected to finalise towards the end of this year.

Ms Crosbie emphasised that the "large majority of members are very happy" with the deal, which will see Nationwide further penetrate the business banking market. Nationwide has not offered its members a vote over the acquisition, which Ms Crosbie stated is not required under building society rules or its internal governance regulations.