The building society is hoping to encourage more people to get into saving
Nationwide has millions of members across the UK(Image: Alan Morris via Getty Images)
Nationwide Building Society members might want to review their accounts to see if they could get a better interest rate on their savings. A senior figure from the building society recently addressed MPs regarding the organisation’s initiatives to encourage more saving.
One method customers can use to develop a savings habit while getting a competitive rate is through the society’s Flex Regular Saver. With regular saver accounts, you can deposit a capped sum each month while earning a relatively high interest rate. Stephen Noakes, head of retail at Nationwide, told the Treasury Committee: “If you think about regular saver products, which are encouraging that day-to-day saving, typically, it is a save of up to £200 a month at an interest rate of 6.5%.”
He said offering such accounts is the “right thing to do” as they help people gradually build their savings. Mr Noakes said that in some cases, people are moving these funds away from a current account “which is probably paying zero interest or a very low interest”.
The Flex Regular Saver offers a variable rate of 6.5 per cent over a 12-month term. You can deposit up to £200 monthly, meaning you could earn up to £84.50 in interest over the year, assuming the interest rate remains unchanged.
Top-paying savings accounts
These are the top-paying regular saver accounts at the time of writing:
- Principality Building Society – 7.5 percent
- Zopa – 7.1 percent
- First Direct – 7 percent
- Co-operative Bank – 7 percent.
Financial expert Martin Lewis recently discussed the advantages of regular saver accounts on his BBC podcast. He explained they provide “much higher” rates than other accounts. Savers can currently access rates of more than 4.5 per cent with the best-performing savings accounts.
Mr Noakes also told the committee that building even a modest savings pot can significantly boost your financial resilience. He said: “Even a small buffer makes a big difference to their resilience.
“It is critical to start developing that savings behaviour. In the steps to saving, which the research also talked about, that is a pathway to potentially getting into home ownership and beyond. It is absolutely important that we do that.”
