Nationwide is to pay out more than £600million to over 12 million of its members following its successful takeover of Virgin Money.
Each person will receive £50 and most of the payments will be made next month. Nationwide said the payment is to say “thank you” to its members for helping it achieve a good financial performance, which it said helped it complete its takeover of Virgin Money.
The “thank you” payment will be made from April 9 to anyone who had a savings or current account, or mortgage, at the end of last September. You must also have made at least one transaction through your current account or savings, or had a balance of at least £100 in your current account, savings or mortgage, in the 12 months to the end of September 2024.
Your account or mortgage must also still be active at the time the payment is made. The payment will be made automatically, meaning you don’t need to do anything or contact Nationwide to get it. Nationwide announced its intention to acquire Virgin Money in March 2024 and the deal was completed in October 2024. The acquisition was approved by a judge at a specialist court after 90% of Virgin Money shareholders backed the scheme at a vote early last year.
The new “thank you” payment is separate to the £100 “Fairer Share” payment that the building society has paid out to members over the last two years. This is based on its financial performance, with Nationwide confirming today that it expects to make an announcement on whether members will get a third “Fairer Share” payment in May this year.
Last year, a total of £385million was paid out in June to 3.85 million customers after the building society announced profits of £2billion. Again, you had to meet certain eligibility criteria in order to receive the payment. You can read about who was eligible for the payment last year here.
Debbie Crosbie, Nationwide CEO, said: “Nationwide became even stronger when it bought Virgin Money and we are already improving services for its customers. The Big Nationwide Thank You recognises the role our members played in building the financial strength that made the deal possible. It’s another of the very real benefits of being a member of Nationwide and our modern mutual model.”
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.